Australia supports Vietnam’s online education
The Government of Australia and the Ministry of Education and Training jointly organised a workshop to review the Australian online education quality assurance tool developed to support APEC economies.
Currently, Vietnam has nearly 24,000 students studying across Australian universities and institutes. Between 3,000 and 3,500 graduates from Australian universities have returned home, contributing significantly to the nation’s reform and socio-economic development.
Hung underlined the online education trend in Vietnam and in the world, saying that it is necessary to develop regulations to ensure the quality of the advanced training model.
Vietnam has 23 educational institutions offering online education programmes, luring over 87,000 students, mostly in HCM City Open University and Hanoi Open University, according to Hung.
For his part, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Craig Chittick said the Australian Government pledged to support Vietnam’s educational reform to meet the country’s demand for human resources in the future.
Online education helps facilitate access to worldwide-recognised training courses while saving learners’ overseas travel cost, he said, adding that it will open up remarkable opportunities for the two nations’ universities.
The online education quality assurance tool was first reviewed by 13 APEC member economies in October 2016. It is under trial period before getting approval in APEC by the end of 2017. Vietnam is among three nations receiving support from the project.
The tool sets up a series of criteria to help evaluate online and half-online education programmes.
Experts from Australia and Vietnam discussed measures to apply the tool in Vietnam to promote the nation’s education quality assurance process.
On the occasion, the Ministry and the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) signed a memorandum of understanding on quality assurance cooperation.