This book inspects higher education reform in market-oriented socialist Vietnam, with a focus on newness narratives and enquiry. Engaging in dialogic conversations with global and regional forces and exploring convergences in the domains of policy, curriculum, research, pedagogy, and society, chapter authors analyse ideologies that have entered Vietnam’s educational landscape. Chapters include discussions of post-Soviet legacies, socialist thought, privatization, neoliberalism, global rankings, academic freedom, autonomy, and elitism, as well as the actors, discourses and practices through which they manifest. In so doing, authors’ commentaries juxtapose phenomena in Vietnam with other national contexts such as the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Australia, and Trinidad and Tobago.

This book, drawing on a political economic perspective of education development, is a comprehensive account of the question "why some education systems flourish while others falter." It provides a state-of-the-art review of the Vietnamese way of education development, figuring out the pitfalls, challenges and opportunities of neoliberal reform. It also sheds new light on the rise of neoliberal capitalism in contemporary Vietnam as the country intensifies its market-oriented economic transition. Starting from educational development concerns, this book differentiates the growth and development concepts in education. While "growth with limited development" is well reflected in many developing education systems, the Vietnamese experience of education development stands to provide readers with unique insights about education in developing economies, especially in understanding how a socialist-oriented education system is struggling to thrive in the times of neoliberal capitalism. Authored by scholars specialising in Vietnamese education and politics, the chapters address key issues pertaining to the political economy of education reform in Vietnam and the government’s enduring efforts to drive education toward international standards through its costly market-infused education reforms. This book will appeal to postgraduate students, educators, educational policy-makers and scholars interested in Vietnamese studies, Vietnam education reforms, education governance, education for sustainability, internationalisation of education and the politics of education reforms.

Vietnam is a country on the move. Yet contemporary Vietnam's education system is at a crossroads. Rapid economic growth has permitted rapid increases in the scale and scope of formal schooling, but there is a prevailing sense that the current education system is inadequate to the country’s needs. Sunny assessments of Vietnam's “achievements” in the sphere of education have given way to a realization that the country lacks skilled workers. Some have even spoken of an "education crisis". These are not abstract concerns. What is occurring in Vietnam's education system today has broad implications for the country’s social, political, economic, and cultural development. Featuring contributions from scholars and policy analysts from within and outside Vietnam, Education in Vietnam addresses key issues pertaining to the political economy of education, the provision and payment for primary and secondary education, and the development of vocational and tertiary education. The book marks an important contribution to existing understandings of Vietnam’s education system and contributes to broader understandings of social conditions and change in contemporary Vietnam.

Higher and tertiary education are crucial to modern nations. Vietnam has great potential, but its universities and colleges are poor-performing, under-funded and slow to change compared to those in neighbouring East Asian nations. This book analyses the problem and provides constructive solutions for the reform of higher education.

This Handbook discusses the theoretical and disciplinary background to the study of English-medium instruction (EMI) in higher education worldwide. It highlights issues relating to EMI pedagogy, varying motivations for EMI education, and the delivery of EMI in diverse contexts across the world. The spread of English as a teaching medium and the lingua franca of the academic world has been the subject of various debates in recent years on the perceived hegemony of the English language and the ‘domain loss’ of non-English languages in academic communication. Encompassing a wide range of contributions to the field of EMI, the chapters of this Handbook are arranged in four distinct parts: Part I provides an overview of English-medium instruction in higher education worldwide; Part II focusses on EMI in Europe; Part III on EMI in the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa; and Part IV on EMI in the Asian region. The overall scope and level of expertise of this Handbook provides an unrivalled overview of this field of education. It serves as an essential reference for many courses dealing with applied linguistics, English language education, multilingualism, sociolinguistics, and related subjects at many levels of education, including Master’s and PhD-level studies. This Handbook serves as a valuable edition for university libraries across the world and an essential read for many faculty, undergraduate and postgraduate students, educators, and policymakers.

With the exponential growth of English-Medium Instruction (EMI) provision in higher education, which is rapidly outpacing empirical research, this book outlines approaches to EMI in a range of regional contexts to exemplify different interpretations of implementing EMI policy in higher education. The book provides an in-depth understanding of evolving interpretations, challenges and current policies on a global level, through the exploration of case studies from Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Nepal, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey and Vietnam. The case studies, which outline how EMI policy is implemented, are presented in three sections, at the national, institutional and classroom levels (macro, meso, and micro), using a variety of research tools, including policy analysis, stakeholders' conceptualisations of EMI, observations of EMI in practice and context analysis

Offering insights into the current and projected future state of the education system in Vietnam, this edited volume is an authoritative sourcebook for scholars, policy analysts, academic staff, and students. Vietnam is well on its way to joining the dress circle of high-achieving education nations in Asia. International surveys of the academic aptitude and ability of the nation’s youth consistently place it well above relevant regional and global averages. This accomplishment is remarkable for a country with a gross domestic product per capita of only US$2,785 in 2020. The dynamics of Vietnam’s national education system are comprehensively documented in the book. Each of the country’s education sectors is critically appraised as well as the culture of education in Vietnam. Specific issues concerning funding and equity, quality and accreditation, the teaching of curriculum areas, the internationalisation of the system, and the provision of educational opportunities for young people with disabilities are carefully analysed against a background of relevant global trends. With contributions from well-established and highly respected local experts with high aspirations for the future development of the national education system in Vietnam, this book will be a must-read for academics and students of Southeast Asian studies and comparative education.