In the higher education sector, many universities in Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC) will continue to develop training programmes partly or totally in English. For example, the International University under Vietnam National University in HCMC is the first only public university in Vietnam that has switched to teach all of their programmes in English. Some others have raised the number of English-taught programmes, for example the Univesity of Technology in HCMC will offer up to 30 English-taught programmes this school year.

There is a wide variety of subjects taught in English, such as marketing, finance and banking, tourism and hospitality management, computer science, medicine, pharmacology.

Meanwhile, in the vocational education sector, 45 colleges in Vietnam will continue to use curricula transferred from Australia and Germany until the end of 2020 and 2025. This is part of a plan developed by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), aiming to pilot some vocational training programmes at regional and international levels. Nearly 300 college teachers have taken English language courses in Australia under this plan. 

The Australian curriculum requires students to reach English level of B1 when graduating. Although this requirement is much more demanding than the Vietnamese curriculum, it will help graduates feel much more confident to work in foreign companies.

Read further at:

https://vietnamnews.vn/society/592357/many-hcm-city-universities-offer-programmes-in-english.html

https://vietnamnews.vn/society/592311/international-vocational-training-to-be-extended.html

Comments from Lien Ta, Senior Education Services Manager:

The increasing number of English-taught programmes offered by both public and private universities will open more opportunities for UK universities to develop partnership activities with Vietnamese counterparts. English summer courses and student exchange activities are priorities in the partnership agenda of some Vietnamese universities with an aim to improve English level of their students. In these partnership activities, regional countries often prevail over the UK in terms of cost, however there are still opportunities for UK universities to work with selected partners, for example with some leading private universities, in this area.

In terms of vocational education sector, curriculum reform and English skills improvement are still two priorities in partnership activities of Vietnamese leading vocational colleges. This is the area of partnership that futher education colleges in the UK should look into, especially in some subject areas such as tourism and hospitality, engineering and computer science.