An Overview of Vietnamese Higher Education

Original Title in English: An Overview of Vietnamese Higher Education
in the Era of Globalization: Opportunities and Challenges
By Author: Luu Nguyen Quoc Hung, Can Tho University, Vietnam
Abstracts
Globalization is a multifaceted process with economic, social, political and cultural
implications for higher education. In Viet Nam, the phenomenon of globalization has
both brought out opportunities and posed the country numerous challenges for the past
few years. This article reviews major concepts of globalization with the focus on
opportunities and challenges posed by this process for the current Vietnamese higher
education system.

Introduction
Viet Nam has entered the new millennium with the emergence of a new era: the
era of globalization, which has dramatically transformed world trade, communications
and economic relations since the late twentieth century, and is increasingly having
profound influence on education at the start of the twenty-first century. This new
phenomenon of globalization has both provided great opportunities and posed new
challenges for school leaders and their staff in different aspects of education. To survive
and succeed in the new era, educational administrators in general and higher education
leaders in particular are required to recognize their institutional strengths and weaknesses,
to identify vital changes in the new environment, and most importantly, to manage these
changes strategically and effectively.

Contents

• Globalization: A glimpse of the process
• Opportunities
• Challenges
• Vietnamese higher education: Realities and solutions
• Transformation of Vietnamese higher education: Roles of the leaders
• Conclusion

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