Vietnam Initiatives

Partnership for Higher Education Reform in Vietnam

In 2014, O’Neill professor Anh Tran joined an Indiana University delegation to Vietnam highlighting to senior government officials how the O’Neill School can further contribute its internationally recognized expertise in public policy and financial management toward helping Vietnam's government better serve its citizenry.

Tran, an economic advisor to the prime minister of Vietnam, is the director of Vietnam Initiatives at Indiana University. At O’Neill he heads VYLA, or the Vietnam Young Leaders Awards, co-sponsored by Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training and IU Bloomington. 

In 2021, the O'Neill School and IU Office of International Development were awarded $14.2 million, funded by USAID, to modernize universities in Vietnam—Tran is spearheading the Partnership for Higher Education Reform project for O'Neill. 

Read the 2021 news release

For Vietnam, modernizing higher education will upskill its labor force, allowing the country to enter more high-tech industries and achieve higher economic growth in the future.

Anh Tran, professor
Green circle logo of the Vietnam National University- Hanoi

Vietnam National University-Hanoi

 

Logo of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City

Vietnam National University- Ho Chi Minh City

 

Swirling blue logo of the University of Da Nang

University of Da Nang

 

Four pillars of the five-year initiative

Program for Governance Excellence

Aims to strengthen targeted universities’ governance structure and practices through the introduction of shared governance and performance management. Activities will support the establishment of robust internal quality assurance systems at the targeted universities and transform university finance to achieve greater institutional autonomy.

Program for Teaching Learning Excellence

Focuses on building institutional capacity and providing faculty professional development in designing state-of-the-art courses, digitizing curriculum to increase access to high-quality resources, and establishing Faculty Learning Communities to encourage inter-institutional cooperation.

Program for Research Excellence

Aims to improve research and innovation capacity and align research activities to the social and economic needs of the country. Faculty exchanges, visiting scholar programs, research conferences, webinars, workshops, and short courses will be used to enhance research quality and outputs.

Program for University-Industry Linkages

Through this program, IU and private-sector partners will support the targeted universities to create incentives and develop guidelines on university outreach and building and sustaining prosperous partnerships between university and industry in curriculum and teaching reform, preparing students for the workforce, research and innovation.