Vietnam Aims to Turn Two National Universities into World-class Establishments

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked education authorities to focus on building and upgrading the Hanoi National University and the Ho Chi Minh National University into excellent international education establishments. The PM made his request at a government meeting late last week on the plan to develop universities meeting global standards from now until 2020. The government leader doesn’t disclose how much investment will be poured into the project. In the coming years, the PM also requested more focus on completing the on-going constructions of the Vietnam – Germany University, the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, and the Vietnam – Japan University, aiming to build more world-class schools in Vietnam. Vietnam, which now has about three million students at 700 universities, colleges and vocational training schools, is known for its Confucian-style rote learning and exam-intensive education system. Although the government has received significant foreign aid, estimated at over $2 billion between 1993 and 2012, to conduct education and training projects, there is no local schools meeting international standards yet and the human resources quality remains poor. (baochinhphu.vn Aug 29)