Germany helps Vietnam advance internationalization in higher education

German education expertise is expected to help Vietnamese universities position themselves in the international integration.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Regional Office Hanoi last week held a two-day workshop in central city of Da Nang with an aim to help Vietnamese universities address their challenges and find optimal solutions to their internationalization strategy.

Mr. Stefan Hase-Bergen (director of the DAAD Regional Office in Hanoi) and Dr. Bui Thi Ngoc Thuy (HUST) - chair of the workshop. Photo by DAAD. 

The workshop on “Internationalization of Higher Education – Strategies and Practices in Germany and Vietnam”, in collaboration with Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST), discusses some important questions such as (1) Why do universities in Vietnam and Germany internationalize, what are their needs for internationalization? (2) How to develop and implement an internationalization strategy? (3) How can internationalization at home support the development of a university? (4) What governance structure is needed to support the internationalization of a university?

HUST academic staff make a presentation on how the university has internationalized at the workshop on Nov 26 in Da Nang city. Photo by DAAD. 

Recent legal changes in education have significantly paved the way for Vietnamese universities to go international, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Phong Dien, HUST Vice President, said the opening. The higher education in Vietnam is undergoing a radical transformation as the higher education law revised in 2018 gives public universities more autonomy. In 2016 HUST started to transform from a government-funded institution of higher education to a public university with increased autonomy in academic matters, resource management and governance, staff recruitment and income-generation activities.

“For over a year, the world has been seriously impacted by the Covid 19 crisis which additionally requires us to promote international collaboration to protect our institutions,” Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Phong Dien added.

Participants have discussion about how internationalization strategies are adopted by German universities. Photo by DAAD.

The assistance by DAAD, the world´s largest organization for academic exchange, and HUST, the largest and leading technical university in Vietnam, is expected to enable Vietnamese universities to find their own ways in the most effective manner as international integration is seen as one of the driving forces and guiding principles in the higher education reform process.

For the fact internationalization should follow a strategic concept with clear objectives to enhance education and research of a university using all dimensions of internationalization, the organizers argued that internationalization is much more than international mobility and not limited to the exchange of students and staff.

DAAD, since the establishment of its regional office in Hanoi in 2003, has supported the academic cooperation between Vietnam and Germany by funding scholarship programs, international university collaborations, exchange of scientists, study programs, or alumni activities.

Over the past years, more than 60 million euros (71.5 million US dollars) from the German federal government has been invested into the bilateral academic cooperation.

In addition, a few hundred Vietnamese students and scientists studied and did research in Germany with the support of the DAAD. More than 160 bilateral university programs and the increasing number of Vietnamese students studying at German universities has proved the successful support. Currently, more than 7.000 Vietnamese are studying in Germany, most of them with great success.

DAAD will also in the future foster the positive development of scientific collaboration between Vietnam and Germany with its funding programs and with offering support in the process of reforming the Vietnamese higher education system.

HUST is the largest and leading technical university in Vietnam, with more than 32,000 full-time students. It’s placed in top 301–400 universities for engineering and technology subjects in the World University Rankings 2020.

HUST attracts high-quality students as 80% of HUST students are in the top 13% nationwide.

The university has various international academic programs partnered with prestigious corporate and academic institutions in Japan, France, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. HUST has multidisciplinary research institutes and centers.

CCPR