VietnamNetherlands Higher Education project eNewsletter

It is now a general fact that Vietnams rapid e c o n o m i c d e v e l o p m e n t i s g e n e r a t i n g unprecedented job opportunities for HE graduates which cannot be fulfilled in many professional fields. One of the numerous examples is the case of the Urban Management sector. As many, it faces a human resources shortage and has put the Faculty of Urban Management under big pressure to double 1 its number of students this year. Although Vietnam experienced a strong growth in higher education since 1990 (reaching 1,300,000 student enrolments in universities nationwide in 2007 compared to only 150,000 in 1990), this number lies still below the HE

Issue 4 April 08

Vietnam-Netherlands Higher Education project e-Newsletter

In this issue:

Editorial

1 Progress calendar

2 Profed study Trip

3 Zoom on Profqim

4.What's coming up next?

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2 4 11 14 16

It is now a general fact that Vietnam's rapid

e c o n o m i c d e v e l o p m e n t i s g e n e r a t i n g

unprecedented job opportunities for HE graduates

which cannot be fulfilled in many professional fields

One of the numerous examples is the case of the

Urban Management sector As many, it faces a

human resources shortage and has put the Faculty

of Urban Management under big pressure to double

1

its number of students this year *

Although Vietnam experienced a strong growth in

higher education since 1990 (reaching 1,300,000

student enrolments in universities nationwide in

2007 compared to only 150,000 in 1990), this

number lies still below the HE

enrolment coverage of other

countries in the ASEAN region

The problem is that the number

and quality of teachers has

remained almost unchanged in

this last 20 years and this fact

clearly demonstrates the limited

capacity of the Vietnamese

universities The government is

willing to change this trend It has

priorities to threefold HE student

enrolments by the year 2020,

while drastically raising the quality

of Vietnamese HE graduates to

provide the economy with the human resources it

needs

However, these two goals may appear

contradictory: it is commonly understood that a

qualitative higher education system requires

personal learning as well as interaction between

students and teachers, this being incompatible with

a massive growth in student's numbers (the

so-called 'massification' of HE) In such a context, how

to address the ambitious challenge of Vietnamese

government to combine 'massification' and quality

of HE nationally?

“This issue is relevant to almost all countries in the

world, also to The Netherlands” says Dutch Profqim

consultant Linda de Mol “It's almost inevitable that

an increase of enrolment in HE without (a lot of)

extra financial means will result in a lower quality of

both the educational processes and the graduates

(…) it is only realistic and feasible if the budget for

perspective, Alan Gilbert, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester states in

2

one of his articles* “Without a better per-capita

funding or some radical new solution to the challenge of re-personalizing higher learning, UK

HE may not be able to continue producing educated citizen and knowledge professionals the country needs.” He also refers to a report published 10

years ago by Sir Ron Dearing, recognizing that a

“radical change in attitude and approaches to HE in UK” was needed and that “teaching in traditional ways with diminishing resources is simply not a viable long-term strategy.”

Considering these statements, what adequate change and long term strategy does Vietnam need

in order to obtain both more and higher quality graduates?

1 A c t i v a t i n g s t u d e n t s ' motivation to lower the drop-outs and increasing the quality

The first initiative is to ensure the motivation of the students throughout the process (starting at the selection phase) By doing so,

t h e n u m b e r o f d r o p s - o u t s (students who do not graduate) would automatically reduce, and thus the number of graduates would rise Moreover, motivation plays a major role in enhancing the quality of the graduates Motivation can be activated through many ways, starting with:

a Leading the student to the right choice of study

A survey carried out by the Career Consultancy Center revealed that more than 50 percent of students in many universities in Vietnam are not

3

interested in their field of study.* One of the reason

is the lack of pertinent information available from universities to help the future students in their decision process Recently, education and career orientation fairs have been organized to start solving this issue, such as the first “Youth and Employment Fair” held in Hanoi on March 18 and 19

2008

a Investing in new teaching methodologies

A new challenge:

Ensuring Quality and 'Massification' of the Vietnamese HE system

Mol, the Vietnamese government should invest in

modern teaching methods (aiming at developing

both practical and soft skills of the students) in order

to make its HE policy initiative realistic Such

modern teaching methods emphasize the student

motivation through small groups' projects and are

not compatible with the current high

staff-to-students ratio This ratio has never been so high in

Vietnam (beyond 30:1) and keeps widening with the

acceptance of part-time (so-called “in-service”)

courses proposed to working people seeking

promotion and higher salary According to the

Ministry's statistics, many teachers are now

responsible for 70 to 80 students and have to skip

part of their study programs to face the study needs

4

of this increasing number * According to Dr Kim

Dung Nguyen, (Vice - Director General of The

Institute for Educational Research at HCMC

University of Pedagogy and Profqim consultant),

such large classes; the noise and disturbance it

creates; the furniture that cannot be moved; the

lecturers who teach as they were taught; and the

standardized tests are currently almost excluding all

possibilities to use any interactive teaching

techniques

a

driven way

Unlike students from internationally-recognized

institutions, students from Vietnamese universities

do not always have possibilities to develop their soft

and professional skills The heavy theoretical

knowledge and study workload do not reflect the

concrete needs of the society Therefore it is now

high on the Vietnamese government's HE Reform

Agenda to build new profession-oriented curricula

It has been partly initiated through the

Vietnam-Netherlands HE Profed project since 2005 The first

step of this project was to define graduate's profiles

and competencies based on the indications from

the World of Work (= labor market) Doing so, new

study programs have been built in a way students

could envision their future profession from the first

semester and get more motivation from the start

onwards According to Alan Gilbert, it is judicious to

clarify the learning environments and especially the

learning outcomes to which the HE institutions

would put enhanced educational resources before

discussing funding arrangements themselves In

Rebuilding curricula in a (relevant)

demand-the case of demand-the UK, he strongly advises to pursue a

“radical strategy in rebuilding curricula, not

incrementally but around deep understanding of the multifaceted purposes of learning.”

2 Never lowering the requirement for new students

Three folding the amount of new students is only acceptable when the requirements to new students aren't lowered (both in motivation and level of testing) Again, this challenge also faces world-class Higher Education institution as stated by Alan

Gibert “(with the 'massification' of HE) the university

must not only manage very large number of students, but also the broader spectrum of students' ability and motivation In the UK 'The overall quality of admissions” has been inevitably diluted in the process.” For financial reasons, between 1990

and 2006, the Vietnamese HE system has accepted

5

more “non-mainstream” students* (those with lower university entrance score) without realizing the effect it would have on other students and professors More disturbing, 200 out of 357 universities and colleges have part-time (or in-service) students, accepted with much lower entrance points than officially requested According

4

to the statistics of MoET* , they represent in total 834,000 individuals: more than 50% of the total number of students

3 Keeping the students fees affordable for the masses

As stated before, “considerable” funding is a prerequisite to meet the Vietnamese government

HE goals Vietnamese government is currently revising its tuition policy and will raise the tuition fees considering that the last scheme set about 10

6

years ago is no longer suitable* According to Dutch Profqim expert Linda De Mol, raising the fees too high (for instance double or threefold) would obstruct the accessibility of HE in Vietnam, especially for people from poor families or remote areas Scholarships for those students would cost a lot of money So it is in the interest of Vietnam to keep the fees at an acceptable rate and only raise it

by a small amount each year

More solutions are suggested in the "Zoom on Profqim" section P.14.

*1) Article “Urban management lacks key personnel”, Vietnam News Agency, dated 11-04-2008

*2) Article “Our overloaded system needs radical revision to cater for the masses”, Gilbert Alan, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester

dated 28-02-2008

*3) Article “Students shouldn't rush into programmes”, Vietnam News Agency,dated 25-03-2008

*4) Article “Part-time education comes up short”, Vietnam News Agency,dated 10-04-2008

*5) Article “Higher education revamp call”, Thanh Nien News, dated 01-02-2008

*6) Article “New tuition-fee policy goes to Government”, Vietnam News Agency,dated 21-03-2008

MARCH HIGHLIGHTS

1.1 Profed consortium on Teaching Methodology

The first session of the POHE consortium on

“Teaching Methodology and Skills Training” was

conducted in Hanoi from March 25-27 by three

experts:

Ms Pham Thi Thuy Chi, Director of

Transformation and Change Management

Consulting Co., Ltd and trainer/ consultant in

institutional development, management skills

and training of trainers;

Ms Pui Yee (MSc), Senior trainer/consultant

in management skills, human resources

development and organisational development

at MDF Indochina

Mr Pieter Bon (MSc), Director of Business

School & Director of Governance School,

Fontys University of Applied Science, The

Netherlands

This “Training of Trainers” (ToT) consortium is the

starting point of a long educational process that will

be initiated at each pilot-university, first within each

pilot-team level and later on to a broader academic

audience The main reason is to ensure the

sustainability of the POHE curricula after the end of

the project (2009) through understanding and

acceptance of this new challenging POHE concept

and related modern and interactive teaching

methodologies

Subsequently, the overall goal of the two-tired ToT

consortium sessions is to provide key POHE

lecturers from the 8 pilot universities with the

necessary knowledge and skills to improve their

personal effectiveness in:

Facilitating POHE teaching methodology

(Training session 1)

Self implementing ToT trainings for POHE

lecturers at the 8 individual pilot POHE

universities (Training session 2 planned for June

2008)

æ

æ

MARCH HIGHLIGHTS

The participants commonly agreed on 4 key

learning methods to be covered in this first session

as stated below:

The interactive environment of this 3 days workshop

leaded the participants to:

Have insights in the key qualifications of

Profession Oriented Higher Education

Know how to apply the principles of adult

learning and learner oriented approach

Realize the different roles of a lecturer

(facilitator, expert, organizer of learning

process)

Be able to choose and use interactive

teaching methods

Know how to create a learner oriented

environment

Have practiced various approaches for

facilitating discussions and teaching

1.How to manage the involvement of the

students in group work?

2.How to organize effective project-based

learning?

3.How to encourage students to be active?

4.How to organize effective case studies

2

2

2

2

2

2

1) During the workshop on 'POHE Teaching Methodologies' you introduced very attractive ways of motivating students Could you give us any suggestion on how to transfer these modern methodologies in the Vietnamese context? What would be the most relevant method to apply first?

2) With your company T&C Consulting Co., you have been very much involved

in the private sector Is this experience comparable with the one in Higher Education? What can the Higher Education system learn from the private sector experience and vice-versa?

3) What were your feelings on last March workshop?

This is a very difficult question, I must say As a trainer, I appreciate the creativeness in designing training and selecting the appropriate methods Selecting the appropriate methods depend very much on the set objectives, the content of each learning session (and the size of class as well ) It is hard to say which method is most relevant without knowing the objectives/contents However, I do believe that for Vietnamese students, who are not strong in team-work, the team-assignments are strongly recommended This method enables the student to practice different interpersonal skills such as negotiation, meeting, conflict management, presentation, summarization, collaboration The team-assignment can be in form of a case-study; or "doing a real-life case analysis", etc

The advantage of conducting training sessions for the private sector is the high level

of customization In the private sector, trainings are designed to help solve specific problems/issues that the enterprises are facing The trainees are strongly self-directed in learning Training outputs/outcomes in private sector are measurable since it helps improve the employee's performance Therefore it is motivating the people involved

In a broad sense, the Higher Education System should operate as the "training department" of a “Business” (in this case business is understood as “the Society”) This department has to organize its training activities based on the "Business" - the Society long-term objectives and needs and taking into serious consideration the current competences (knowledge, skills and attitudes) of its "employees" - the students

I did like the atmosphere of the training which was created by the active participation

of the trainees I would like to prepare some more reference materials (regarding case-studies, team-assignment, and other trainers' guidance materials ) I saw the participants were interested in these methods because they are relatively easy to apply The provided reference materials during the training were of a very good quality but with relatively little guidance or examples which were customized for university-lecturers (particularly for those in Vietnam)

MARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Word of consultant Ms Pham Thi Thuy Chi

Ms Pham Thi Thuy Chi is Director of Transformation and Change Management Consulting Co., Ltd and trainer/ consultant in institutional development, management skills and training of trainers.

MARCH - APRIL HIGHLIGHTS

1.2 Profed Expert mission in Thai Nguyen University on Education

TNUE Profed team already signed a protocol on

traineeship organization with their World of Work

(WoW) Schools Network which was kick-started in

2007 During this April mission, a “trainee coaching

workshop” was organized to assist the school

teachers involved in this Schools Network The

World of Work Schools Network is now composed

of 4 lower-secondary and 4 upper-secondary

schools in the North Eastern area of Vietnam

With the cooperation of the Dutch experts from

NHL University and their own Dutch World of Work

Network of Schools in The Netherlands, the Profed

team added an international dimension to their

already existing network The “International School

Network” will provide mutual benefits for the

university and the Vietnamese and Dutch schools

involved Through this network the pupils from both

countries will get a chance to know one-another

using modern communication tools on topics of

interest, such as history, culture and life in general

These exchanges, carried out exclusively in

English, will develop the interest in the foreign

language from a very young age In addition it will

be used as a platform for school teaching staff to

exchange professional ideas In the long run exchanges of school's staff and pupils in the

“International Schools

N e t w o r k ” w i l l a l s o considered as an option

So far, cooperation

a g r e e m e n t s w e r e officially signed with Doc Lap lower- secondary school; Chu Van An upper-secondary school and Langson's Vinhtrai

l o w e r - s e c o n d a r y school

From March 31 to April 10, the expert team from NHL University (Mr Jaap Jongejan, Mr Ron Barendsen and Ms.Roelien Bos-Wierda) visited the Profed team of Thai Nguyen University

of Education (TNUE) Apart from reviewing the first 2 years of the curriculum and working on the developments of year 3 and 4, two specific initiatives have been undertaken to expand the results of the project even further

1.2.1 International School Network kick-off

MARCH - APRIL HIGHLIGHTS

On Thursday April 3, the Profed team was warmly

received in Haiphong University- FLF (Faculty of

Foreign languages) firstly, to share as English

teacher training colleagues the Profed

experiences and lessons learned so far; and

secondly, to establish a partnership in POHE

teacher training focusing on the new teaching

methodologies related to the POHE concept The

workshop was mainly focused on the use of

specific POHE student projects as an interesting

tool to introduce more interactive teacher and

student practices within the set (core) curriculum

More specifically, it has been agreed to develop

and implement at the FLF of Haiphong University

the two following students projects: “Magazine”

project and “Study Trip” project which were already

successfully implemented during the last year(s) at

TNUE These student projects will allow the

students to become more involved and active

participants of their own learning process The two

student projects will be piloted and will not interfere

with the currently run core curriculum at Haiphong

university

1.2.2 POHE teaching methodology sharing with Hai Phong University

MARCH - APRIL HIGHLIGHTS

1.2.3 Introduction to the e-Portfolio

Part on the mission was also dedicated to

capacity building The Profed teachers of

Thai Nguyen University of Education have

been introduced and trained on the

e-Portfolio tool

The e-Portfolio is a personal digital collection

of information describing and illustrating a

student's learning, career, experience and

achievements E-Portfolios are privately

owned by the student and the student has

complete control over who has access to

what and when

Three kinds of e-Portifolios are usually distinguished:

This e-Portfolio forms the basis for discussion between student and mentor It may include CV, personal data, the student's professional view and examples demonstrating this professional view, etc

This e-Portfolio can be used as a monitoring and tutoring tool in which the students show his/her developments to the tutor In this case, the student

is responsible for collecting evidences reflecting best his/her competencies For instance, the student is requested to provide evidences reflecting their “International competencies”;

“organizational competencies”, etc

As the name indicates, this e-Portfolio reflects what the student is proud of

Personal Development Planning (PDP) e-Portfolio

Assessment e-Portfolio

Show case e-Portfolio

1

2

3

On April 10, the NEU Profed team hosted a meeting to introduce the complete POHE study program and competence matrix in “Travel Management”, finalized with the assistance of Dutch expert Frits Plantinga Participants from NEU Board of Management, NEU POHE lecturers, members from the World of Work Committee, and NEU departments representatives (such as Registrar Office Department, Bursar's Department, Facility Department, etc.); discussed about the optimization of the study program implementation and the smooth coordination of all stakeholders at NEU and beyond

Two points received particular attention:

APRIL HIGHLIGHTS APRIL HIGHLIGHTS

1.3 Progress at NEU - Faculty of Tourism and hospitality

NEU should consider creating an “Educational

Support Center” to facilitate the teachers'

transition towards competences-based,

profession oriented, and a student-centred

curriculum

This center is proposed to be run by Vietnamese

educational experts, who would be supportive

to teachers (and students) in quest for specific

advice, knowledge and-or materials such as

POHE guidelines, students and teachers

handbook, etc

NEU lecturers need to become flexible and more creative in allocating the teaching time, number of students by classroom and students workload Currently the number of traditional

“inside classroom” hours per week are too high (30h/week whereas international standards are only 15h/w)

By splitting the classrooms into groups, it would alternate the “inside classroom” time of the student; give more room to the lecturer for innovative POHE teaching formats like seminars, workshops, Problem Based Learning sessions, case-studies, practical training, simulations, small workgroup learning, mini- projects, etc Last, but not least, it would invite the students perform stimulating homework outside the classroom the rest of the time

Without strategic decisions in organizing the classrooms and the “inside classroom hours”, it will be impossible to properly implement POHE teaching methods at NEU