The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) leads and develops initiatives to bring international students to the United States and to send U.S. students overseas.

J1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program

Exam Preparation programs for IELTS and TOEFL

Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA)

Young Learners Extension to the CELTA (YL Extension Course)

Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults (DELTA)

Study Group, a leader in international education and training

Overseas study consultancy and placement services

Corporate TrainingAmerican companies interested in doing business in Vietnam may do so indirectly through the appointment of an agent or distributor. U.S. companies new to Vietnam should conduct sufficient due diligence on potential local agents/distributors to ensure they possess the requisite permits, facilities, manpower and capital. Firms seeking a direct presence in Vietnam should establish a commercial operation utilizing the following options: first, a representative office license; second, a branch license; or lastly, a foreign investment project license under Vietnam's revised Foreign Investment Law.

Education and TrainingOverview

With a population of 86 million, the steadily increasing per capita income, a booming private sector, and the high value Vietnamese place on education, Vietnam offers significant opportunities to U.S. providers of education and training services. In addition, strong industrial growth and expanding foreign investment are generating the need for a variety of workplace skills that are currently in short supply. Education and training are top priorities for the Vietnamese government, which has plans to equip the labor force with technology and management knowledge and skills. The education system is currently facing a number of challenges, including outdated curricula, lack of training facilities, and a shortage of qualified lecturers and trainers at all levels. Raising the quality of education is one of the priority tasks encompassed in the government of Vietnam's Educational Development Strategy and Vision through 2020. Over the last few years the Vietnamese government has increased budget allocations, liberalized private sector involvement, and encouraged foreign participation in developing education and training in Vietnam. The Education Development Strategy for 2001-10 estimates that the share of education expenditure could increase to 6.9 percent of GDP and 20 percent of total government expenditures by 2010. The ongoing opening of the service sector will continue to drive the demand for U.S. education in Vietnam. More than ever before, education has become a key feature in bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and the U.S. Surveys consistently show that the Vietnamese recognize U.S. schools as high quality education providers. The U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Michalak, has made the development of education in Vietnam a top priority, both through dramatically increasing the number of Vietnamese students studying at U.S. institutions of higher learning and through the establishment of U.S.–affiliated programs in Vietnam.

Best Products/ServicesThe best prospects for U.S. providers are English language training, corporate training, vocational and technical training (including information technology and basic manufacturing skills), higher education (including overseas study programs), and distance learning.

English is the language of choice for Vietnamese seeking to enhance their educational and career opportunities. Schools and centers specializing in English language training, including TOEFL, IELST, and TOEIC, are booming in Vietnam's major cities. The authorities are however unable to monitor and control the teaching quality of these schools. Several State-owned institutions, public schools, and English learning centers are seeking help to upgrade both standard and specialized English courses. For 4-year university study, the best prospects include recruiting Vietnamese students to study in the U.S. and establishing joint-programs with local universities. Local foreign

education programs continue to steadily increase their student base, while study abroad remains an important and ever popular form of higher education in Vietnam. As the personal income of the local population rises, more students are able to self-finance their higher education locally and abroad. Vietnam presently has over 20,000 students studying abroad, paying about $200 million in tuition and fees every year. Most graduates study in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and other Asian countries that have strong higher education programs, such as Singapore and Hong Kong. The U.S. continues to be the most desirable English speaking country for Vietnamese students, followed by Australia and the UK, although in 2009 Australia actually received a higher number of Vietnamese students. Surveys consistently show that Vietnamese recognize U.S. schools as high quality education providers. Here are some more relevant facts and figures: With a total number of 12,823 students presently studying in the U.S., Vietnam now ranks 9th among countries sending students to the U.S. and is the world’s second leading English-speaking host of Vietnamese students behind Australia. With an increase of 46 percent over last year, Vietnam had the second highest percentage increase in students to the U.S. among the top 20 countries. This increase is the 6th consecutive double-digit gain for Vietnamese students going to the U.S. Notably, Vietnam ranks as 3rd among sending countries for international students attending community colleges (2-year associate’s degree programs) in the U.S. Over half of the Vietnamese students studying in the U.S. are located in Texas, Washington, and California. There has been a 380 percent increase in the number of Vietnamese studying in the U.S. since 1998/99.

Studying in-country with 2 + 2 programs or 3 +1 programs is considered the best alternative to study abroad and significantly reduces the time and cost of obtaining an internationally-recognized degree. By cooperating with foreign universities, local institutions can offer joint-programs that consist of two or three years studying in Vietnam and the remaining one or two years at partnering universities abroad. Key fields of study include business management and administration, information technology, marketing, banking and finance, and engineering. Both state-run and private local universities are interested in this kind of cooperation and consider it a priority to partner with American institutions. In the process of Vietnam’s integration into the world economy, management at all levels desperately need soft skills training. Vietnamese business entities prefer short-term training courses and practical methodologies that can be quickly applied in the daily work environment. Skills in demand include customer relationship management, negotiating, problem solving and decision making, presentation and public speaking, and leadership and coaching skills. In addition, the Vietnamese Government has also identified vocational education as a major area for future investment and improvement. Vietnam has a serious shortage of highly skilled workers, particularly in the areas of information technology, engineering, travel and hospitality and other service sectors. The demand for skilled workers and

production technicians is already acute and will become ever more intense as the industrial sector becomes a larger and larger provider of employment. The Government target has been to have 40 percent of the country’s workforce receive vocational training by the end 2010. Priority is given to training workers for high-tech fields such as information technology, biology, materials engineering and automation, as well as economic and social management.

Last but not least, distance learning, in particular e-learning, is becoming more important as Vietnam relies more heavily on specialists to meet future development challenges and as the shortage of both teacher and university facilities worsens.

Opportunities U.S. entities may participate in the market either through cooperation with local educational partners or through 100 percent foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs). Obtaining a foreign investment license in this field is time consuming with considerable paperwork requirements. Partnering with a local school is the quickest way to enter Vietnam’s education training market, since State-owned institutions and public schools are seeking assistance to upgrade their training programs. Nevertheless, it generally takes time and effort to go through the process of negotiating with a local partner, developing the program, and registering with the Ministry of Education and Training. U.S. schools that wish to work with Vietnamese agents to recruit students should carefully review and investigate any prospective candidates to ascertain their level of professionalism. U.S. education and training providers are encouraged to contact the U.S. Commercial Service to learn about a variety of tailored services that are designed to help find partners and recruit Vietnamese students. A growing number of education fairs are held in Vietnam every year, offering U.S. schools additional opportunities for exposure in the market. The most established of these are the fall and spring events organized by the Institute of International Education (see www.iie.org). Resources Information about studying in the USA is available at the Education USA website, representing a global network of more than 400 advisory centers supported by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. http://educationusa.state.gov/ For further information, please contact the following persons/agencies: Ms. Ngo Thuc Anh, Commercial Specialist U.S. Commercial Service Hanoi - American Embassy E-mail: Ngo.Anh@trade.gov Mr. Le Anh, Commercial Specialist U.S. Commercial Service Ho Chi Minh City – U.S. Consulate General E-mail: Le.Anh@trade.gov

Ta Thai Anh is a PhD candidate at the School of Management, Marketing and International Business, The Australian National University. Her thesis focuses on change processes from a management/organisation standpoint in universities in Vietnam in the context of severe resource constraints. Her research interest in higher education in Vietnam grows out of her work experience at the Foreign Trade University in Hanoi, both as a project management officer and as a lecturer since 1999.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Bich is Chair of the Department of Teaching and Learning Methodology and Technology at the Faculty of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, with responsibility for implementing teaching and learning renovation in teacher training and management. Her qualifications include a Master of International Studies and a PhD in Educational Policy and Management (majoring in higher education) from the University of Oregon, Eugene, USA. Her research interests focus on excellence in teacher education and effective management in higher education. Her consultancies relate mainly to school education which are World Bank-Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) funded projects.

Leon Cremonini is a research associate at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente, since 2006. He studies primarily quality assurance and accreditation models in

different higher education contexts. He has been working on the Vietnamese ProfQim project since 2006 in a research and consultant capacity and is involved in developing QA and accreditation systems in several other countries. Leon also studies rankings and their impact on college choice and on the performance of the higher education system.

Dao Van Khanh is Deputy Head of the International Relations Department of Can Tho University and a former Personal Assistant to the Rector. He holds a BA in Teaching English as a Second Language from Can Tho University, a Diploma in Environmental Education from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (Japan), an MBA in International Management from Leiden University (the Netherlands) and a PhD from the School of Education, RMIT University (Australia). His doctoral thesis investigates "Reforming of Governance of Higher Education in Vietnam: Case Studies of Change at Three Key Universities". He has published a number of articles on university autonomy and decentralisation. His research interests focus primarily on the marketing and university governance reform in Vietnam.

Nguyen Quang Dong is Associate Professor and Dean of Economics & Mathematics, and Director of the Center for Social Economic Data Processing and Forecasting at the National Economics University in Hanoi, Vietnam. He acted as an in-country consultant to the Second Higher Education Project in Vietnam in 2005, primarily assisting with issues concerning performance indicators and the analysis of performance data. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Business Policy. His research interests are in applied economics and the economics of community development in Vietnam.

Roelien van Empel works as consultant and auditor at the Netherlands Quality Agency (previously in the HBO-raad). She has been a consultant and auditor since 2001. Her work at NQA includes assessment of quality of study programmes and of institutions of higher education, corporate education and secondary education. Increasingly, she is also involved in advisory project for improvement of quality control in educational institutions. Since 2005, she has been involved in the ProfQim project in Vietnam.

Kiri Evans is an education economist and works with the NSW Department of Education and Training in Sydney. She has worked in Vietnam on education projects since 1993 and has been based in all three regions of Vietnam gaining an insight into regional differences and interests. She has recently worked in Vietnam as the international economist on the Vietnam Masterplan for Secondary Education in 2006. Her specific research focus is on the social impact of education investments.

Marea Fatseas is Managing Director of Ideas Connect Pty Ltd and advises on research grants programmes, especially public-private partnerships, and on programme management and evaluation. Her association with Vietnam spans two decades and includes a posting as a senior official in the Australian Embassy in Vietnam in the mid-1990s with responsibility for developing bilateral education and training cooperation. In 2005, she consulted on the ADB-funded Vocational and Technical Education Project in Vietnam. She spent several years as a senior Australian government official working on research, science and innovation policies and programmes.

Grant Harman is Emeritus Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Centre for Higher Education Management and Policy at the University of New England. His research interests are mainly in higher education policy and management, particularly from a comparative perspective. Since 2002, he has coordinated the University of New England Vietnam master's degree programme in educational management. He is Editor-in-Chief of the refereed journal, Higher Education, published by Springer in the Netherlands. He has worked as a consultant for the World Bank, UNESCO, IDP Education, SEAMEO

RIHED, Australian Education International and the South African Vice-Chancellors' Association. In 2005, he worked as a consultant on the Second Vietnam Higher Education Preparation Project.

Kay Harman is Professor of Education and Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of New England, Australia, with responsibility for higher degree research training and management. She is a member of the Centre for Higher Education Management and Policy in the School of Business, Economics and Public Policy. Her research interests concentrate mainly on higher education and research policy, research culture, research training, academic culture and work, mergers in higher education and university-industry links from a sociological perspective. Her consultancies have focused on: research evaluation on a World Bank higher education project in Vietnam; mergers of higher education for the South African University Vice-Chancellors' Association; and restructuring and planning efforts in higher education in Thailand and Papua New Guinea.

Martin Hayden is Professor and Head of the School of Education at Southern Cross University. He has published widely on higher education policy, with a focus on issues of governance and equity. In 2005, he worked as a consultant on the Second Vietnam Higher Education Preparation Project, completing reports on the legislative and regulatory framework for higher education in Vietnam. In 2007, he worked as a consultant for UNICEF, completing reports on the implementation of the Education Law in the Lao PDR. In 2008, he was awarded an Australian Government Endeavour Executive Award, which enabled him to return to Vietnam for an extended period for data collection.

Pham Thanh Nghi is Associate Professor and Acting Director of the Institute of Human Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences. He holds a Master of Educational Administration from the University of New England (Australia) and a PhD. from the Academy of Pedagogy, Russia. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the State University of New York at Buffalo (1999-2000) and a Scholar of the Japan Foundation at the University of Nagoya (2003-2004). He has published numerous articles on higher education management, with a focus on issues of quality assurance.

Le Thi Bich Ngoc is Deputy Head of the Finance and Accounting Department and Manager of EMBA programme at the NEU Business School, National Economics University, Hanoi. She holds an MBA from Boise State University, an MA from Macquarie University and a PhD from the Asian Institute of Technology. She has taught financial management, international finance and accounting at universities in Australia, the United States and Vietnam and has been involved in training programmes for Vietnamese and foreign companies and agencies, including Vietnam Airlines, Credit Lyonnais, Convick, Motorola and Word Vision. She has worked as a consultant for various international aid agencies including the World Bank, GTZ and UNIDO.

Adam Rorris is an education economist and a fellow of the Centre for Policy Development. He has worked extensively in Vietnam on education projects since 1993. He has advised governments across South East Asia on financing policies for improving access and quality of their education systems. In 2005, he worked as a consultant economist on the Second Vietnam Higher Education Preparation Project, completing reports on the social, financial and economic impact of potential investment in higher education.

Larry Smith is Professor and Director of the Centre for Business Research and Chair of the Research and Research Training Committee in the School of Business, Economics and Public Policy at the University of New England. He is a member of the Centre for Higher Education Management and Policy, the Centre for Research in Aboriginal and Multicultural Studies, and the Academic Advisory Board of the Australian Institute of Management. His research interests are in the areas of leadership, strategic planning,

research training, access to higher education and work-based learning. He has worked as a consultant for Bhutan and Saudi Arabia, as well as for the World Bank in Vietnam and Sri Lanka, and in 2007 co-authored the Australian Government Position Paper on non-formal and informal learning to the OECD.

Robert Spoo is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa College of Law. He earned his J.D. from the Yale Law School and his PhD. in English from Princeton University. He has practised with law firms in New York, Oklahoma and San Francisco, primarily in the areas of copyrights and trademarks. Prior to his legal career, he taught in the English Department at the University of Tulsa and was Editor of the James Joyce Quarterly. He has published numerous books and articles on James Joyce, Ezra Pound and other modern literary figures, and currently writes on the intersection of intellectual property, literature and the copyright-related needs of scholars and universities.

Elizabeth St. George is a visiting fellow with the Department of Political and Social Change, Australian National University. In 2003 she completed her PhD on higher education policy in Vietnam and has published numerous articles on higher education policy and public service reform in the one-party states of Lao PDR and Vietnam. Lam Quang Thiep is formerly a Professor of Geophysics, and Comparative Higher Education and Educational Measurement, at Vietnam National University, Hanoi. He earned the degree of Candidate of Science (1968) and Doctor of Science (1982) in Geophysics from Moscow State University. He was the Director of Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam (1988-1997), and Visiting Professor at New York State University at Buffalo (2001-2002) in the Fulbright Scholar Exchange Program. For the last decade, he has written many articles and reviews on higher education policies and on the application of educational measurement to the assessment of student achievements in Vietnam. He is currently a professor of Thang Long University and a consultant for the National Institute for Education Management, Vietnam.

Dao Anh Tuan is an associate at Pham & Associates in Hanoi. He holds a BA in Economics, a Diploma in Economics of Development, a Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and a Masters in Development Administration. He is a Registered Copyright Attorney and a Registered Patent & Trademark Attorney. Between 1987 and 2001 he worked as an economic researcher for the Institute of World Economy and as a senior officer for Vietnam Airlines and UNDP Vietnam. He is a member of the Vietnamese Intellectual Property Association.

Anthony Welch is Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. A policy specialist, his more than 100 publications include studies of reforms and policy issues, principally within Australia and Asia. Professor Welch has consulted to international agencies, including UNDP and the Commonwealth of Learning, governments in Australia, Asia, as well as within Europe, and to US institutions. He has project experience in several parts of Asia, particularly in the area of higher education reforms. His work has been translated into eight languages, and he has been Visiting Professor in the USA, UK, Germany, France and Japan. A Fulbright New Century Scholar, his two most recent books are The Professoriate: Profile of a Profession (2005) and Education, Change and Society (2007).

Don F. Westerheijden works as senior research associate at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS), University of Twente, where he co-ordinates research related to quality management and is involved in the co-ordination of PhD students. He is a member of the editorial boards of some journals related to quality in higher education. His research interests include comparative studies of institutional and systematic impacts of internal and external quality assurance in Europe, impacts of the Bologna process and impacts of rankings. He has been active as consultant and trainer for universities

and governments in, amongst others, Central and Eastern Europe, for UNESCO and SEAMEO. Since 2005, he has been involved in the ProfQim project in Vietnam.

Richard Winter is Senior Lecturer in the School of Management, Marketing and International Business, The Australian National University. His research areas include the management, motivation and performance of academics in environments of corporate reform. His current research examines schisms in academic identity based on conflicting ideologies and values systems. In December 2007, Richard was Visiting Scholar at the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy of Vietnam, in Hanoi.

Ta Thai Anh School of Management, Marketing and International Business, The Australian National University, Australia, anh.ta@anu.edu.au

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Bich Faculty of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam, bich959@yahoo.com

Leon Cremonini Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, l.cremonini@utwente.nl

Nguyen Quang Dong Dean of Economics and Mathematics, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam, dongktgd@fpt.vn

Roelien Van Empel Netherlands Quality Agency (NQA), Utrecht, The Netherlands, empel@nqa.nl

Kiri Evans NSW Department of Education and Training; Sydney, NSW, Australia, evans.rorris@ozemail.com.au

Marea Fatseas Ideas Connect PTY Ltd, Kingston, ACT 2604, Australia, mf @ideasconnect.com.au

Grant Harman Centre for Higher Education Management and Policy, University of New England, Armidale, Australia, gharman@une.edu.au

Kay Harman Dean of Graduate Studies, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia, kharman@une.edu.au

Dao Van Khanh International Relations Department, Can Tho University, Can Tho, Vietnam, khanhdao2009@gmail.com

Martin Hayden School of Education, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia, mhayden@scu.edu.au

Pham Thanh Nghi Institute of Human Studies, Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam, ptnghi2008@gmail.com

Le Thi Bich Ngoc Finance and Accounting Department, National Economics University, Hanoi, Vietnam, lbngoc@bsneu.edu.vn

Adam Rorris Centre for Policy Development, Newtown, NSW 2042, Australia, evans.rorris@ozemail.com.au; arke99@hotmail.com

Larry Smith School of Business, Economics and Public Policy, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 3251, Australia, lsmith35@une.edu.au

Robert Spoo University of Tulsa College of Law, Tulsa, USA, robert-spoo@utulsa.edu

Elizabeth St. George AusAID-Australian Embassy, Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. C 15-16, Jakarta 12940, Indonesia, eizabeth.st.george@ausaid.gov.au

Lam Quang Thiep Thang Long University, Hanoi, Vietnam, lgthiep@gmail.com

Dao Anh Tuan Patent Attorney, Business Software Alliance, Hanoi, Vietnam, tuandao61 @gmail.com

Richard Winter School of Management, Marketing and International Business, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia, richard.winter@anu.edu.au

Don F. Westerheijden Centre for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, d.f.westerheijden@utwente.nl.

Anthony R. Welch International Institute for Educational Development, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia, a.welch@usyd.edu.au