Vietnam is witnessing a boom in joint training programmes between Vietnamese and foreign universities. However, sometimes not enough is known about foreign partners.

The first joint training programmes kicked off 10 years ago. At that time, only a few state owned top universities dared to carry out joint training programmes. However, the number of joint training programmes have been increasing so rapidly students now struggle to choose between them.

A lecturer at the HCM City University of Technology noted that it is now fashionable to work with foreign universities because they believe cooperation with foreign partners will help them obtain higher rankings among training establishments. That explains why every well know university has 4-5 foreign partners with which they cooperate to provide tens of training options.

Even medium-class universities are seeking foreign partners. The University of Foreign Languages, for example, found a partner within a short time – a lesser known university in Shan Xi in China, with which it cooperated to provide training on Chinese culture

HCM City University of Industry has had tens of classes resulting from international joint training programmes over the last two or three years with partners from Europe, America and Australia.

HCM City University of Education three years ago announced the new enrolment of students for many new training branches with partners from the universities in China and Czech Republic. However the joint training programmes, in no way relate to existing training branches, such as metallurgy and industrial design.

Hoang Anh Tuan, a third year student of the university, noted that the programmes are called “international joint training programmes” just because they involve foreigners - not because they meet international standards.

The only common aspect of joint training programmes is that the tuition is always calculated in foreign currencies.

In fact, there are no rules for defining suitable tuition fees which depend on the reputation of the domestic universities and foreign partners.

Therefore, the fees of joint training programmes are different. Some programmes require as little as $700-1,000 per school year. These are mainly organised by less well known universities from less familiar countries.

Meanwhile, tuition fees of tens thousands of dollars per school year have been set for training programmes with the foreign partners from the US, UK or New Zealand. Tuition fees for programmes with partners from Singapore or Australia can also reach several thousands of dollars.

VietNamNet/TP