INTERNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION FORUM REFORM Prof Dr TRAN Vietnam QUOC ON VIETNAM EDUCATION IN VIETNAM TOAN - General Secretary National Council on Education Introduction The world has entered the 21" century with prospects and opportunities for a rapid and dynamic development but also filled with challenges In that high- speed shuttle heading to the future, most of the countries are now seeking for their own development based on investment capital, resources or geographical, political and economical comparative advantages However, a common awareness shared by most of the countries (not to say all of them) is to rely on education, science and technology as the key driving force to quicken and sustain its development This explains why, many countries, not only developing ones but also economies in transition, the EU and developed nations such as the UK, Japan, US are now taking up the issues of "education reform" or "education renovation" In this context, education has both opportunities to develop and challenges to face, namely: ¢ The emergence of knowledge based economy ¢ The scientific and technological revolution continuing to accelerate, especially in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) ¢ The massive wave of globalization, the restructuring of economy and labor both at national and global level ¢ The requirements of high quality — human development demands ¢ Contradiction between economic, resources, responsive to the science-technological growth and limited pace to create education output 229 DIỄN ĐÀN QUỐC TẾ VỀ GIÁO DỤC VIỆT NAM These challenges have required education sector, especially higher education to make a comprehensive reform from education philosophy to content, methodology, curricula and management Vietnam is a country at its low stage of development, and of course not excluded from this trend The State and Party are fully aware of the importance of education, scientific and technological development A report from the Central Committee of Vietnam's Communists Party, IX Congress has highlighted: "the development of economy, industrialization, modernization is a central task The path for Vietnam's industrialization needs to be and can be shortened compared with other pioneer nations to link industrialization with modernization, to make use of every capacity available to reach excellence and modernity in science and technology, to gradually develop a knowledge based economy, to promote intellectual resources and spirit of Vietnamese people, special attention should be paid to education, science and technology, and consider this as a platform and driving force cause of industrialization and modernization" These tasks have assigned education sector a huge responsibility which is to build up human resources for industrialization and modernization, to train a contingent of highly skilled science and technology workforce, who are able to grasp and apply knowledge into practice, to innovate and transfer technology and to complete successfully the cause of industrialization and modernization This presentation will present opportunities and challenges of Vietnam's higher education and outline objectives and areas to be reformed in the next decade Part I OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF VIETNAM'S HIGHER EDUCATION The education system's issues Education in Vietnam in the last 10 years has overcome a severe decline in the 80s of the last country and has made a considerable development, contributing to the enhancement of people's intellectual level, human resource training as well as to the country's socio-economic achievements in the years of 230 INTERNATIONAL reform International bas communities have FORUM already ON VIETNAM EDUCATION acknowledged ' ‘ appreciated the positive improvement of the Vietnam's HDI figure’ However, education in general reveal many weaknesses and specific difficulties, namely: are and higher facing education enormous l and highly ' in particular still challenges and global * Contradiction between the increasing learning demands of the population (with an annual increase of one million) and limited capacity use, the economy's of education system, especially higher education * Contradiction between training and absorbance of human resource is still limited (unemployment, inadequate job availability) ¢ The hierarchy of human resource development: on one hand, to train highly-qualified human resource in key, advanced, high-tech industries to meet the integration requirement and regional, international competition and on the other hand, to meet the immediate demands of localities, less developed sectors at their initial stage of industrialization * Specialized training to meet human resource need at present and general training to adapt to the restructuring of economy, labor and job mobility The increasing expansion of upper-secondary education has put a great pressure on Vietnam's higher education system The number of upper- secondary students has doubled from school year 1996 - 1997 to 2002 - 2003 While annually, there are about 800,000 upper-secondary leavers, university enrolment is only limited to 250,000 The accumulation of those who fail university entrance exams has made the competition rate in 2004 university exam up to 850/100 study places Vocational training system, especially higher vocational training developed cradequately Though in recent years, the government has made efforts to expand vocational training colleges for training of highly skilled workers, to develop new types of schools such as_ people-founded establishments, organize short-training courses, class in industries (in 2000, the number of students taking short-training course increased by 179%, longtraining course increased 382.4% compared to 1995), the unbalance in this sector has not been solved (1) Vietnam’s HDI 1990 was ranked 121 1999: 110, 2001: 109 231 DIỄN ĐÀN QUỐC TẾ VỀ GIÁO DỤC VIỆT NAM The development of higher vocational training has not been appropriately paid attention to, on one hand, this slowdowns the increase in number of highly skilled workers and on the other attractive to young people The hand, it makes vocational training less mono-discipline of university has made it difficult for these institutions to open new programs to meet market demands However, this has been slow done but quality remains low and renovation is due to the unavailability of facilities, equipment and teaching staff Content general not been and curriculum education, solved of higher vocational education, Curriculum education: diversity, is still focusing the relationship continuity, on knowledge between selectivity has conveyance and remains very academic, not related to work skills, social competences and job creation ability Therefore, to create learning eagerness among most of the students is one of the great challenges for teachers Teaching methodology is still mainly based on illustrative and dictative methods, with the use of chalk and blackboard, lack of ICT support and modern equipments, not responsive to the increasing amount of knowledge and does not encourage active learning Higher education quality has become a major years There are institutions, disciplines and training high quality courses but the overall mass-quality has (for international integration and the need for highly of the country) Content, competences training of programs, graduates, organization have showed and that social concern in recent programs which provide not yet met requirements qualified human resource methodology there of teaching, is a variation between Vietnam and other countries in the world in defining the term "quality" itself The society has mentioned much about quality but has been slow to implement quality assessment Market dimension hasn't been viewed rightfully and fully exploited to make a healthy competition among higher education institutions The improvement of higher education's quality is therefore very imperative Insufficient investment on higher education, facilities and equipments also has downward effects on teaching quality It's not fair just to criticize on the quality while not taking into account the fact that there is a gap in investment capacity aos on higher education between Vietnam and other countries in the INTERNATIONAL region and produce the world high philosophy Classrooms quality can students, prove to be with FORUM only innovation very ON chalk VIETNAM and blackboard in methodology effective (like in EDUCATION and still can educational mathematics, literature, philosophy), but not in the case of experimental sciences and technology where necessary modern equipments are not available Higher education management in general still shows some degree of bureaucracy, with limited decentralization and division of functions and tasks Professional in higher education management is low, autonomy and social accountability has not been effectively realized With the current perception and methodology of management, institutions, administrators and lecturers are not the main key players and engines for education reform We not mention here any shortcomings or weaknesses but a slow in reform has resulted in many obstacles in meeting the demands Obviously, there is also another gap, namely research at higher education the balance and quality of institutions, the establishment of corporations in universities or universities in corporations, shared social responsibility but some major issues, which must be on top priorities in the road map for higher education reform in the next three years, are content, curriculum training methodology and management Social impacts: social-economic reform The knowledge based economy has insisted on higher education to acquire new capacity The Declaration of the World Conference on higher education in the 21" century has stressed that "for a society which has become more knowledge based, higher education and research today must act as crucial ingredients for a sustainable development of culture, society, economy and environment for all, communities and people” The development with the of market implementation economy with of industrialization and socialist orientation together modernization has created opportunities for higher education in Vietnam The shift from a centralized mechanism which the State takes up most responsibility to a market model has called for higher education system to undertake fundamental reform in its approach to socio-economic circumstances and training process Higher education must take into account the aspect of investment sources, cost and 233 DIỄN ĐÀN QUỐC TẾ VỀ GIÁO DỤC VIỆT NAM investment effectiveness, the correlation between benefits and obligation of the State, society, investors, institutions, learners, competitiveness, the realization of social policies, the consideration of human resource training as a major input for social-economic development These above mentioned issues have not yet been dealt with or studied thoroughly and systematically Education, especially higher education, has been assigned with new roles and functions, these are: | the top national priority, human resource building, enhancement of people's intellectual level, talent fostering, key player in quality assurance of the whole education system, a source of new cultural, spiritual and material innovation, human development for the future, safeguarding and dissemination of popular values, preservation and development of national cultural heritages, protection of national and community's interest, and solving contradictions arisen by the globalization process However, the context of uneven development among economic sectors, localities, regions - on one hand, the need to access to knowledge and on the other hand, the specific requirements of the industrialization and modernization of Vietnam - has demanded higher education to seek for an appropriate way and model External impact: Globalization The third wave of globalization in the world has begun in the 80s with its major characteristics which are the inter-influence and inter-dependence among sectors on the global scale and brings about both negative and positive effects Globalization technology, of capital, the restructuring investment, of international trade, economy service, science are the major and setting and driving force for globalization in education sector Global major trends in the 21‘ century are: the scientific and technological revolution; knowledge based economy has created a new way of enrichment, helped to build a lifelong learning society The development of intellectual civilization must be based on human innovation and creates opportunities for education to develop An in-depth analysis of higher education has shown that while education scale has increased the present wave of globalization has diminished the role of state in investment In this context, higher education tends to be no longer a public service supplied solely by the state In addition to capacity enhancement 234 INTERNATIONAL and effectiveness "customers" of management, the FORUM state will ON only VIETNAM provide EDUCATION subsidy for (users) Higher education will receive less (in proportions) from the public finance Regarding state investment, it is predicted that a period of difficulty will be seen in the reform process in each country When higher education shifts to mass education for the purpose of "lifelong learning", education's feature also becomes more diversified: market oriented, learner centered, financial autonomy, "a corporation" management style, market content, and competitiveness among higher education establishments This requires higher education system to supply to the society the best quality of its product, otherwise it will be excluded from the whole process One of the characteristics of globalization in higher education is that education product (highly skilled labor) is oriented to serve the global market Therefore, competition in quality of human resource and education system itself is becoming a severe challenge This happened in the past, but the present wave of globalization has demanded higher education to act like an "industry" and "importation and exportation" can be expanded (from the point of view of WTO) And in the era of information and communication technology, the "industry" can operate without frontier One example is that the EU has established a unified education system to enhance effectiveness, quality and competitiveness Thus, apart from sharing experiences, the need to have a set of standards in education, partnership and continuity in international education becomes more apparent Globalization has also brought about the restructuring of international labor, cultural integration, and together with the globalization in education, this phenomena will have a great impact on other social factors like community, cultural diversity and conflict, identity evaporation, practical way of life and brain drain from less developed countries These are the issues that need to be carefully considered and examined If we consider the capacity and level of higher education systems, it is obvious that globalization will not bring about equality in this unequal competition Developing countries with limited capacity but long tradition, high determined political will and appropriate strategy have to seek for its own way, a road map to integrate and a "strategic forecast" (as experiences of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan ), otherwise they will incur "a loss on their own ground" 235 DIỄN ĐÀN QUỐC TẾ VỀ GIÁO DỤC VIỆT NAM At the threshold of the 21" century, Vietnam's higher education system Is not excluded from these challenges, it has to meet the requirement for highquality human resources for each locality, sector, region, level of development in each specific period and higher education system itself needs to integrate into higher education in the region and the world Part II OUTLINES FOR VIETNAM HIGHER EDUCATION REFORMS IN THE NEXT DECADE Trends and objectives Education development closely relates to social, economic The effects of those changes and political changes to the educational and system, contents and structure are in many different ways The specific characteristic of higher education is to train high level human resource for all fields of society Together with the development of the society, the demands for high level human resource are ever increased The trends of Vietnam higher education are gradual changes from elite education to mass education (education for majority) In that trend, the overall objectives of higher education reforms in Vietnam are: — Quality and effectiveness improvement (key issue) — Meeting the demand for diversity and different levels of human resource, developing talent, gradually integrating regionally and internationally — Increasing reasonably the scale and accomplishing the structure of training — Sound implementation of social policies, ensuring equity in education The conception of quality and effectiveness should be defined by scientific and practical meanings: — Firstly, the measurement is based on how human resource meets the national development that requires human resource of diversity and multiprofessional levels (from human resource for modern high-tech zones to remote underdeveloped areas) Thus education quality should be understood as being 236 INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON VIETNAM EDUCATION divided into different levels The good quality is not merely high intellectual but also be appropriate and applicable effectively into different areas and sectors — Secondly, gradual transferability and integration to the region and the world — Thirdly, education quality is represented in reasonable solutions of knowledge provision, learner capacity and attitude training On one hand, the learners need to have knowledge, professional skills to take part in labor market after finishing school, on the other hand, they need to have aspiration, ideal, responsibilities and compassion self-approaches to new knowledge, and truthfulness; self-learning capacity, creativeness, and self adaptability to professional changes team working, self-reliance (it is the weakness of higher education in Vietnam) Implementation of social policy, insurance of social equality (especially to remote and disadvantaged areas and people ) is the essential task of higher education It is not merely a priority but a strategic solution to train the human resource, managers and ensuring the sustainable development and harmony among areas, ethnic groups, for the development of talent among the disadvantaged people Higher education is the highest step in education system with the aim not only to meet the demands of human resource but also to train its own masters in development process: masters of its own profession and of a nation This is an essential aspect of higher education It would be a mistake if the focus is only on quantity and paying less attention to quality, more attention to train people to be buyers, wage earners lacking of national spirit and social responsibilities Institutions of such higher education are deeply dependent on market mechanism and commercialization In the socialist oriented market mechanism, on one hand, higher education looks towards labor market, considers efficiency and competitive capacity (locally and internationally), on the other hand, it fully awares of the goal that education must contribute to head the society towards ideal, moral and cultural values This is not an argument but reality experience our ancestors summarized through its development history of thousands of years "talents are the life-sustaining elements" This is really profound philosophy that Vietnam higher education should be impregnated and moved towards higher level in the new era 237 DIỄN ĐÀN QUỐC TẾ VỀ GIÁO DỤC VIỆT NAM Renovation Contents Higher education reforms firstly are the renovation in its philosophy and objectives On that basis, it determines renovation in content, methodologies and curricula, attached to renovation on management mechanism - the cores At the same time, attention must be paid to other areas such as renovation on: educational institutions network, education forms, human_resources, educational finance mechanism It is important that all elements of renovation should support each other The overall co-ordination of renovation process is the most complicated task of educational management ¢ Education contents, methodologies and curricula The basic orientations of education contents, methodologies and curricula are: — Reasonable combination of basic contents and newly modern knowledge for integration into the regional and international areas — Linkage to requirements for levels of human resource in each area and field — Reasonable combination of creativeness and practical knowledge and skills — Insurance of the diversity of education forms to meet the demands continuing and lifelong learning of — Be standardized and accredited of quality — Formation of social action programs to link education with reality and students’ quality cultivation Requirements: a) Creation of necessary conditions to maintain high qualification quality of secondary education to ensure quality higher education and b) Diversification of education contents to change to optional education by providing options for the learners in terms of textbooks, curricula, syllabi, disciplines, specialization levels in each field c) Renovation of education and training methodologies Stress on the "active" role of the learners, promote their creativeness in knowledge receiving and application; equip them with capability of self-learning, self-study, selfassessment and setting themselves up on business Improvement of traditional education methods and encouragement of modern teaching methods and 238 INTERNATIONAL acceptance of advanced information and education FORUM models, telecommunication ON VIETNAM particularly technology, Internet EDUCATION applications for of teachers and students to approach updated knowledge d) On one hand, maintenance and promotion of good education tradition of the Vietnamese, on the other hand, selected adoption of advanced education to build up a training system of flexibility, transferability and accreditation * Development and improvement of teaching staff quality The Vietnamese has a saying: "without teachers one can hardly ever succeed" now we can add "without teachers education reforms can hardly ever succeed" If the teacher is not an active and important subject of the renovation process, higher education reforms can hardly succeed The present teaching staff reveals their weaknesses of quantity, structure, teaching methods and standards; some of them are not well aware of the needs for further studies, professional ethics and social responsibilities If in university auditorium, they still teach education the as way "The their students introduction learn is the during their body is 12 the years of conclusion general is ", "Teachers talk and students write", then a dangerous passive lane in the brain of people who lack of will and creativeness Thus, the implementation of measures for teacher quality development and improvement is very important and urgent, especially for young teaching staff The State needs to have a national program for further education of higher education faculty both at home and abroad The further education should focus on contents: knowledge improvement, teaching methods renovation and professional ethic building and social responsibility enhancement Especially, stressing on teaching students to approach new knowledge put forwards ideas and solve scientific and practical questions; trigger their creativeness and improvement ¢ Adjustment of the network and restructuring higher education system Implementation of basic adjustment contents of higher education basic restructure of human resources training at high level: for a) Strong development of technical programs of junior college level This solution not only meets the demand of socio-economic development but also indicates political meaning (This solution plays an important role in knowledge improvement of Vietnamese working class) b) Division of higher education programs into directions: research driven program (tradition) and practice and profession driven program (new) This 239 DIỄN ĐÀN QUỐC TẾ VỀ GIÁO DỤC VIỆT NAM solution attaches higher education to the reality of socio-economic development, improves practice capability and job generation for graduates At the same time, facilitating the research driven institutions to develop their traditional strengths and focus resources on approaching advanced educational programs c) Increase of the ratio of the practice and profession driven education in the whole system of higher education by 4-5 times to research driven education Division of the network of higher education institutions to meet the different demands at different levels of economic development, provision of support for different types of education institutions regardless of ownership, diversification on the basic models: university, institute, university + institute to create mechanism and set up a national independent system of educational quality assurance and accreditation Focus on directives to implement solutions for improvement of training quality in some key universities, specializations and faculties * Creation of healthy education environment Education sense, it environment means the responsibilities, and narrow it sense, educational has both broad whole system means institution social environment, of policies a and specific that encourages narrow social for education education teaching sense In the broad conditions, social development; in the environment within and creativeness, learning each forms positive ways of life, social responsibility, cultivation, prevention from problems and negativeness The healthy education environment is also the condition to ensure people equality to approach educational forms and levels In parallel with "Education for All" program implemented by the State and society, each person should "learn lifelong" with the support of telecommunication, Internet and computers Set-up of national educational standards and right implementation of its application are basic elements to support and develop healthy education environment The national quality accreditation system for academic programs with dependent and independent assessments will be soon operated; the accreditation results will be published As the result, the education environment will meet the demands of each individual and ensure the sustainable development for each nation 240 INTERNATIONAL Creation of healthy education FORUM environment ON VIETNAM is important, EDUCATION direct duty of education system, schools, teachers and students, however it should be pointed that it is the duty of all society ¢ Student Selection and Job Seeking Continuing reforms in higher education selection provide equal opportunities for all applicants, the use of results of secondary for assessment and a scientific and accurate way selection process of universities methodology of lower-level of examination and contribute education Gradual will be foundation for the to teaching and learning improvement of the input students for open universities by setting a floor grade of entrance examination Education strategic plan should be in compliance with development and human resource strategic plans Education should link with professional training Setting up a list and national profession standards that will support professional orientation, division of flow, adjustment of training structure and level The state should use norms of selection (also applicable for in-service, non-formal and linked training) as a tool for control the quality insurance of universities * Diversification of resources for Higher Education a) Push-up efficient implementation of the guideline for social participation to mobilize resources for higher education, even from foreign countries, especially from highly reputable universities b) Set-up criteria for training costs and state policies of financial assistance for technical and physical facilities of educational institutions Development and issuance of a system of criteria for training assurance and criteria directly involving policies of the state for the whole higher education system in general and for the non-public area in particular; the mandatory regulations for facility conditions and re-investment in institution building Continue to develop private colleges and universities, experimental opening of private higher education institutions and junior colleges Public higher education institutions will be changed to independent operation mechanism (including financing) as enterprises that have income c) Development of policy for reasonable education tuition and fees Study and proposal of a clear project for tuition that would be recognized by the change of reflexion towards tuitions of the society Tuition fee must be examined in relation with training costs and state policies so that higher 241 DIỄN ĐÀN QUỐC TẾ VỀ GIÁO DỤC VIỆT NAM education institutions can ensure their own development Tuition is not partial contribution but a total necessary cost for education Depending on institutions, it can be totally different Institutions have to make public detailed costs The state will fund for national human resource program; provides scholarships for the poor and people indicated in its policy regardless they study in a public non-public institutions These scholarships will cover partial or total costs studying and in some special cases (minority pupils or the poor who excellent in study) it might cover subsistence expenses The rest will pay the education cost for the institution The state considers setting up a Fund for Education Development, or of is all which offers loans for institutions (both public and non-public) with low interest rate to build up institution buildings, classrooms, experiment labs, libraries Nonpublic institutions can take part in national and local projects of education development (for example, the Fund for Quality Improvement of the Higher Education Project (funded by WB) d) Continuing to allocate ODA loan for higher education, accepting direct investment from foreigners, especially, from the prestigious universities over the world ° Linkage of education and science - technology Developing universities into strong science and technology research centres is another urgent need Develop and perfect policies to encourage implementation of the linkage of training - scientific research-technology and production transfer Institutions now bring about applications of science, technique and technology into production; provide managers, technical staff and workers with different in-service training programs and forms In return, production units and enterprises provide research institutes with necessary investment for training and facilitate researchers, teachers and students to get involve in the production realities, practice, apprentice and experiment to improve their skills and apply theory into the reality It is necessary to form specific responsibilities of institutions and production units and enterprises to ensure mechanism of practice and apprenticeship for students Furthermore, cooperation between scientists and technologists of different branches and sectors is necessary to build up the overall capacity, which can identify and address major problems from theory to practice in the process of industrialization and modernization, produce new high quality and prestige 242 INTERNATIONAL products in regional as well FORUM as international ON market VIETNAM EDUCATION - a preparation for our country's integration into AFTA and the WTO * Promoting international cooperation in higher education development This regional is an and urgent task international Set-up and integration by implementation standardizing of an and itinerary modernizing for of education programs and systems are indispensable Encouragement of foreign investment and cooperation and joint training programs that have prestige and quality, and intensify study experiences from other countries in a selective way, make use of suitable advanced science and technology programs developed by foreign institution * Reform of higher education management Management of education in general and higher education in particular, is facing big challenges It is necessary to surmount shortly the current weaknesses and shortcomings, mainly state management with slow innovation of thoughts as well as heavy administrative procedures, inefficient quality management; effective unclear answers related to issues such as economic effectiveness, education, and education in market mechanism; inappropriate management decentralization; underestimation of the roles and responsibilities of education institutions and teaching staff in the higher education reform Among those, management reform is the most important and difficult task It is therefore necessary to optimize relations between both functional and professional management bodies, as well as independence of education institutions, so that the institutions and teachers are active in reformative process Education management reforms should focus in the key following issues: a) Changes of management thoughts: First of all, it is necessary to have a proper perception of education as being not only a career education and knowledge impartation system, but also foundation for quick and sustainable development of the country, creating a basis for maintaining and developing potential of society knowledge, "national spirit", and motivity of modern society development Therefore, education is deeply social, education products are more social products (rather than merely education system products) Results and values of education are crystallized outcomes of society values, education centers and learners themselves, creating motivity for the education to develop in a right way with high quality and effectiveness 243 DIỄN ĐÀN QUỐC TẾ VỀ GIÁO DỤC VIỆT NAM The education traditional management should be replaced by the education management that based on the quality (abbreviated as quality management) Education quality is joint efforts of teachers, schools and society in order to make a fundamental change in the relationships between education managers, teachers and pupils; and between the Ministry, Departments of Education with schools and pupils’ parents Quality management, therefore, should not be regarded as the responsibility of a few organizations and people, but an activity in which every member of education organizations and the society participate at different levels and with different responsibilities Quality management is required to pay attention to not only examination results but the progress of teaching and studying as well It is necessary to change basically the nature of examinations now b) Determination of specific contents and methods of the State management in education The Government's main functions are as follow: — Holding political trend of education for national interest — Determining priorities and suitable measures of strategical significance to ensure a success — Shifting from the role of education providers and higher education staff to the role of coordinators, ensuring the environment for higher education development, based on institutionalization of the relationships between the State, universities, students and the whole society With three mentioned socialist, State Target management, above management functions, should strategic in the market concentrate building, on education mechanism oriented the following missions: development planning, Improvement of law system, development policy, Develop policies for mobilizing and using development resources, Maintaining social justice, Implementing education instructions, control, inspection and evaluation Appropriate state management decentralization will be an important impetus to education development, quality and effectiveness improvement c) We need to recognize higher education institutes as the centre of higher education reform Actual experience has pointed out that higher education is unable to be successful without unanimity of universities and education staff Independent structure of a university is a concrete convergent point of interests of the Society, State, schools, education staff and learners, which maintains an active 244 INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON VIETNAM EDUCATION development environment, following the directions of Vietnamese Government and Party Professionalization of management processes (including training, investment, financing, etc.) is needed in order to ensure highly effective and standardized management As far as the whole higher education system is concerned, a Project for higher education reforms is needed, in which a scientific justification will be set up to direct and coordinate the resources throughout the country It will be the basis for further development of specific plans by each university/college d) State management method for higher education needs to be in conformity with education situation which has been socialized in market economy, so as to make all favorable conditions for all people, economic sectors, and social organizations participate in higher education development Applying soundly market mechanism, in accordance with higher education particular traits, will be a very important motivity for higher education development Universities and students can freely choose the best products but meanwhile must offer the best products as well, to avoid being discharged e) Developing all methods for mobilizing the community to participate in managing the most important issues of education development at national level, as well as education institutions’ level; setting up boards of specialists; supporting in self-management of universities; promoting mobilization of social brainpower to participate in building and deciding the policies; participating in education management, participating in programs building and education quality evaluation f) Frequently summarizing, supplementing and adjusting policy structure to make it adaptable to the reality Conclusion Development and improvement of education quality and maintenance of social equality are a difficult but very urgent mission of Vietnam education Such difficulties are not nature but newly arise from development process can be overcome To implement the goals of education development to the 2010 as defined in the Education Strategic Plan for the period 2001-2010 set of solutions mentioned above, the most important thing is not merely and year by a the changes to a at mezzo-level of curricula and education system, but broader and higher social progress That is, the political strong related will of the 245 DIỄN ĐÀN QUỐC TẾ VỀ GIÁO DỤC VIỆT NAM Communist Party and State, a profound innovation in thoughts and "the people action", building-up a close linkage and unanimousness over the society, creating favorable conditions for process of education renovation, especially for higher education Higher education in Vietnam is dealing with big challenges, deriving from great changes in the country and the world However, looking forwards to an imposing nation of Vietnam, not only in defense and liberation of the country in the past but also in economic development in the future, with the enthusiastic assistance from international friends, Vietnam will surely be able to make the most of its advantages and great opportunities to develop and contribute to its socio-economic development and integration into the region and globe Thank you for your attention 246 ... development in each specific period and higher education system itself needs to integrate into higher education in the region and the world Part II OUTLINES FOR VIETNAM HIGHER EDUCATION REFORMS IN THE... trends of Vietnam higher education are gradual changes from elite education to mass education (education for majority) In that trend, the overall objectives of higher education reforms in Vietnam. .. re-investment in institution building Continue to develop private colleges and universities, experimental opening of private higher education institutions and junior colleges Public higher education institutions