New bright spot in Vietnam-US relations

Since Vietnam and the United States established the Comprehensive Partnership in 2013, cooperation between the two countries in the field of education has continuously developed, making this field a new bright spot in the relationship between the two countries.

A lesson of the Enhanced English Program at Nguyen Duy Trinh High School, Nghi Loc District, Nghe An Province. Photo: VNA

According to the Department of International Cooperation ( Ministry of Education and Training ), in recent years, the United States has actively implemented a number of programs to support Vietnam in teaching English and improving the quality of education.

Specifically, in July 2020, the Government of Vietnam and the Government of the United States signed an Implementation Agreement on English Language Teaching under the Peace Program. This program was officially launched in October 2021, with the goal of helping Vietnamese students develop the necessary English communication skills to access educational and employment opportunities.

Under the Peace Programme, volunteers will go to rural schools to improve the English proficiency of English teachers, as well as enhance the general English proficiency and improve the English performance of students, especially speaking, listening and reading skills. So far, Vietnam has received 9 volunteers to teach English at 9 high schools in Hanoi.

Currently, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Peace Corps Office are continuing to implement the recruitment of volunteers for the 2023–2024 school year, expected to arrive in October 2023.

Following the Peace Program, in September 2022, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Educational Testing Service (ETS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on a cooperation program to improve the quality of English training and testing capacity for the Vietnamese education system.

Along with supporting Vietnam in improving the English proficiency of teachers and students, the United States has also supported Vietnam in improving the quality of higher education. The US government has provided Vietnam with hundreds of undergraduate and graduate scholarships through the VEF fund, supported the improvement of English proficiency through the Fellowship and Fulbright programs, and supported the enhancement of higher education capacity through the BUILT-IT and FURTHER projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Notably, in September 2022, USAID signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Education and Training on development support to improve the quality of Vietnam's higher education. According to Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son, this is a clear demonstration of the commitments to develop education and cooperation between the two countries on developing higher education, improving the quality of Vietnam's higher education system.

In addition, cooperation activities between educational institutions of the two countries have also developed strongly, especially at the university and postgraduate levels. Currently, there are about 50 out of more than 400 joint training programs operating between higher education institutions of Vietnam and the United States, mainly undergraduate training programs (about 655 people) and master's level (about 70 people). The main training fields are engineering technology, computers and economics.

More and more Vietnamese students are choosing the United States as their study abroad destination. Illustrative photo: VNA

On the other hand, the number of US-invested educational institutions in Vietnam has increased significantly in recent years. Currently, there are 7 such institutions in Vietnam, including 6 general education institutions and 1 university. Notably, Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV), established in May 2016, is a 100% US-invested non-profit higher education institution. In the Joint Statement on upgrading Vietnam-US relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for Peace, Cooperation and Sustainable Development issued after the talks between General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and US President Joe Biden in Hanoi in mid-September 2023, the leaders of the two countries “welcomed the activities of Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) and FUV’s increasingly promoting its role as a regional center for public policy training”.

In addition, the development in Vietnam-US relations is also reflected in the increasing number of Vietnamese students choosing the US as their destination. Currently, there are nearly 30,000 Vietnamese students studying in the US on self-funded and scholarship programs. On the other hand, in the past 5 years, an average of 10 to 20 US students have come to Vietnam to study Vietnamese language and Vietnamese studies./.

Thu Van