Week 9: Leslie Do

Leslie Do
ASA 189F, Dr. Valverde
27th February 2016

Transnational Solutions to Viet Nam's Brain Drain

Internet and multinational telecommunications in the Global Age can act as catalysts to overcome Viet Nam's current brain drain, because Vietnamese post-graduates who decided to remain in their host country can use the internet to create transnational, third spaces of developing Viet Nam's economy; these transnational spaces (such as online businesses) evolves the national aesthetics partnership of Viet Nam's people, government, and industry. To provide background and context to Viet Nam's brain drain issue, Gribble (2011) states that Viet Nam is experiencing a higher education crisis both on the macro-level and the international-level, because over a million, highly educated K-12 Vietnamese students are competing for only 300,000 seats in Viet Nam's universities; therefore, most Vietnamese students (who can't secure a seat) must pursue their bachelor's degree abroad (Gribble, 292, 2011.) Yet, even policies that allow Vietnamese students to pursue higher education overseas leads to consecutive issues; for instance, Viet Nam's government funds Vietnamese international students' higher education in their host countries with the expectation that they will return to Viet Nam to develop the nation's economy by applying their overseas training to resolve their home country's economic development issues, to rectify Viet Nam's national aesthetic, and to bolster Viet Nam's diplomatic relationships with their host countries. Unfortunately, contradicting this prediction and expectation, the fact that Vietnamese international students' to become naturalized citizens in their host countries results in growing trends of Viet Nam's brain drain (Gribble, 291--295, 2011.)

However, in the age of exchanging and circulating cutting-edge information and research through global telecomunications between nations, Viet Nam can tackling the brain drain and achieve a consistent, steady, and progressing development of its national aesthetic through utilizing the transnational relationships of Vietnamese international students in their host countries. Viet Nam can also overcome its brain drain problem by discarding the assumption that overseas students have to return to Viet Nam after obtaining their foreign degree in order for Viet Nam's economic development to prosper and progress. For instance, as Dr. Valverde stated during her last lecture, Vietnamese overseas students and post-graduates don't have to be physically present in Viet Nam (at all times) to advance the nation's economic development; overseas Vietnamese post-doctorates can now contribute to Viet Nam's economy by staying in their host country and developing Viet Nam's economic projects through the internet (ie: conducting video-chat meetings with top Vietnamese governmental officials.) Moreover,  Vietnamese post-doctorates and post-graduates can use profits from from their online multinational, foreign businesses to fund Viet Nam's economic development projects; creating a new national image partnership between people (Vietnamese international students in their host country,) government, and industries, this type of funding can be seen as remittances to the Vietnamese government and industries.

Therefore, considering Viet Nam Pham Quang Vinh's visit to UC Davis last quarter and the current development of the Center for New Viet Nam Studies, how will the center develop other creative, alternative solutions that overcome Viet Nam's project during through its symposium next year? How will Ambassador Vinh's potential role for the center also contribute to the creation of these solutions (Tran, 2015; Tran, 2015.)

Ambassador Pham Quang Vinh at UC Davis 10.20.15
Video Credit: Professor Hamamoto

Bibliography 

Gribble, Cate. "National policies on skilled labour and the cross-border student market, with a focus on Vietnam." Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific. Springer Netherlands, 2011. 291-307.

Tran, Viet. "Vietnam Ambassador Visits UC Davis." The Aggie. ASUCD, 4 Dec. 2015. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

Tran, Viet. "UC Davis Expects to Launch Center for New Viet Nam Studies by 2018." The Aggie. ASUCD, 4 Dec. 2015. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.