Reforming Teaching and Learning in Vietnam's Higher Education System

Vietnam's fast-growing economy in the aftermath of 'doi moi' and its membership of the United States Bilateral Trade Agreement, ASEAN Free Trade Area and more recently the World Trade Organization (WHO) call for higher level learning and a more skilled labour force to meet the pressing demands off the country's moves to industrialisation, modernisation and global integration. Mindful of its country's socio-economic needs in the global knowledge society of the twenty-first century, the Vietnamese Communist Party and the State have placed reforming education and training, developing science and technology (S&T) skills and infrastructure and human resource development as foremost priorities in its bid to see the nation transformed into a modern industrialised nation by the year 2020, one that could compete at the global level and develop the material and spiritual well-being of its people (MOET 2005b, pp. 1, 11). The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) sees that these developments will lay the foundation for industrialisation and modernisation of Vietnam.