|
 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
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.
Vietnamnet (10/10/2008)
|
