Open minds open doors
To equip its young with the skills needed to kick- start the economy,
Vietnam is allowing foreign schools onto its soil. But the communist
regime is keeping them on a tight rein
HANOI & HO CHI MINH CITY - Like any scientist eager to see her country
move
forward, 52-year-old Ngo Kieu Oanh prizes creative thinking among her
young
Vietnamese colleagues. But the National Centre for Natural Science and
Technology researcher believes their potential is stifled by a state
university system stuck in the past-- where underpaid faculty members
deliver outdated lectures and survive by taking private students. In
working
with even the brightest new researchers, Oanh says, "I must educate them
from the beginning."
Naturally, Oanh hungers for something better for her own 18-year-old
daughter, who sees herself contributing to Vietnam's hi-tech ambitions
by
becoming a Web designer. Yet Oanh won't send her to study overseas,
because
she worries that her daughter will be homesick or lose touch with her
culture. That's why the pair are attending an information session on
Vietnam's first 100% foreign-owned university--a newly established Ho
Chi
Minh City branch campus of Australia's Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology, or RMIT, which is making a bid to transform Vietnam's
antiquated
education sector and spur the economy. They quickly decide on a
three-year
bachelor-degree programme in applied science in information technology
and
multi-media. Total cost: $7,900.
RMIT is banking on a growing market of Vietnamese parents like Oanh, who
want to equip their children with the skills needed for careers in a
competitive, modern society. Michael Mann, president of RMIT Vietnam and
a
former Australian ambassador to the country, knows that the student pool
is
bigger than the country's $430 per-capita GDP would suggest.
Market-research
surveys reveal swelling disposable incomes among the urban consumer
class,
with higher education cited as a top priority. Such families cringe at
the
high rates of underemployment among local graduates. However, the
astronomical tuition fees abroad and the scarcity of scholarships are
breeding parental desperation.
But this is not the typical story of an Asian nation happily embracing
foreign education. It is the story of a communist regime pushed to the
wall
by economic needs, yet reluctant to overhaul its own ossified
universities.
The bedrock fear is that any sustained effort to nurture critical
thinking
could spill into demands for political change. So while the Vietnamese
have
moved to dismantle central planning, de-collectivize farmland and
privatize
health care, they are keeping the nation's universities on a short
leash.
That leash could choke the country's economic ambitions. Vietnam wants
to
move beyond being merely a source of cheap labour and craves a
knowledge-based economy. That will only come with a modernized education
system. As Thomas Vallely of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University notes: "I think there's a growing understanding that
FDI
[foreign direct investment] follows education."
Hence, the party is welcoming some foreign education initiatives. But
this
effort to improve learning is proving a precarious balancing act.
Foreign
educators understand the mandate: Give us the practical skills in
computer
science, economics, business, and foreign languages that we need to
compete
in the global economy and attract investment--but steer clear of
history,
literature, anthropology, or any other social science that might raise
too
many questions in vulnerable young minds.
Some officials appreciate the effort of foreign schools like RMIT to
teach
by example. By emphasizing problem-solving through updated case studies,
using classroom discussion instead of didactic lectures, encouraging
on-line
learning and promoting fluency in English, they can provide a vital
model.
"The Vietnamese universities will have to improve themselves to compete
with
foreign universities," says Truong Song Duc, director of Ho Chi Minh
City's
Department of Education and Training.
For their part, the foreign universities are happy to concentrate on
business and IT, since that's where the market is. And with 1.4 million
students applying for 168,000 places at local universities, there's an
obvious education gap. Schools poised to jump in include Australia's
Swinburne University of Technology, which is investing in a campus in
the
southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. And a consortium of French public
universities is working with a group of overseas Vietnamese private
investors to open a private university in Ho Chi Minh City in 2004.
Officials are also allowing more joint-degree programmes, whereby
students
begin course work at local universities, then finish their degrees at
overseas institutions. Bubbling to the surface are parental fears of
sending
unsupervised teenagers overseas to study. There are now 15,000
Vietnamese
students abroad, and tales of delinquency have been drifting back home.
(Australia cancelled 151 Vietnamese student visas between July 2001 and
March 2002, after finding that students were not showing up for
classes.) By
offering Vietnamese students a familiar environment in their own country
for
the first two years, schools say they can better prepare them for the
psychological and intellectual challenges abroad.
At least that's the pitch honed by Nguyen Ngoc My, a businessman who
commutes between Australia and Vietnam, where he is helping to set up
the
Swinburne campus. He recounts: "I know about a dozen kids in Sydney and
Melbourne. Their parents ask me to look after them. How can I look after
them? I try to call, and say, 'Study hard, don't go to the disco.' They
say,
'yeah, yeah.' It's very hard."
And for some Vietnamese officials who send their children overseas, it's
getting harder to avoid questions from disgruntled citizens on how they
can
afford such fancy educations on such tiny state salaries. Recently the
local
media accused a police officer of taking bribes from a southern mafia
kingpin to pay for his child's tuition in Australia. The Canadian
government
turns down 40% of student applicants, mostly due to fraudulent financial
documents. "The parents probably have the money, but they can't prove
it, or
they don't want to," says one Canadian education consultant.
Although the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank have poured $15
million in loans into RMIT's $36 million venture, some education
specialists
say the more urgent task lies in helping Vietnamese universities reform
themselves. They see the goal as cultivating a broad spectrum of young
people, not just the prosperous few. "If Vietnam wants to be a modern
country, it needs a modern university," says Harvard's Vallely.
His latest strategy? Urge the Vietnamese to follow China, where leaders
have
poured hundreds of millions of dollars into upgrading Peking and
Tsinghua
universities, and have dramatically boosted international exchanges.
Impressed yet resentful of the economic powerhouse next door, the
Vietnamese
seem ready to listen. Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Manh Cam and other
top
officials recently met with leading educators from Harvard,
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Princeton university. They're dreaming of
establishing "centres of excellence" in science and technology at one or
two
top Vietnamese universities, with the help of the World Bank. Similar
initiatives have spurred original research and slowed down brain drain
in
such countries as Chile, Mexico and Brazil.
In Vietnam's case, the problem is not only brain drain but underusing
the
brains that dutifully return home. In local academia, innovation often
invites suspicion and jealousy. Promotions reward those who stick to the
status quo. Some Vietnamese academics say the Communist Party is now
further
tightening the leash, with the party committee on science and education
moving from an advisory role to micro-management of proposed curriculum
changes and academic publications. In June, the prime minister issued a
directive to strengthen the teaching of Marxism, Leninism and "Ho Chi
Minh
Thought" at all universities, including foreign ones. (RMIT does not
offer
such subjects.)
Surprisingly, though, the nation's most prestigious campus--Vietnam
National
University in Hanoi--is launching a pilot project to broaden its
political-science curriculum to include the study of American politics
(see
story on page 30). And some intellectuals, both Vietnamese and
foreigners,
remain optimistic that the young scholars returning from the West over
the
next decade will succeed in transforming Vietnamese academia. American
anthropologist Charles Keyes points to the academic reforms in Thailand
as
evidence that Vietnam, too, may well turn the corner. "What happens,
eventually, is that you get a critical mass of new people who think
differently," says Keyes.
Ultimately, it could prove counterproductive for Vietnam to clamp down
on
social sciences while encouraging business and IT studies. Such
dichotomies
make little sense in a global economy, where analytical skills are
needed in
all fields. Unless Vietnam allows its education system to mature beyond
rigid boundaries, it will be doomed as country that can't nurture the
creativity it needs to compete on the world stage. And the dreams of
eager
parents like Oanh will be crushed.
By Margot Cohen - The Far Eastern Economic Review - July 25, 2002.
Lessons in democracy : the ways of the wewt come to one Vietnam
university
In most Vietnamese universities, the study of "political science"
doesn't
stray beyond the hallowed teachings of Marx, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh. But
an
experiment is under way at the nation's most prestigious campus--
Vietnam
National University in Hanoi, or VNU--to introduce lessons in
American-style
democracy and other political systems worldwide. The experiment is all
the
more remarkable because it comes at a time when the Communist Party is
moving to fortify ideological training at the university level.
Vietnam must study other nations' political systems in order to
integrate
smoothly with the global economy, say VNU professors. "Lack of knowledge
about political science serves as a disadvantage in dealing with other
foreign countries," explains Bui Thanh Quat, a professor at VNU's
Department
of Political Science and Ho Chi Minh Thought. "When you understand each
other, you respect each other."
On hand to promote understanding are professors from Connecticut College
in
the United States. The U.S. State Department has sponsored a three-year
academic exchange in political science and economics, concluding in
2004.
Nine American social scientists are coming to Hanoi, with 13 VNU faculty
members going to Connecticut. The long-term aim is to build a broad
undergraduate curriculum in political science.
So far, the Connecticut professors have helped their Vietnamese
counterparts
delve into some substantive issues of U.S. politics, including
separation of
powers and constitutional rights. They're highlighting teaching methods
as
well. "I have emphasized our preference for free, even aggressive
inquiry on
all topics," says William Frasure, a professor of government and
associate
dean at Connecticut College. "My colleagues at VNU have frequently
expressed
admiration for the breadth and freedom of inquiry that we take for
granted
in the U.S. academic environment."
Given Vietnam's long legacy of restricting social sciences, some
academics
doubt whether the Connecticut initiative will amount to much. "I don't
think
this will lead to real change," says one Hanoi professor. While VNU
enjoys
autonomy from the Ministry of Education and Training when it comes to
hosting overseas academics, party approval is still necessary to adjust
the
curriculum. And even though VNU's rector sits on the party's central
committee, it's easy to be outvoted.
VNU has a small collection of foreign books on democracy. Segregated
from
the main library, they're kept locked away.
By Margot Cohen - The Far Eastern Economic Review - July 25, 2002.
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