UK–VIETNAM HIGHER EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP (UK–VN HEP)

Conference Staying globally relevant and innovative in the changing international higher education landscape – learnings from UK–VN HEP

Introduction

The world is changing and facing significant sustainable development challenges. In response, there is an increasing need for the higher education (HE) sector to play key role in responding to these challenges and contribute to sustainable development of nations by being more relevant and responsive to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This requires research and teaching at universities to engage with local communities so as to identify and provide possible solutions to tackle such challenges at local and global levels. The Internationalisation of HE is one of the ways to ensure that knowledge is exchanged, shared and learnt. In this context, the use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) is a “growing phenomenon” which should enable the exchanges of knowledge and technology.

Locally, the HE reform agenda allows greater autonomy for Vietnamese universities but also requires Vietnamese universities to stay relevant and innovative to respond to the need for institutional development and innovation in teaching and learning as well as enhance graduate employability. The Vietnamese universities are looking for learning and adaption of best practices and contextualised approaches into their institutional development.

The British Council in Vietnam is committed to supporting Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training in its efforts to internationalise teaching, learning, research, science and innovation through the UK–Vietnam Higher Education Partnerships (UK–VN HEP) initiative.

UK–VN HEP was formed to enable and support higher education partnerships between the two countries, focusing on university leadership and governance, university-industry linkages, transnational education (TNE) and quality assurance (QA), research and mobility. 

Between 2018 and 2020, the UK–VN HEP has supported 12 partnership projects with the participation of 17 UK higher education institutions (HEIs), 40 Vietnamese HEIs and 13 organisations and businesses from the two countries which together have formed the UK–Vietnam Higher Education Network.

With a strong focus on these four priority areas, the 12 UK–VN HEP projects have diversified their approaches in delivery from capacity building activities for leaders, researchers, academic and practitioners in professional areas, knowledge transfers in teaching and inspiring students in entrepreneurship education, new ways of research through the “creative lanterns” approach, to building models and tools to measure the effectiveness, impact and sustainability of GUI (Government – University – Industry) partnerships, etc.

This British Council conference is being organised to provide a platform for HE leaders, researchers and practitioners to discuss emerging issues in HE and share successful models, best practices and learnings from the two-year UK–VN HEP with multi-institutional approaches and adaption of a contextualised UK experience and methodologies.

Conference aims

  • To discuss key emerging areas for HE globally and locally in internationalisation of HE (IHE)
  • To sharing preliminary findings for Vietnam from the research on Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Research and Teaching Landscape in Higher Education in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam
  • To share successful case studies in UK–VN HEP projects and models that can be widely used by Vietnamese HEIs
  • To strengthen and expand the UK–Vietnam Higher Education Network
  • To provide opportunities to form partnerships for the new 2020–22 UK–VN HEP call. 

Date, time and venue

  • Time: to be confirmed 
  • Venue: to be confirmed  

Participants

  • Ministry of Education and Training
  • Higher education leaders who are Presidents/Rectors, Vice Presidents/Vice Rectors, Heads of International Relations and Research, Deans/Vice Deans, and UK–VN HEP project coordinators from the UK and Vietnam
  • Businesses
  • UK and regional higher education leaders
  • Regional British Council staff

Participants are responsible for their own travel to attend the event. The British Council will cover the costs to hold the event, which includes the venue and facilities, refreshments and a networking lunch for all participants.

Language

  • The conference will be conducted in English, with the provision of simultaneous translation.

Contact

Chi Nguyen
Programme Manager, Higher Education 
chi.nguyen@britishcouncil.org.vn
T +84 (0)24 3728 1937

Phi Phan
Programme Manager, Higher Education
phi.phan@britishcouncil.org.vn
T +84 (0)28 38232862 (ext. 2500)

Van Tran
Programme Officer, Higher Education
van.tran@britishcouncil.org.vn 
T +84 (0)24 3728 1920 (ext. 1994)