1.1 Setting the Scene
Higher education (HE) has been one of the most dynamic yet unsettling topics inviting endless debates and scholarly discussions, from issues concerning reform, quality assurance, curriculum, community engagement, academic mobilities, widening participation and access, privatisation, graduate employability and research development to challenges, and opportunities brought about by globalisation, internationalisation, and regionalisation (Bui, Nguyen, & Cole, 2019; Fry, 2018; Gregorutti & Delgado, 2015; Hawkins, & Mok, 2015; Neubauer, & Collins, 2015; Neubauer, & Gomes, 2017; Neubauer, Mok, & Edwards, 2019; Neubauer, Shin, & Hawkins, 2013; Welch, 2011). What has been happening in Vietnam’s HE since Vietnam’s economic reform was introduced in 1986 (also known as Đổi Mới) has made Vietnam’s HE one of the most dynamic and full-of-surprises HE systems globally. Since Đổi Mới, Vietnam’s HE has been forced to and aspired to change and to embrace change and opportunities under the market-oriented logic and socialist ideology. The blend of the two seemingly paradoxical and contradictory values—market-oriented and socialist—in Vietnam’s HE has set it apart in the global landscape of HE. In many ways, Vietnam still upholds certain Soviet legacies, those that are also observed in HE in China and Russia (Oleksiyenko, Qiang, Chirikov, & Li, 2018) and in post-Soviet HE systems such as those in Eastern Europe and within the former Soviet Union (Silova, 2010). At the same time, all these HE systems are going through varied transformations that have been driven by a strong Western-oriented spirit, energy and outlook, by the forces of globalisation and internationalisation of HE, modernisation and nation building, neoliberal ideals, and the global ranking aspirations. What makes Vietnam’s HE different has much to do with the fact that its HE reforms and transformations take place under the Communist Party’s leadership—the leadership that stays firm with socialist ideology, promotes a market economy and has gained significant experience over a long history of direct contacts with French education, Soviet education, American education, and now Southeast Asian and East Asian education.
While the country has witnessed exciting transformations and aspirations for improvement in its education system, Vietnam’s education in general and HE in particular have been the target of fierce criticisms over the past decades in all spheres, from policy debates, academic research, professional forums, media coverage to everyday conversations. These significant and dynamic happenings have gradually been picked up in scholarly works, noticeably by many Australia-based and Australia-trained scholars and researchers, as one of us (Phan Le Ha) has been arguing in several speeches delivered at the annual Engaging With Vietnam (EWV) Conference Series, which she founded in 2009 and which remains active since. Higher education has always been a major theme of this conference series. As a matter of fact, the very first full edition on Vietnam HE co-edited by Harman, Hayden, and Pham (2010) was launched at the 2nd EWV Conference held in Hanoi in late 2010. Until now, Australia-based and Australia-trained scholars and researchers have continued to dominate the literature on Vietnam HE. Many of them have also presented their work at the EWV conference series over the years.
Counting from the milestone Đổi Mới in 1986, six books have been published on Vietnam HE, among which five are edited collections (Harman et al., 2010; London, 2011; Nguyen, & Shah, 2019; Nguyen, & Tran, 2019; Tran, & Marginson, 2018), and one co-written by seven authors (Tran et al., 2014). Except for the title edited by London in 2011, the other five titles on this topic and most of their contributing chapters are from the above-mentioned Australia-related group. These books cover a wide range of topics and issues in HE in Vietnam spanning over the past 30 years since Đổi Mới. They are among the first scholarly publications on Vietnam’s HE written by both international and Vietnamese scholars.
Specifically, Harman et al. (2010) was the first book on Vietnam’s HE, featuring mostly non-Vietnamese authors. All the chapters in this book discuss major HE reforms in Vietnam through the lens of policy, systemic, structural, ideological, and political issues. It offers a solid overview of Vietnam HE in those days as well as the many hindrances that would bring challenges to the reforms introduced by the Vietnamese government. Because of this nature of the volume, very little empirical data was evident.
Like Harman et al. (2010) and London (2011) was written against the backdrops of 25 years after the country’s economic reform and five years after the Higher Education Reform Agenda (HERA), or the Prime Minister’s Resolution 14 on Fundamental and Comprehensive Reform of Higher Education of Vietnam. These are ideological and structural reforms that induced fundamental changes in Vietnam’s economy and HE from centrally subsidised to market-oriented ones. As a result, issues and challenges in HE governance and structure, institutional financing, privatisation and autonomy, and graduate or labour force skills were central to the contributing chapters in Harman et al. (2010) and London (2011). Other topics, such as research and research commercialisation and the globalisation and internationalisation of HE, were included but of less focus.
In Tran et al. (2014), the seven co-authors—all receiving their Ph.D.’s from Australian universities—investigate the reform of Vietnam’s HE from the background of the global knowledge economy, specifically the roles of university education and vocational training in creating new knowledge (research) and educating the country’s competitive workforce. This book argues that the HE reform of Vietnam should be informed by three national core virtues: flexibility, practicality, and mobility and by the demands of globalisation. It also argues that HE in Vietnam views knowledge as flexible, practical, and mobile and therefore, calls for Vietnam’s HE and research systems to be flexible, practical, and responsive to both national traditions and globalisation in order to produce flexible, practical, and mobile graduates and workforce for the country.
In Tran and Marginson (2018), the authors continue their 2014 discussion of Vietnam’s HE, while however turning their focus to the internationalisation in Vietnamese HE. The chapters in this edited volume collectively examine a whole new set of topics, including: key drivers and dimensions of internationalisation of Vietnam’s HE and comparing them with those in the neighbouring countries; theories, models, and practices of internationalisation and reflecting them on the local needs in Vietnam; the influence of outbound student mobility and internationalisation on transformation and outcomes of Vietnam’s HE; and suggestion for Vietnam’s internationalisation of HE.
In 2019, two more edited collections on Vietnam HE were published. The editors and almost all of the contributing authors are graduates from Australian universities. While Nguyen and Shah (2019) pay specific attention to varied matters centre...