VietNamNet Bridge – The Asia-Pacific Quality Network and the Ministry of Education and Training is co-organizing an annual conference in Hanoi on March 4-5 to discuss balance between national needs and international aspirations in assuring higher education quality.

The event has attracted 300 delegates, including 50 international guests from 30 countries and territories and 150 leaders of colleges and universities in Vietnam.

“Internationalization and globalization have required the tertiary education system in each country to become highly competitive and set its sights on new heights,” Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Education Banh Tien Long said at the conference.

“Education cooperation must be expanded between universities, between universities and high schools, and between educational establishments and enterprises,” Mr Long said, adding that a new trend for education in the world is to provide training to meet social demands.

Delegates to the conference are to discuss several topics such as establishing and strengthening systems of institutional quality assurance, networks of national and regional quality assurance, transnational quality assurance, and a strategy for ensuring education quality in small countries.

Vietnam now has 110 universities and colleges with units specialized in quality assurance, led by the Hanoi National University, the Ho Chi Minh City National University, and Danang University.

The country plans to have 80 percent of its universities and colleges assessed by quality assurance agencies by 2010.

VietNamNet/VOV