Vietnam aims to draw foreign students hinh anh 1Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga spoke to the newspaper Kinh te & Do Thi (Urban & Economic Affairs) about Vietnam’s efforts to attract foreign students.

According to the Deputy Minister, a t present, there are more than 130,000 Vietnamese students studying abroad versus 20,000 foreign students studying in Vietnam.

As a result of this disparity, the Government has worked out a plan to attract more foreign students to Vietnam, particularly from the ASEAN bloc.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has prepared 34 advanced programmes in some elite universities, including the Viet Duc (Germany-Vietnam), Viet Nhat (Japan-Vietnam), Viet Phap (France-Vietnam) International Universities and the Vietnam Britain Institute for Research and Training. Studies will be conducted in English.

In addition, in mid-May a project of European Union Support for Higher Education in the ASEAN Region was launched to help the movement of students among the ASEAN nations.

The Ministry of Education and Training is in the process of finalising the National Qualification Framework (to make it equivalent to those of other ASEAN member states).

The Deputy Minister said he is confident that when the National Qualification Framework is approved, it will make the student exchanges among ASEAN member states more accessible.

Regarding the teaching quality in Vietnam, Deputy Minister Ga shared the concern that it may not be on par with that in other ASEAN nations. He underlined that for the reason, since 2010 the MOET has focused efforts on improving foreign language teaching programmes in general schools and in tertiary education.

While waiting for the National Qualification Framework to be approved, the MOET has distributed to universities the standards of the European Union as a reference for tertiary education in Vietnam.-VNA
VNA