VietNamNet Bridge – The economic crisis has changed the overseas study plans of many Vietnamese students. They are now going to study in Australia instead of the US as previously planned.

The economic crisis has changed the overseas study plans of many Vietnamese students

Meanwhile, general consulates and foreign education agencies in HCM City believe that the visas granted for students to go aboard for studying remains the same.

Overseas study consultancy firms have less clients

Since the beginning of the year, Tan Dai Duong Overseas Study Consultancy Company in district 1, HCM City has received two calls seeking information about overseas study opportunities.

Nguyen Song My Anh, Marketing Director of the company, said that the number of students has decreased by 50% since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, there have been more calls from students from provinces seeking information about overseas working opportunities.

“Previously, families could send their children abroad for overseas study with the money they got from real estate investment or securities investments. However, their plans have changed,” Anh said.

Saigontourist’s overseas study consultancy centre has also reported sharp decrease of 50% of its students-clients.

Education experts all said that the economic slowdown in 2008 has badly affected the overseas study market.

The director of an overseas study consultancy firm said that big markets like the US, UK and the Netherlands have dropped drastically with no clients since February. The director has attributed the sharp fall of the market to the increases of the dollar, pound and euro values. He has heard that many students, 2^nd year or 3^rd year students in the UK, are having to return to Vietnam, as they do not have enough money to continue studying in the country.

The stream flow changes direction?

The last two months of 2008 and the first two months of 2009 witnessed the debut of a series of foreign universities and the meetings for overseas study promotion organized by the US, UK and Australian education agencies.

The new Assistant to the US Secretary of State Janice L. Jacobs affirmed on February 10 that the granting of visas to Vietnamese students to study in the US will continue to be a priority of the country. Prior to that, the workshop on Vietnam-US higher education was held on January 15-16 with the participation of nearly 120 colleges and universities.

Since the beginning of the year, overseas study firms’ websites have been full of information about the study conditions at famous universities in the US, including Harvard, Princeton and Yale, and the universities in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Netherlands. Many universities offer attractive study conditions, including tuition preferences, scholarship, air tickets or laptops

Australia seems to have been successful in taking full advantages of the economic crisis to attract Vietnamese students to the country. The country has offered very attractive preferences, for example, allowing graduates to stay working in the country, while they have the opportunity to get permission to settle there. Vocational schools in Australia are trying to attract students from Asia. One of the factors that may encourage Vietnamese students to study in Australia is the decrease of the AUD against the VND. Besides, it is easier to get visas to Australia than to the US or UK.

It is too early to say that the flow of Vietnamese students is shifting to the Asia Pacific (Singapore and Australia). However, the Australian International Education Promotion Agency in HCM City said that the number of Vietnamese students going to the country has been increasing drastically from 9,600 in 2007 to 15,900 in 2008.

VietNamNet/SGTT