Week 6: Billions of dollars outflow to fund Vietnamese students' overseas study

I am very interested in internationalization topic and would like to share about how internationalization is happening in Vietnamese HE, with a focus on overseas study.

I had a chance to read an article from a Vietnamese online magazine, VietnamNet, and the title immediately caught my eyes: "Billions of US dollars outflows to fund Vietnamese students' overseas study". According to the article, Vietnamese spend billions of US dollars a year to fund their children to study abroad. In 2010-2011, Vietnam had 98,536 students studying abroad while the figure jumped to 106,104 in the 2011-2012 academic year. More and more Vietnamese apply for studying at the schools in the US, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Singapore in which the United States is the world's leading host of Vietnamese students. And, amazingly, Vietnam ranks 8th among all countries sending young people to study in America. It is estimated that Vietnamese spend US$10,000-$15,000 a year on an average at a foreign school (I personally do not think this number is correct, it is much more than that). As such, Vietnamese have to remit at least $1-1.5 billion abroad every year to fund the study courses abroad.

A lot of students, especially the ones in big cities, plan to studying abroad right after they go to high schools. Some of them try to apply for scholarships to lessen the financial burden for their families.  Meanwhile, others would rather go abroad with their own fund than studying at domestic schools. Here are the reasons for the popularity of overseas study:

-       A higher education system faced with formidable challenges

-       A situation in which demand outstrips supply

-       A growing ability to pay

-       The prestige and marketability of a foreign degree

An official from the Ministry of Finance stated that Vietnamese tend to go studying abroad because they believe that they can receive higher education quality, the thing they would not achieve in Vietnam.

According to a survey conducted by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in Vietnam in 2009 to students of IIE-Vietnam, the United States is the first choice destination for overseas study. Below is a summary of their positive and negative perceptions about studying in the US:

·         Scientifically and technologically advanced country

·         Wide range of schools and programs 

·         Excellent higher education system 

·         Fun place to study 

·         Welcomes international students

·        Scholarship opportunities

·         High cost (tuition/cost of living)

·         Difficult or complicated visa procedures

·         Dangerous or violent society

·         Long or complicated school application process

·         Too many cultural differences

Week 5: Golden Rules

One of the golden rule that Tagg proposed was "Do what you want your students to do. Be what you want your students to be". So what we want students to do? Applying the Learning Paradigm rather than the Instructional Paradigm, teaching students a new way  of thinking about what they are doing, changing their perception about schools and their relations, expectations about schools, etc.

If instructors want students to see the academic world with a new lens, they, first of all, must be engaged in the Learning Paradigm. If we want our students to have a deep learning, instructors need to revisit what they are teaching. Students' achievement is the product of what we teach. If we, as teachers, perceive that grading system does not truly assess students' capacity, we must adjust the way we assess students. 

I also would like to address the issue of using standardized test such as TOEFL, IELTS to recruit international students. Administrators in American colleges still rely on standardized tests to evaluate international students, but the skills needed for academic preparation. Literature review also show that there is no clear relationship between the TOEFL score and international students' academic success. And it is advised that college administrators  do not rely only on TOEFL scores as the criterion for admissions. These findings are not new. They have came out since the 1990s. Why do admissions criteria stay the same for the past decades? How can we request students to be engaged in deep learning why HE institutions still stand on the Instruction Paradigm to assess them even before they become our students? In order to pass the test, and improve their test score, international students are taught the skills to get the best scores within a couple of months while their academic performance is not significantly improved. So, we are the ones who set the rules and we want our students play the game differently. Is it fair?

And I do not think it is only the responsibility of instructors. What if the employers still rely on grades to recruit staff? Those with a good CV, good transcripts of course will attract the attention of job hunters than those who don't. I strongly believe that it will be still the case for many years to come.

We call for using a new lens in seeing and teaching our students. I do not think it is only the issue of the institutions, faculty and students. It is also the issue rooted from the society's perception about what shapes a good employee. And, as Tag addressed, "we need to take some responsibility for what students become" (p. 348)

Week 4: Schooling the world

It is one of very few documentaries on the importation of Western education to a deserted area I had a chance to see. The film has a series of interviews from Lakahi elders, famous educational policy makers,  school administrators, and students regarding their point of view about how a Western education was imported and applied in their mountainous area affected their tradition, lifestyle, etc.

The question is how to maintain their identity, their culture under the sudden change and how to deal with unexpected effect that the Western education brought in this small village. The elders complained that the kids who were sent away to school became strangers when they came back to their own fatherland. They said  "They can't do anything here...; we are proud with the outside, how about inside?"  The modern, Western education pulled the kids out of their own culture. How about the tradeoffs between 2,000 years of tradition and 300 years of modernization as stated?

One question raised in my mind: It seems that this film provided a very negative point of  view about the failure of the typical, mechanical application of Western education into a deserted, mountainous area. The arguments were strengthened by dozens of quotes from very prestigious scholars, educators, educational administrators, elderly people, and students. The film ended and left a big and debating questions for all: So what? How to balance between the tradition and the modernization while still maintaining the culture as part of their identity? On one hand, I think it was good to leave the conclusion and solution for the audience to debate. On the other hand, I feel disappointed when the film director did not come up with an answer for the question she raised.

One more thing is that I doubt about the following statement "Real freedom comes only if we free ourself from Western education". I totally disagree with this one-way argument. This is a conservative, short minded point of view. Everyone should be part of a modern society where one should get a proper education. We cannot be back to what our ancestors were hundred years ago. I think having such an argument will hinder the societal development as a civilized society. The point is how to live properly through the time of transition.

I also felt shocked when first heard that there is more and more poor people when the modern education was imported. Then, I can understand why there is such a paradox. It is obvious that the more the society develops, the more the distinction between the rich and the poor becomes clear. A modern society creates golden opportunities for those who know how to catch the big fish. However, it also readily eliminates those who cannot swim well!