Vietnam : Higher Education and Skills for Growth
The demand for skills has been increasing significantly in Vietnam, due to a combination of inter-industry employment changes, capital accumulation and some evidence which is consistent with skill-biased technical change. As a result employment opp...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/06/10988339/vietnam-higher-education-skills-growth http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7814 |
| Summary: | The demand for skills has been
increasing significantly in Vietnam, due to a combination of
inter-industry employment changes, capital accumulation and
some evidence which is consistent with skill-biased
technical change. As a result employment opportunities for
tertiary graduates now exist in most sectors. Higher
education graduates are also shown to contribute positively
to firm productivity. On the one hand, this evidence
provides a strong justification for further expansion and
improvement of higher education in the country. On the other
hand, low research and development (R&D) capacity,
increasing evidence of skill bottlenecks and the still
inequitable distribution of higher education opportunities,
combined with broad institutional and financing constraints,
suggest that the higher education system does not yet have
the tools it needs to adapt to the growing and changing
needs of an increasingly dynamic economy. Moving towards a
first-class high performing higher education system will
require a set of reforms that create a more flexible and
diverse system, with, among other characteristics, more
private sector participation and greater emphasis on
research with the potential development of centers of
excellence. To get there, Vietnam will need to create
supporting governance and financing frameworks, with a
revised role for the public and private sector. It may
consider pursuing a reform agenda in three stages:
strengthening the framework for a competitive higher
education system, helping universities improve the relevance
of decision making for the emerging social and economic
needs, and further investments in building a first class
higher education system. |
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