VietNamNet Bridge – General foreign-invested schools are often favored by Vietnamese parents and students, but foreign-invested colleges are viewed with skepticism.

Dam Quang Minh, managing director of IAE (Institute of American Education), said that some foreign-invested tertiary education institutions have faced several problems.

Local newspapers report that some low-quality foreign invested education establishments have quietly disappeared from the market after failing to attract students.

Meanwhile, three schools, ERC Vietnam, ILA Vietnam and Raffles International, were fined up to VND220 million for violating regulations.

ILA Vietnam was discovered to be be running an unlicensed joint training program with Australian Martin College. Raffles Vietnam was illegally providing first and second grade training in accordance with Singapore’s Raffles College of Higher Education’s curricula, and third grade training in accordance with Australian Raffles College of Design & Commerce.

Meanwhile, ERC Vietnam violated regulations by training bachelor’s and master’s degree candidates in joint training programs with the Greenwich English College and the Australian Institute of Business Administration.

Most recently, the public read about the Melior Business School, which operated under a franchising contract with the Singaporean Melior International College, which suddenly shut down while the school’s director disappeared with tuition fees collected from students.

The scandals with the schools that are advertised as foreign invested and “internationally standardized” raised anger in the public. However, more importantly, it has raised doubts about the quality of international joint training programs, thus putting pressure on other existing schools.

The owners of other schools, who were worried about the situation, decided to sell their schools to domestic investors.

Established in 2000, KENT was one of the first foreign-invested education establishments in Vietnam. It has had two establishments over the last 14 years that have trained and granted an Advanced Diploma to 10,000 students.

Two years ago, the Australian owner decided to sell 60 percent of the school’s stake to a domestic investor, according to a Vietnamese senior executive who has left the school.

It remains unclear what the value of the stake transfer deal was. However, Nhip Cau Dau Tu has quoted reliable sources as saying that the unsatisfactory performance of the school was the main reason that prompted the investor to sell its stake in the school.

The latest affair which has caught special attention from the public is the one in which Blackhorse Asset Management sold 80 percent of its stake in IAE and VATC, a foreign language chain to a group of domestic investors.

Blackshore Asset Management decided to withdraw capital from IAE because of sudden changes in education policies. The Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam has removed the floor on marking, which has caused the universities to open their doors more widely to students. As a result, fewer students will attend junior colleges or vocational schools.

A Singaporean junior college has also been reportedly put up for sale. A consultancy expert in HCM City said the Singaporean chain has had major branding problems due to Raffles’ and Melior’s problems in the past.

NCDT