VietNamNet Bridge – Several years ago, the number of joint training programmes provided by Vietnamese universities in cooperation with foreign partners was scanty, while they are now abundant, perplexing students with their number.

Joint training programmes booming

1st year students of the joint programme between the HCM City Industry University and NCU, the US

Though Hanoi National University has a separate faculty which specialises in carrying out joint training with foreign partners, its member universities still conduct joint training programmes themselves.

Foreign Language University, for example, has launched two joint training programmes at the same time with Picardie Jules Verne University and China’s Shaan Xi University. The latter programme teaches Chinese language and culture.

Economics universities have been leading in organising the largest number of joint training programmes with foreign partners at the university level. Every economics university is running multiple programmes at the same time.

The Hanoi University of Foreign Trade is running programmes with Bedforthshire, La Trobe and Tours Universities. The Hanoi University, which has shifted from a single-study branch (foreign languages) to a multi-study branch university, has got several partners from Australia and Austria.

The only common characteristic of the joint training programmes is a low academic requirement. Students do not have to take entrance exams to be eligible to follow the training programmes, they only have to have graduated from high school. Trainees are required to have certain levels of foreign languages; however, this requirement proves to be flexible: students can still register to follow the training programmes and then study foreign languages in the first and second semesters of the programmes.

Meanwhile, the programmes have different training methods and curricula. Some programmes set the study time of 4-5 years, including one year of pre-university classes (for foreign language teaching), two years of learning in Vietnam and two years of learning at the foreign universities (2+2). Other programmes have different study schedules, such as 3+1, 4+0 or 3+0, in some cases comprising study time exclusively in Vietnam with no time studying abroad.

Teaching methods also prove to be very different. In some programmes, 100% of lecturers come from foreign universities, while in some other programmes, the figure is 50% or less. Some programmes do not have foreign lecturers, and students only learn with Vietnamese lecturers.

Depending on the number of credits, tuition fees vary broadly, ranging from $1,000-6-7,000 per year. It has been rumoured that a programme offered by a Hai Phong-based university and Chinese partner is only $700.

Who are the partners?

After hearing the Hanoi University of Technology talking about its joint programme with a partner from the US, a senior expert from the Vietnam Education Fund said: “I regret that such a leading university in Vietnam is cooperating with such an unknown partner.”

The Hanoi University of Technology is not the only case. In a talk with Tuoi tre newspaper, Professor Pham Phu, a well-known educator in Vietnam, raised a question: “Why don’t prestigious universities in the world have partners in Vietnam?”

According to Tran Thi Ha, Head of the University Education Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnamese universities have been trying to establish relations only with foreign universities which have had their training quality assessed.

“Having training quality assessed means a guarantee on training quality, but this does not provide information about the prestige and ranking of universities,” Ha said.

Ha said that the Ministry of Education and Training is compiling a draft decree on international cooperation, which includes one chapter for stipulating the operations of joint training programmes. The decree will clearly stipulate the requirements for training cooperation. For example, foreign universities must have training quality assessed, while they must also meet requirements for lecturers, curricula and material facilities.

(Source: Tuoi tre)