Think TNE: Leveraging UK-Viet Nam transnational education partnerships forum is one of a series of events that celebrate 50 years of UK-Viet Nam diplomatic relations and 30 years of the British Council in Viet Nam.
The forum had full participation from representatives of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, UK Department for Business and Trade, British Embassy Hanoi, British Council in Viet Nam, over 15 UK incoming universities and sectoral bodies, and nearly 200 delegates from Vietnamese universities and international organisations.
UK TNE enrolments witnessed strong growth during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Viet Nam is ranked the fifth largest UK TNE market in East Asia and the third largest in South-East Asia, with the highest enrolments in 2021. The Vietnamese TNE market is small for the UK but it is growing. In Viet Nam, UK TNE is much more popular than UK mobility, and collaboration in TNE requires much nurturing and investment by foreign partners.
UK TNE has supported capacity development in partner countries. The host country perspective emphasises TNE as a mechanism to improve the quality of the domestic Higher Education (HE) system, to improve students’ international outlook, and to contribute to institutional development in multiple ways, including internationalisation, broadening offerings, teaching models and practices, quality assurance practices, English-taught programmes, and research through joint doctoral training.
From the perspective of the Ministry of Education and Training, UK-Viet Nam partnerships in higher education focus on the areas of: (1) research, innnovation, knowledge transfer, research capacity improvement; (2) quality assurance and accreditation, internal quality assurance, and currciculum standards; (3) digital transformation in education, open learning resources, and education technology; and (4) internationalisation and international integration.
The TNE regulatory environment in Viet Nam is favourable and open compared to other countries in East Asia. A piece of in-depth research which we sponsored compares the regulatory environment in Viet Nam against a peer group of seven countries, including China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and South Korea, identifying opportunities and limitations for Viet Nam in its efforts to attract foreign education institutions. It also provides recommendations for creating a more competitive environment for TNE, improving Viet Nam’s competitiveness in attracting TNE activities, and enhancing the quality of TNE delivery in Viet Nam.
