Vietnam must improve its local education system to attract more foreign students to the country.

 Students at FPT University in Hanoi

The issue was discussed at the Europe-Vietnam higher education forum on higher education internationalisation held on November 3 in Hanoi.

Deputy Director General for Department of Higher Education Tran Anh Tuan said the number of universities in Vietnam had increased from 100 universities in 1997 to 400 as of now.

Vietnam is still struggling to expand university autonomy, improve training quality, quality assessment and research.

"To improve the training quality, the Ministry of Education and Training have been trying to reform syllabuses. We’re also employing the help of foreign experts. About 35 programmes are being implemented," he said.

Dam Quang Minh, rector of FPT University said, "Over 130,000 Vietnamese students are studying abroad but only 2,000 foreign students have come to the country, many of them are sponsored. This shows that our education system hasn't been able to integrate with the world."

Minh urged educators to be more active. First, they need an international training programme, foreign lecturers and students. Vietnamese universities must have a presence overseas.

"We have to use many ways to attract foreign students. Short-term courses in one or two months should be used to let students get used to Vietnam's courses and environment. FPT University has 700 exchange students and 100 foreign students enrol each year," he said.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, many Vietnamese students have earned scholarships to study in Europe and the government also sent many potential employees to train overseas. However, deputy minister Bui Van Ga said Europe and Vietnam still could still work even more closely on education programmes.

Dtinews