~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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[Year 2001]

It Pays to Learn

HANOI - Call it a simple lesson in supply and demand. As Vietnamese universities churn out thousands of graduates with dim job prospects and poor English skills, overseas education has become an obsession for many parents with extra savings. Quick to see a growing market, roughly 90 local companies--many of them still unlicensed--have sprung up as "international education consultants," charging $200-$1,500 per student applicant.

But the free market doesn't hold much appeal for Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training. Citing complaints of fraud, the ministry is preparing tighter controls on study abroad. If draft measures are approved by the prime minister in June, as expected, each overseas student would require a special recommendation from the Education Ministry, and unlicensed consultancies would be shuttered. Judging by the proposal, the move is partly political. "At present, to serve a political purpose, many countries are encouraging our students to study in some social-science fields which are politically sensitive," the document warns. Consultants maintain, however, that most students prefer more practical courses, in business or computer science.

While some education experts welcome a crackdown on unscrupulous consultants, the proposed measures have also stirred dismay. "This is just a move to suffocate people," complains a Hanoi businessman, who has already sponsored one employee to study overseas. "It's a way for the Communist Party to extend more control over society." In the old days, the Vietnamese government had no ideological qualms about sending students abroad. The system was simple. The state held a nationwide competition and dispatched winners, on full scholarships, to the Soviet Union, East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Cuba, and Romania. Less-fortunate scholars made do with Mongolia.

The Eastern bloc's collapse and Vietnam's resurgent interest in the West paved the way for a new generation. Beginning in 1992, the government allowed "self-funded students" the freedom to find their own slots in universities abroad. At present, an estimated 10,000 Vietnamese students are ensconced in Australia, the United States, France, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Many overseas universities pay a commission to consultants who supply successful applicants, sweetening the pot provided by parents. The old guard remains troubled by the new system. "The students who are sent by their rich parents don't study hard. They build a bad reputation," says Tran Chi Thanh, the Russian-trained head of the academic affairs department at the National Economics University in Hanoi.

Keeping tabs

Meanwhile, Education Ministry officials supporting the new measures profess alarm at their inability to keep tabs on students. Under the current system, students simply submit their university acceptance letter to the Ministry of Public Security, which issues them a passport. With a visa from the relevant embassy, they are free to go--without registering at the Education Ministry. "When [overseas students] violate the law, or get into fights, we have no idea who they are," frets one ministry official. "There are some students who study a short time, then they escape and never come back." Some consultants suspect that the ministry's efforts to assert control derive mainly from a desire to cash in. "They just want to impose another layer of bureaucracy on the Vietnamese student, forcing him to pay more," grumbles a Hanoi-based consultant on overseas education.

Under the proposed system, the Education Ministry would aim to curtail fraud by authenticating acceptance letters. Having a central clearing house would also make it easier for the Communist Party to track which officials are sending their children overseas and demand a financial accounting. To be sure, the Education Ministry is already overwhelmed with the job of authenticating degrees obtained at home. The Nhan Dan party newspaper has reported that the ministry had investigated more than half a million cases by December 2000, turning up 3,500 fake degrees. As the paper noted, Vietnamese citizens are becoming more bold in fingering cadres who obtain fake degrees in order to win promotions.

Such scandals only boost business for the international education consultants, who pitch an overseas degree as a mark of credibility for future employers. And for anxious Vietnamese parents, that's all that counts.

By Margot Cohen - Far Eastern Economic Review - March 1st, 2001.