Vietnam wants at least two more branch campuses to launch this decade after reforming its regulations as part of efforts to follow China and India in becoming a hub for transnational education.

Representatives from UK and Vietnamese universities and governments met in London on 31 October to discuss how to forge closer ties amid rapid growth in TNE worldwide.

The British Council’s UK-Viet Nam Higher Education Forum came after the two governments signed a new cooperation agreement, signalling what speakers described as a “long-term partnership built on trust and shared priorities”.

Minh Nguyen, from Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), said the government was encouraging new partnership models to attract “at least another two branch campuses in Vietnam by 2030”.

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She said recent reforms aimed to create “a more enabling regulatory framework for TNE” and to promote the country “not just as a financial hub but as a knowledge and innovation hub”.

There is currently only one international branch campus in Vietnam, Australian-owned RMIT Vietnam. Other universities have opened with foreign investment, including the British University Vietnam (BUV) in 2009 and the Vietnamese German University in 2008. 

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Nguyen added that MOET has studied frameworks in China, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and India to shape its own system. “We don’t want to lose in the game of TNE,” she said.

The expansion drive builds on years of growth in UK-Vietnam collaboration.

The UK is already Vietnam’s leading partner in transnational education, with more than 70 joint training programmes and over 12,600 students enrolled nationwide, but participants said the next phase will depend on deeper research and innovation links.

Chris Jeffrey, from BUV, described how his institution had grown from 20 students “above a fish and chip shop” to nearly 2,500 students today, investing more than $100 million (£76 million) to date and moving towards $165 million with its next construction phase.

“I don’t think many institutions in the UK could say they’re going to double in size in two or three years – and that is Vietnam,” he said.

Jeffrey stressed that BUV’s success relied on “long-term commitment” and reputation.

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“Parents care, they pay and they want their son or daughter to get the absolute best possible education. You can’t just say you’re good quality; you’ve got to be good quality.”

Hoang Van Anh, head of education at the British Council in Vietnam, said the UK was uniquely placed to help Vietnam realise its ambition to become “the next international education destination in South-east Asia”.

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She pointed to the imbalance between 200,000 Vietnamese students studying abroad and 10,000 international students in Vietnam.

“Why not balance out the gap and bring in international talent as well as retain Vietnamese talent?” she asked.

Delegates agreed that Vietnam’s next phase of international education must focus on STEM disciplines, including AI, semiconductors, agriculture and biotechnology, in line with national priorities.

Andrew Atherton, vice-president international and engagement at the University of Southampton, said Vietnam was now one of nine global priority countries for his institution because of “a confluence of significant economic development and growth, and a regulator that is open-minded and enabling but clear in terms of the regulations”.

He emphasised that TNE programmes must match the standards of home-campus study. “It’s not fair to say to a student studying in Vietnam that it’s not quite the same course.

“This is as much part of the fabric of the university as anything done at what we’ve been calling the home campus.”

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tash.mosheim@timeshighereducation.com