By IPS Correspondents
HANOI, May 2 1996 (IPS)

Vietnam’s rapid economic growth is not being matched by advances in its higher education system, and this, warn Vietnamese and foreign educationalists, could prove a serious barrier to the nation’s long-term developmental goals.

Education opportunities diminished considerably after the collapse of the former Soviet Union whose state-run universities paid host to many students from Communist-led countries.

Academics say the Vietnamese authorities have been slow to fill the gap at a time when the thirst for higher education has increased due to the new competitive environment that has come with the country’s market reforms.

Students ag.

Vietnam only started to offer post-graduate degher education institutions.

A little over 4,000 students weop priority for development, but they (the authoritit they want,” says Vilaisan Campbell, second secretary of development cooperation for the Australian bilateral funding agency AUSAID, Hanoi’s main education donor.

as, like education were suffering as a result. “Ask about their priorities, and you will get a completely different picture depending on who you talk to.”

Among the major areas that need to be tackled poor linkages between vocational and technical training.

Th under the auspices of the United Nations Educatiosic degree; only half teach subjects that are completely in their area of expertise, and many have to teach in subjects in which they are not trained at all.

With salaries ranging between 20 and 30 dollarlecturers have to work full-time just to make ends meet, and so have no time for retraining or furthering their own education and professional skills.

“We face problems as bahave contributed to a crisis in education. As a result, our academic standards are far behind those of other countries.”

Another key issue is the legacy of Soviet influe saw higher education split into a myriad of single discipline, small institutions offering little or no scope for widehe system is not effective and lacks a multi-disciplinary approach,” notes Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thu, Hanoi repr for the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. “For example, there are times when you need to study engineering and he same course and that is often not possible.”

Another legacy of Soviet system is that while ges.

“These are the areas that are lagging at the mont,” observes Nguyen Binh of the American Council of Learned Son scholarship programmes in Vietnam.

He says that Vietnam’s tertiary systh the Vietnamese government acknowledges its higher education needs a complete overhaul, lack of fundits what can be done.

Addressing the country’s National Asong-term changes to the system is the World Bank, which is presently undertaking a major study on higher education in Vietnam, to be completed later this year.

“The question is not just how to improve higherive in Hanoi.

Vietnam has embarked on a wide ranging programme structure. Three institutions were amalgamated at the end of 1993 to form the Vietnam University, and a similar process resulted in the creation of the Ho Chi Minh City University in 1995.

Given the lack of resourc

Deputy Prime Minister Phan Van Khai told the Nber 1992 that private and semi-private tertiary institutions would be allowed to be established.

Vietnam nrsities. They offer programmes for study towards diplomas and degrees recognised by government.

They attract enrolment with less selective crite examinations for state universities.

At the same time, Dr. Binh worries that privat their survival. “When foreigners come from abroad they want to meet only with the Ministry of Education and of course that means that the funding focus is on public universities Dr, Thu defend the emphasis on the public system. “Private universities don’t have the broad picture of education development, their quality is questionable and they are responsible for a serious brain drain on the state sector.”

The government’s inability to cater to the increasing demand for quality tertiary education has also seen more Vielect to study overseas.

Australia has emerged as the largest source ofally. Fewer are provided by the Thai, French and Japanese governments.

In thes at the moment are office and business administration,” notes Binh.

This pord to study overseas,” says Campbell. “This will change in the next decade when people start having money in their pockets.”

Campbell said that tertiary institutions from ntage of this potential market. “Over the past years there has been a grration programmes between foreign institutions in those in Vietnam.”

But while Asian and Australian tertiary educatio perceptions that the quality of their services are inferior to those in Europe and the United States.

“Some families, mainly in the south, are beginning to send their children abroad for education, but it is still mainly to Europe and the U.S., nowhere in Asia,” says Binh.

‘EC-CPG/96)

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