The strong leadership of key staff in universities helps the process of learning and internationalization of education keep going on without disruption.
This information is shared by Deputy Minister of Education and Training – Hoang Minh Son at the conference University Leadership and Governance – Navigating the Course through Major HE Disruption co-ordinated by the British Council and Global Wales with universities in the UK–Vietnam Higher Education Partnership (UK–VN HEP) held on 23 October 2020.
According to Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son, the educational context in Vietnam has changed significantly in recent years. Globalisation and internationalisation play a role in stimulating the transformation of both the scope and scale of higher education. However, for nearly a year, the world has been influenced by Covid-19, which also requires us to have comprehensive knowledge of leadership in order to be able to adapt quickly and effectively, maintain and develop higher education institutions.
According to speakers from Vietnam, the United Kingdom and Myanmar during the conference, Covid-19 pandemic has challenged teaching and learning management of universities, especially online learning; preparing staff, changing teaching and learning environment to fit with future training programs.
In Vietnam, despite the influence of Covid-19, some universities responded flexibly and quickly by organizing online learning activities, which allowed students to continue their study program.
In foreign language teaching institutions, such as British Council, Ms. Donna McGowan, Director of British Council in Vietnam said: 'Covid-19 does not prevent people from working together. We still maintain organizing conferences and networking activities through online platform in order to support the UK–VN HEP program'.
In response to the impact of Covid-19 on the internationalization of higher education, Professor Iwan Davies, Vice Chancellor, Bangor University, Chair of Global Wales shared his experience in leading the university in recent time and the way to find direction for the school, for staff and students in the context of sudden disruption due to the pandemic.
These results are achieved partly due to the training and leadership enhancement activities in the UK–Vietnam Higher Education Partnership (UK–VN HEP) from 2018 till now.
Enhance international cooperation in the context of Covid-19
UK–VN HEP is a partnership program between the Global Wales and five Vietnamese universities. This is one of the programs implemented under the Memorandum of Understanding on the cooperation in education between Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training and the Government of Wales (UK). The MOU includes collaboration at all levels from high school to university and emphasis on student exchanges, collaborative research between universities, and conferences to share experiences in building policy at government and university level.
UK–VN HEP has placed university leadership and governance training as one of the four priorities besides the cooperation between universities and enterprises, cooperation in training and quality assurance, research and transformation.
Running since 2018, this UK–VN HEP program, is a partnership between Global Wales and five Vietnamese universities including Hanoi University of Science and Technology, University of Technology – Vietnam National University, Hanoi; Danang University of Science and Technology – The University of Danang; University of Social Sciences and Humanities Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City and Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City have been supported to carry out a program to develop Vietnamese Higher education leadership in the UK.
From 2018 to now, some of the achievements of this partnership program include successfully organizing a number of leadership and management training courses for leaders, researchers, and experts and lecturers in professional fields in universities in Vietnam and the UK. The courses did receive a positive response. UK–VN HEP also promotes knowledge transfer activities in teaching. In the trend of internationalization, the university education network of the UK and Vietnam is connected and expanded more and more closely.
Representatives of schools said that through UK–VN HEP, members have the chance to learn about leadership skills, share and work together in a number of professional fields, looking for cooperation opportunities. Improving leadership and governance skills helps schools to access new opportunities, adapt quickly to new challenges, including Covid-19.
According to Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son, UK–VN HEP has well met the orientation of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam on impulse leadership, governance for successful university autonomy and supporting Vietnamese universities over the years. Through this conference, Vietnamese universities can learn from good models and valuable experiences from UK partners to adapt to the rapid change of education.
Ms. Donna McGowan, Country Director of British Council, said that British Council is committed to supporting Vietnam in higher education reform program through UK–VN HEP, in which university leadership and governance training is one of four priority areas.
Kim Uyen
