The solution for this is digital university, said Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung during a meeting with leaders of the Vietnam National University HCM City (VNU-HCM). 

According to VNU-HCM Director Vu Hai Quan, there are about 7,000 IT students at the university. It provides about 5,000 workers to the IT sector and related sectors (mathematics, electronics and telecommunications, mechanical engineering and automation) each year.

However, the training establishment still has problems. Since there are not large centers and corporations set up at the university, connectivity remains limited, strategic research programs are still lacking, and the school’s scientific journal doesn’t follow international standards.

Quan said he has high hopes for the digital higher education model to produce a digital workforce that serves digital transformation, digital economy development and promotion of a digital society. This has been initiated by the VNU-HCM, VNU-Hanoi, Da Nang University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, and PTIT (Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology).

Minister Hung commented that the project on digital university development initiated by these universities is just 50-50, which means that 50 percent is still taught as usual and only 50 percent follows the digital school model. He prefers the 100 percent model.

He stressed that if schools still go the old way, they will be restricted by limitations of teachers, both in quantity and quality. 

Vietnam’s digital human resources are not only used for digital transformation here, but all over the globe.

Hung requested the VNU-HCM to reconsider the digital transformation project and the training establishment must be a separate university, an independent institution.

“There are many good digital platforms that serve the teaching and learning of foreign languages. Why don’t schools think of teaching English 100 percent online?” Hung said, suggesting that VNU-HCM allow students to study English themselves and control the output quality by hiring foreign organizations to appraise students’ skills.

According to Quan, about 5,000 students graduate each year, but many of them leave for Singapore and the US.

Trong Dat