Week 7: Vietnam (Julian Merino)

Expansion of a country’s image often crosses foreign borders, education being one of those vehicles. Transnational education, or the operation of education in overseas boundaries, has begun to see western educational influences. This has sparked some debate if transnational education maintains the quality of higher education in the new country. In “Issues in Transnational Higher Education Regulation in Vietnam,” George Nguyen and Anna Shillabeer describe how the government plays a lack of administration in ensuring quality education for the students. Transnational education comes in the form of people, program, and institution mobility-based education where the students, curriculum, or the entire campus moves international borders depending on the feasibility of regulations.

In the context of National Aesthetic, having an education that can be applied globally markets international opportunities and possibilities. Having a worldly view on a certain topic other than the one from your home country can give one an advantage when getting a job. Investing their efforts in transnational education can give the Vietnamese people a presence of global knowledge over their competitors. Some obstacles with this idea is language and regulations. To educate the students they need to employ bilingual teachers, but has proven a less effective proposition. Also with regulation of this education, Vietnam needs to ensure that whom is benefiting is their people and not just the foreign country’s profit. Having laws of a three year residency in the new country, or having legal status in the home country, serves some assistance in the endeavor, but the overlapping government control leaves some gaps. This in turn hurts the students.

What interests me now is that most students overseas learn English to get by in transnational education but why doesn’t the United States put more effort into doing that with our students? Is it because we view the quality of education superior and do not need foreign educators telling us what we already know?

Works Cited:

Nguyen, George, and Anna Shillabeer. Issues in Transnational Higher Education Regulation in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City: RMIT International Vietnam, 2013. Print.