Keywords: Transnational education; borderless education; internationalisation.

1. Introduction

Vietnam has a population of over 83 million. About 65% of its population is under the age of 30 years. The birth rate remains steady at 2% per annum. With a young population, the country has a strong demand for training and education (Le and Ashwill, 2004). Primary education has been the focus for improvement for a number of years. However, with the flow-through of students into the secondary school system, there is a strong demand for higher education and training. A number of private sector education providers have emerged to fill this demand.

During the Second Regional Seminar on Private Higher Education held in Bangkok, a number of problems were identified with private sector education in Vietnam. The inadequate legislative framework governing higher education in Vietnam contributes to the confusion and inconsistencies in the operation of private higher education providers.

Between 2004 and 2005, the number of students in the public education sector increased by 5.2% and in the Private education increased by 17% (source: General Statistics Office of Vietnam).

In relation to the number of people in the relevant age group, however, only 10% of that group participate in higher education (Hayden and Lam, 2006). This highlights the potential for a greater demand for higher education, if the issue of accessibility is addressed.

With the increase in the number of students seeking higher education, private providers and foreign universities are starting to deliver programs through both on-shore presence and distance delivery models, alongside the existing non-public providers. In 2003, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Techonology (Australia) was the first foreign-owned university to establish a campus in Vietnam.

There are a number of benefits to be gained from the introduction of transnational education. Firstly, there is an increase in access to higher education as a result of foreign providers. Secondly, the programs offered by foreign providers are usually at significantly lower costs than if the students were to study abroad. Thirdly, access to education for part-time and mature age students, through external and online delivery models from foreign providers, is made possible.

There is, however, a downside to foreign providers operating in developing countries. Foreign providers can be economically motivated and may look at developing countries as a good source of revenue. Foreign universities may also not address the training needs of the host country, but provide cost-effective programs like accounting, management and marketing. Usually with foreign providers, developing the research culture within the host country is not a priority.

In developing countries, the tendency is to give funding priority to the primary and secondary education sector. The higher education sector is usually poorly funded and often has to rely on commercialisation. This puts pressure on the higher education sector to embark on revenue-generating activities. (see Ramphele and Rosovsky, 2000).

2. Transnational education

The UNESCO definition of transnational education (TNE) is “all types of higher education study programmes or sets of courses of study or educational services (including those of distance education) in which the learners are located in a country different from the one where the awarding institution is based”. As it falls outside the official higher education system within a country, it is also often referred to as non-official higher education.

The forms of TNE include franchising, program articulation, branch campus, offshore institutions, large corporations, international institutions and distant learning (Vignoli, 2004).

One of the main issues with TNE is the difficulty to harmonize the different systems of education and to build frameworks for consistent policy across borders. This can lead to institutions that are not accredited in the source country to set up operations in a host country.

There are also issues related to quality of the award conferred by such transnational ventures. Consistency and equivalency should be the primary concern of the host countries.

3. Theoretical and practical issues

a. Feasibility and sustainability

Although profit should not be the primary motive for provision of transnational education, foreign universities can underestimate the cost of such activities. In recent times, a number of Australian universities have adopted a consolidation policy, retracting from a number of transnational projects due to financial distress. The lack of proper financial modelling and proper student number forecasting, and the failure to cost activities appropriately have been some of the reasons. The recent withdrawal of the University of New South Wales from Singapore is a good example of a failure to rigorously examine the financial viability of a joint venture. It is also important to bear in mind that some of the programs and course will have a natural life-cycle; hence, it is important plan for the sustainability of the transnational activity in light of changing market demands.

b. Capacity building in the host countries

It is also important that the host country embarks on transnational education with a view to building its own capacity in terms of delivering the program and training appropriate academics. One of the criticisms of transnational education is that it stifles local universities into running programs that have low delivery cost and this creates is a clear divide between the local curriculum and the international curricula.

c. Address the training needs of the nation

Another criticism of both transnational education and the globalisation of education is that education is regarded as a commercial product and thus, the competitive nature of the market often dictates the nature of the program. It is important for a university from a developing country to look beyond the economics of education to address the training needs of the country and to have a long term vision for the development of its people.

d. Encourage research and development

In a number of transnational education collaborations, the research aspect of the collaboration is the last to flourish. Despite the understandable complications with research collaborations, it is important that the research agenda is an upfront and integral part of the collaboration. Teaching informed by research is powerful.

e. Relevant and informed curriculum

With the pressure to deliver low cost and low maintenance courses, the relevance of the curriculum is sometimes overlooked. Foreign curriculum needs to be adapted to cross-cultural differences and should be local-economy-centric in its references and examples.

f. Quality assurance

It is very important that the transnational collaboration is initiated with reference to a well-defined quality assurance framework. There are many instances of foreign collaborations being suspect in quality. There should be a process to ensure that the activity does not turn into to a diploma factory, with a focus on quantity and not quality.

g. Risk and reputation

For a premier institution like the Vietnam National University, reputation risk should be of great concern. A formal risk assessment process should be implemented so that risks related to the transnational activity are identified and addressed. It is also important that VNU assesses the risk related to the legal status of the providing institution and the quality of the curricula. The non-public higher education sector needs to operate under a proper legal framework, the lack of which could lead to fraudulent and non-accredited operators in the marketplace. An example of this is the Taiwan Asian International University was established in 1995 in collaboration with the Hanoi University of Foreign Languages. It left more than 2,000 students stranded after losing a large sum of money.

4. Quality

The transparency, recognition and accreditation of the transnational education collaboration is critical when ensuring sustainability.. Quality assurance should involve all stakeholders (Adam, 2000). The framework should be benchmarked against best practice and assessed in a regular fashion.

The UNESCO/Council of Europe Code of Good Practice in the Provision Transnational Education and the Australian Government’s Transnational Quality Strategy are two sound frameworks that can be adopted.

The Australian Transnational Quality Strategy is based on the following four principals:

1. Ensure that Australia’s quality assurance framework is well-understood and well-regarded within Australia and internationally.

2. Make clear to providers and consumers the accountabilities in offshore education and training.

3. Ensure that accreditation and audit functions are undertaken transparently.

4. Ensure equivalence between courses/programs offered within Australia and offshore.

(see A national quality strategy for Australian transnational education and training. Australian Government, Discussion Paper, 2005)

The principles underlying the framework will ensure good practice and protect the reputation of the source country.

6. Conclusion

In 1986, Vietnam began a period of ‘Doi moi’ or renovation, which involved a shift from a centrally-planned economy to a more market-oriented economy. The education sector in Vietnam was impacted adversely by the pace of this shift, and as a result, there followed a decline in the quality of education at all levels being one of the effects of this shift (Nyugen, 2006). To address the deterioration of education in Vietnam, the Educational Development Strategies for 2001-2010 was developed. The aim of the strategy was to create both a unified and a diversified education system that would provide suitably trained workforce for all sectors of the economy. Vietnam National University has a challenging and exciting role to play in achieving the goals of this strategy.

Transnational education is an important aspect of education in a global environment and cannot be ignored. Along with the numerous benefits, there remain a number of pitfalls of which we need to be wary. With a well-defined framework for transnational education, it is possible to harness the opportunities to enhance the higher education sector in Vietnam.

References

Adam, S. (2001). Transnational education project report and recommendations. Confederation of European Union Rectors" Conferences

Council of Europe/UNESCO. (2000). Code of good practice in the provision of transnational education. Council of Europe/UNESCO.

Department of Education, Science and Training. (2005). A national quality strategy for Australian transnational education and training. Australian Government, Discussion Paper.

Hayden, M., and Lam, G. (2006). A 2020 vision for higher education in Vietnam. International Higher Education, 44.

Le, N. M., and Ashwill, M. A. (2004). A look at nonpublic higher education in Vietnam, International Higher Education, 36.

Nguyen, L. (2006). Vietnam"s education in the transitional period.. National Institute of Education Strategy and Curriculum, Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.

Ramphele, M., and Rosovsky, H. (2000). New report on higher education in developing countries: educated people are no luxury, they"re essential, International Higher Education, 20.

Reid, A., and Loxton, J. (2004). Internationalisation as a way of thinking about curriculum development and quality. Proceedings of the Australian Universities Quality Forum.

Vignoli, G. (2004). What is transnational education? http://www.cimea.it/servlets/resources?contentId=2831&resourceName=Inserisci%20allegato.