Vietnam is a developing economy in Southeast Asia. In recent years, the nation has been rising as a leading agricultural exporter and an attractive foreign investment destination. Vietnam's key products are rice, cashew nuts, black pepper, coffee, tea, fishery products, and rubber. Manufacturing, information technology, and high-tech industries constitute a fast-growing part of the economy. Vietnam is also one of the largest oil producers in the region. Over the past 30 years, Vietnam, a country of 95 million people, has transformed from an impoverished, war-ravaged country to a newly industrialized “tiger cub” with one of the most dynamic economies in the world. Between 1990 and 2016, Vietnam’s GDP grew by a whopping 3.303%, the second-fastest growth rate worldwide, only surpassed by China.  

Vietnam's gross domestic product grew by 6.88 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2018, compared with a 7.46 percent growth in the same period of the previous year. GDP Growth Rate in Vietnam averaged 6.28 percent from 2000 until 2018, reaching an all-time high of 8.46 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 and a record low of 3.14 percent in the first quarter of 2009. The government's target GDP by 2020 was 7 to 8 percent.  if the economy is to meet the government’s target,  Vietnam should increase its labor productivity growth within sectors to achieve an economy-wide boost of some 50 percent. And crucially,  needs to upskill its labor force, which is rapidly shifting with approximately 1 million agricultural workers transitioning into industry and services each year. The country's surging economic rise is not guaranteed and remains dependent on a variety of factors, including sustained levels of foreign direct investments, political stability, infrastructure development, and the modernization of a stifling regulatory system plagued by corruption.  The number of students in higher education grew from around 133,000 students in 1987 to 2.12 million students by 2015. Despite its meteoric economic growth, Vietnam remains a relatively poor country with a per capita GDP of USD $2,306 – less than half of that of Thailand’s GDP, for example. However, the economic outlook for Vietnam looks bright. The professional services firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers, for instance, recently forecast that Vietnam to continue to grow at a rapid pace over the coming decades, and become the world’s 20th largest economy by 2050.

Despite having an increasing growth in GDP, the modernization of Vietnam's education system seems to be lagging behind other Southeast Asian countries. One of the reforms currently enacted is that the government is trying to expand English-language education in Vietnam, and promote transnational cooperation and exchange with countries like Australia, France, the U.S., Japan, and Germany. Vietnam has also acceded to international education agreements, such as the Asia-Pacific Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications in Higher Education. Study abroad of Vietnamese students and scholars is explicitly promoted.

Vietnam is currently one of the most dynamic outbound student markets worldwide, trailing mega sending countries like China and India only in sheer size. Between 1999 and 2019, the number of outbound Vietnamese degree students exploded by fully 1005 percent, from 8,169 to  82,160 (UNESCO Institute of Statistics). Outbound degree mobility in China, by comparison, grew by 549 percent during the same period, while the number of outbound Indian degree students increased by only 360 percent.

This drastic increase in Vietnamese mobility reflects the country’s swift economic growth, as well as of the shortcomings of its education system. Common outbound mobility drivers, such as an emerging middle class able to afford study abroad and rapid massification of education coupled with limited access to high-quality education, are prominent in the country. Vietnam has the fastest growing middle class in Southeast Asia, projected to grow to anywhere between 33 and 44 million people by 2020, depending on the estimate. Tertiary enrollments, meanwhile, tripled between 1999 and 2015. The number of youths seeking higher education in Vietnam has increased significantly, swelling the ranks of potential mobile students. Given Vietnam’s economic growth projections, student mobility is bound to increase in the years ahead, especially as the country seeks to internationalize it's economy and education system.

https://wenr.wes.org/2017/11/education-in-vietnam

 1) United States 22,172 (26%)

2) Japan 19,152 (23%)

3) Australia 15,298 (18%)

4) France 4,400 (5%)

5) United Kingdom 3,979 (4%)  

6) Korea, Rep 3,432 (3%)

7) Canada 2,034  (2%)

8) Finland 1,894  (2%)

9) Russian Federation 1,447 (1%)

10) New Zealand 1,297 (1%)

The U.S. has, over the past decade, become the most popular destination choice among Vietnamese students enrolled in degree programs abroad, despite the high costs of study in the U.S. and the legacy of the Vietnam War. Fully 26 percent of outbound Vietnamese degree students (22,172) studied in the U.S. in 2018 (UIS). Surveys indicate that Vietnamese students consider the U.S. a “scientifically advanced country” with an “excellent higher education system” and a “wide range of schools and programs,” even though high costs remain a major concern for many students. Beyond that, student mobility to the U.S. also appears to be influenced by existing migrant networks – the largest numbers of Vietnamese students are enrolled at institutions in California and Texas, the two U.S. states with the highest concentration of Vietnamese immigrants.

Despite high fees, Vietnamese are still going to Japan. VEPR said the total income a worker can receive in Japan can be up to $44,500. They can save around $23,000. After finishing the internship, workers have job opportunities in Vietnam thanks to foreign language skills and working skills they acquired during their stay.

Study destinations among Vietnamese degree students in Australia have been remaining relatively flat, while the number of students in France has decreased by 20% since 2015, while the amounts of students in Japan have tripled since 2015.

http://uis.unesco.org/en/uis-student-flow

Vietnam has ramped up education spending significantly in recent years. Education expenditures as a percentage of GDP increased from 3.57 percent in 2000 to 5.18 percent in 2006, and have since then remained above 5 percent, reaching 5.7 percent in 2013. Education spending as a percentage of the government budget has also been growing. Education is the largest expenditure item on the state budget and stood at 20 percent of total government expenditures in 2015 (USD $10 billion), a far higher percentage than the global average of 14.1 percent (2013).

 In 2016, the country had spent about 700$ per student (42% increase against 2009). But it is 1,400$ in Indonesia, $9,800$ in South Korea, $16,200 in the US. Dr Thai Ba Can, principal of Hong Bang International University in Ho Chi Minh City says that this number needs to rise up to at least 1600$ per student. Students in public facilities now account for 87 percent of the total number, and if this number is reduced by 20 percentage points, the goal of spending 50 percent of per capita GDP per student would be met, he said. So he proposes to reduce the student amount in public colleges and universities.

General Upper-Secondary Education Access to non-compulsory upper-secondary education is competitive and examination-based. The MOET has in recent years adopted various measures to streamline entrance and graduation examinations, and the system is currently undergoing frequent changes. Voluntary supplementary exams to gain “priority admission” at upper-secondary schools, for instance, were suspended in 2016. Entry into public upper-secondary education nevertheless depends on rigorous entrance examinations. Competition is particularly fierce for coveted spots at prestigious “high schools for the gifted,” which only admit the very best students. Other highly selective institutions include specialized high schools that offer programs focused on subjects like foreign languages. Students who do not score high enough in the entrance exams to be admitted into upper secondary schools in the general track may seek admission to vocational upper-secondary programs (discussed below) or have to attend expensive private schools. General secondary education encompasses grades 10 to 12 (ages 15-18) and concludes with the award of the Secondary Education Graduation Diploma

. Programs are usually offered in three different streams or subject groups (technology, natural science, and social sciences and foreign languages). All course requirements in specialization subjects used to be stipulated by the MOET and involved a total of 6 hours per week in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology in the natural science track; and literature, history, geography, and foreign languages in the social sciences and foreign language track. Current reforms, announced in 2017, however, will allow for greater individual customization with elective concentration subjects now making up one-third of the curriculum. Beyond concentration subjects, all students take a core curriculum that includes subjects ranging from Vietnamese to foreign language (mostly English), mathematics, and physical and military education. Upper-secondary students attend up to 30 45-minute classes per week. Promotion is based on teacher assessment and year-end exams. Students who fail the annual examinations twice have to repeat the year. High school graduation requires passing a rigorous final secondary school graduation examination, which is also used to determine admission to higher education.