Globalization of higher education and community colleges in vietnam

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the effects of globalization on Vietnam's community colleges. The first section begins with definitions for the terms globalization, neoliberalism, and internationalization, as used in this chapter. The second and third sections examine the effects of globalization and their manifestation in Vietnam's community colleges with particular emphasis on diversification and decentralization of the higher education (HE) system. The fourth section describes internationalization as an important impetus in Vietnam's development of community colleges, but it also presents Tran's (1998) argument that Vietnam has always used great discretion in deciding what to adapt from the education models of other countries (the Vietnamese factor) (p. iii). The fifth section describes general characteristics of community colleges in Vietnam as well as some of their local challenges. The conclusion is a synthesis of the chapter bringing together concepts of globalization, internationalization, and the local context of community colleges in Vietnam. © 2009 Springer Netherlands.