Along with economic cooperation, education is regarded a priority inVietnam-US relations and an increasing number of Vietnamese students aregoing to study in the country.
Bilateralcooperation on education turned a new page when the two nations signed amemorandum of understanding during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen TanDung’s visit to the US in June 2008.
Under theterms of the pact, Vietnam and the US have agreed to set up a taskforce in charge of education to encourage Vietnamese students,especially postgraduates and the holders of doctorates, to study in theUS .
Both countries also agreed to increaseeducation programmes to update Vietnamese students with the skills theyneed for an economy that is currently going through a modernisationprocess.
A series of conferences and forumsdiscussing cooperation in education between Vietnam and the UShave been held. Worthy of note was a seminar on tertiary education,which took place earlier this year and drew representatives from 250universities and colleges from both countries.
Theparticipants at the seminar suggested that both parties step upexchanges between universities and colleges, increase the number ofVietnamese lecturers studying for doctorates in the US, improve thequality of English language training for Vietnamese students and assistVietnam to design a system to examine the quality of education as wellas training people to operate it.
Together with helpfrom the government, the Institute of International Education (IIE) inVietnam has worked to connect US universities and Vietnamesestudents together by hosting a wide range of exhibitions on education inthe Southeast Asian country, each drawing thousands of visitors.
The annual report, Open Door 2009, released by the IIEshows that, for the first time, Vietnam was ranked in the top 10nations in terms of the number of students studying in the US in2009, with close to 13,000 students. Vietnam also saw the highestgrowth of 46.2 percent, in the number of students who are pursuing theirstudies in the country.
The Fulbright Programme,which was re-established in the 1990s, has provided funding to help 950Vietnamese and US students, scholars and teachers to study, conductresearch and teach in various fields in both countries.
The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), which was initiated by formerPresident Bill Clinton and funded by the US Government, has so fargranted scholarships to more than 300 Vietnamese officials to attend 70postgraduate training courses in the US . These VEF alumni now holdhigh positions in Vietnamese businesses, ministries and sectors and havecontributed greatly to promoting Vietnam-US relations.
In addition, the VEF has also financed the building of centres ofexcellence for scientific research and training under the World Bank’sMillennium Science Initiative (MSI) and Vietnam ’s OpenCourseWare in14 universities.
The US Ambassador to VietnamMichael Michalak said that his country is planning to set up US Centresusing the IIE, expand the Fulbright Programme and look for moreVietnamese partners for US universities and colleges to attract moreVietnamese students.
In 2011, the US will sendthree or four experts to Vietnam to help it build the system toverify the quality of university education./.
Bilateralcooperation on education turned a new page when the two nations signed amemorandum of understanding during Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen TanDung’s visit to the US in June 2008.
Under theterms of the pact, Vietnam and the US have agreed to set up a taskforce in charge of education to encourage Vietnamese students,especially postgraduates and the holders of doctorates, to study in theUS .
Both countries also agreed to increaseeducation programmes to update Vietnamese students with the skills theyneed for an economy that is currently going through a modernisationprocess.
A series of conferences and forumsdiscussing cooperation in education between Vietnam and the UShave been held. Worthy of note was a seminar on tertiary education,which took place earlier this year and drew representatives from 250universities and colleges from both countries.
Theparticipants at the seminar suggested that both parties step upexchanges between universities and colleges, increase the number ofVietnamese lecturers studying for doctorates in the US, improve thequality of English language training for Vietnamese students and assistVietnam to design a system to examine the quality of education as wellas training people to operate it.
Together with helpfrom the government, the Institute of International Education (IIE) inVietnam has worked to connect US universities and Vietnamesestudents together by hosting a wide range of exhibitions on education inthe Southeast Asian country, each drawing thousands of visitors.
The annual report, Open Door 2009, released by the IIEshows that, for the first time, Vietnam was ranked in the top 10nations in terms of the number of students studying in the US in2009, with close to 13,000 students. Vietnam also saw the highestgrowth of 46.2 percent, in the number of students who are pursuing theirstudies in the country.
The Fulbright Programme,which was re-established in the 1990s, has provided funding to help 950Vietnamese and US students, scholars and teachers to study, conductresearch and teach in various fields in both countries.
The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF), which was initiated by formerPresident Bill Clinton and funded by the US Government, has so fargranted scholarships to more than 300 Vietnamese officials to attend 70postgraduate training courses in the US . These VEF alumni now holdhigh positions in Vietnamese businesses, ministries and sectors and havecontributed greatly to promoting Vietnam-US relations.
In addition, the VEF has also financed the building of centres ofexcellence for scientific research and training under the World Bank’sMillennium Science Initiative (MSI) and Vietnam ’s OpenCourseWare in14 universities.
The US Ambassador to VietnamMichael Michalak said that his country is planning to set up US Centresusing the IIE, expand the Fulbright Programme and look for moreVietnamese partners for US universities and colleges to attract moreVietnamese students.
In 2011, the US will sendthree or four experts to Vietnam to help it build the system toverify the quality of university education./.
