UK Vietnam higher education collaboration forum

Internationalising higher education (IHE) is defined “as the process of integrating an international, intercultural and global dimension into the goals, teaching/learning of a higher education system”, Jane Knight, 2004.

Internationalising higher education plays a strong role in developing international cultural and diplomatic relations. OECD estimated that 2025 will have approximately eight millions students who are mobility worldwide – 48 per cent increase in comparison with 2014*. The World Bank in Vietnam, at the Education Conference in 2018, considered ‘internationalisation’ one of the four big global trends in higher education development.

 In Vietnam, the Resolution 29-NQ/TW about fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training during international integration set up the platform for international collaboration development in education. With developing countries like Vietnam, IHE acts as a method to enhance labour force quality and as a result to enhance competitive advantage for the economy, to learn from experiences to shorten the education innovation process, and as an opportunity to build up excellent universities. For higher education institutions, IHE helps enhance capacity in teaching and research, updated curriculum, student employability and student exchange. IHE brings benefits not only to the developing countries but also developed countries.

 Vietnam is assessed to be one of the countries with an ‘open’ international education with high rating as ‘Very high’ and ‘High’ in terms of government support for international student mobility, joint training programmes and research**. However, in order to achieve a regional or international position in higher education, Vietnam government puts quality as the top priority and this needs to be balanced with the fast development in quantity.

Being recognised as a country with world’s leading education system, the UK education system is also strongly internationalised. With the mission to promote friendly knowledge and understanding between people in the UK and people worldwide, the British Council is one of the pioneers in promoting IHE globally. The British Council in Vietnam commits to support Vietnam in their effort to internationalise education, science and innovation, and to promote higher education partnerships between the UK and Vietnam.

100–150 higher education leaders, researchers and specialists in internationalising higher education from Ministry of Education and Training and over 30 UK and Vietnamese higher education institutions, and media.

The forum will be in both English and Vietnamese.

Please click to view the provisional programme of the Vietnam UK Higher Education collaboration forum. 

Registration here

1. Speaker registration 

2. Participants registration 

Opening plenary 

Global landscape of higher education internationalisation and changing roles of higher education institutions in the new phase (Kirsty Willam AM, Cabinet Secretary for Education, Wales) 

The potential in the Vietnamese Higher Education sector and the main areas of interests of the Vietnamese Universities (Assoc.Prof.Tran Anh Tuan, Deputy Director General, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training) 

Panel discussion 1: Rethinking international partnership of universities - building confidence and standing in favour of quality over quantity 

Rethinking international partnership of universities - building confidence and standing in favour of quality over quantity (Prof.Iwan Davies, Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor and Hodge Chair in Law, Swansea University)

Panel discussion 2: TransNational Education (TNE) and quality assurance - case studies and experience sharing from countries in East Asia region

• Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (Prof.Baldwin, CEO and Provost, University of Newcastle Medicine Malaysia)
• Quality regulation of international branch campuses in Asian Nations: collaboration between quality assurance agencies and universities (Prof.Dr.Angela Yung Chi Hou, Executive Director, Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan)

Workshop 1: Cross-national research collaboration 

Cross-National research Collaboration (Dr Jeff Bray, Principal Academic in Consumer Behaviour, Bournemouth University) 

Workshop 2: New role of higher education as human capital development to becoming strategic partner of industry 

Fulfilling the potential of the role of Higher education for the UK industrial strategy (Prof.Balbir S.Barn, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Science and Technology, Middlesex University) 

Workshop 3: Student mobility and employability - increasing need for intercultural skills and academic English 

• Student mobility and employability - increasing need for intercultural skills and academic English (Martin Gooosey, Head of Young Learners, British Council in Vietnam)
• Global Festivals of Learning (GFoLs) - A tool for developing student employability and global outlook (Dr Milena Bebeva, Associate Dean (Global Engagement), Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University) 

Workshop 4: Autonomy - what does it mean to HEIs in the UK context? 

• Principles and practice in higher education autonomy in the United Kingdom (Rob Humphreys, member of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales) 
• A comparative study of governing boards in Vietnam and UK higher education institutions (Dr Nguyen Thi My Huong, Interim Rector, Vietnam UK Institute for Research and Executive Education, University of Da Nang)