Vietnam, Wales beef up cooperation in education sector
The Vietnam-Wales education cooperation workshop took place in Cardiff, Wales, gathering representatives of the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), the Global Wales programme, the British Council, eight universities from Wales, and 30 from Vietnam.
As an activity marking the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam-UK diplomatic relations, the workshop focused on the internationalisation of education, educational cooperation and training, and the exchange of lecturers and students between the universities of Vietnam and Wales via programmes that the two sides are implementing.
The programmes include the MoET’s Project 89 on capacity building for lecturers and managers of higher education institutions to meet the requirements of the sector’s fundamental and comprehensive renovation for 2019-2030 and the Taith programme established with a EUR65 million (about US$70.1 million) investment from the Welsh Government with a commitment to creating 25,000 opportunities for international learning and exchanges between 2022 and 2026.
Nguyen Anh Dung, deputy head of the MoET’s Department of Higher Education, introduced Project 89 in the hope of boosting cooperation and exchange to increase the number of Vietnamese PhD students studying in the UK under this project.
Vietnamese Ambassador to the UK Nguyen Hoang Long pointed to high tuition fees and living costs as the main barriers facing Vietnamese students and doctoral students who want to study in the UK within the framework of Project 89.
To solve this problem, a number of universities in Wales proposed that the two sides study and discuss a funding mechanism to offset the difference in living costs.
Participating universities of the two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation so that more Vietnamese students and researchers in different regions can access and benefit from the programme.