Meet the University Boosting Teaching Development in Vietnam

Sponsored by EdUHK

Anyone who has visited Vietnam in the past two decades can witness the giant leaps forward the country has made in improving its living standards since the government’s economic reforms in the mid-1980s. From glittering skyscrapers sprouting from Ho Chi Minh city streets to top-rated restaurants packed by growing ranks of middle-class citizens, rapid economic development has propelled Vietnam to become one of the fastest-growing Southeast Asian countries.

While the story of how Vietnam picked itself up is inspiring, the work’s not done yet. To sustain this growth, the country needs to revamp its education system to train the next generations of innovators and workers. To this end, the Vietnamese government has been working with the World Bank and The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) to build capacity for its leading normal universities with a mission of nurturing educators who focus on skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving.

The new nationwide programme will see 600,000 school teachers and headteachers in Vietnam benefit from an enhanced teaching development system so they can adapt to new approaches to curriculum and instruction under the current education reform.

Since the start of the landmark 10-month Enhancing Teacher Education Programme, EdUHK’s team of experts - which includes academics in the fields of curriculum reform, educational leadership, quality assurance, teacher development, vocational education and teaching innovation - has flown to Vietnam multiple times.

Professor John Lee Chi-kin, Vice President (Academic) at EdUHK, said: “After several rounds of visits, the improvement was significant and the Ministry of Education and Training appreciated the efforts made by EdUHK. Throughout the process, we have engaged the senior management of the leading normal universities to devise their capacity-building and strategic plans and help them achieve their goals in line with international trends and practices in higher education.”

EdUHK is the largest provider of qualified teachers in Hong Kong and is home to influential educational experts.

It’s a publicly funded education-focused university, offering diverse undergraduate, taught and research postgraduate programmes up to doctoral degrees. Notably, the university has adopted an interdisciplinary method of academic development under its “Education-plus” approach, which has led to newly emerging interdisciplinary areas in psychology, the social sciences, and cultural and creative arts.

With its established standing in the Asia-Pacific region, EdUHK and its predecessor have provided thought leadership in education-related projects in collaboration with government agencies and international NGOs, including the World Bank, UNESCO, the Asia Development Bank and the European Union.

EdUHK is ranked ninth in the world and second in Asia for education, according to the QS 2018 World University Rankings by Subject.