Information on the thesis "Former Vietnamese international students: reintegration and social re-adaptation" by HVCH Pham Ngoc Yen, majoring in Sociology.1. Full name of student: Pham Ngoc Yen 2. Gender: Female 3. Date of birth: December 5, 1984 4. Place of birth: Hanoi 5. Decision to recognize student No.: 2463/2006/QD/XHNV-KH&SDH dated November 3, 2006 by the President of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi 6. Changes in the training process: From September 2008 - August 2010: reserved study results, suspended for one year 7. Thesis topic: Former Vietnamese international students: reintegration and social re-adaptation 8. Major: Sociology; Code: 60.31.30 9. Scientific supervisor: Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Quy Thanh - Deputy Director of the Institute for Education Quality Assurance, Head of the Department of Sociology Theory and Research Methods - Vietnam National University, Hanoi 10. Summary of the results of the thesis: The study explores the advantages and disadvantages of international students when returning home, the factors that affect them and their orientation for social reintegration. The results show that international students have many great advantages, such as having good conditions for career development, having the opportunity to improve their status and being respected in society. However, they also encounter many problems in adapting back to social life, including problems of reverse culture shock leading to problems in family relationships, friendships and society. Disappointment with the working environment and social life due to lack of knowledge and psychological preparation causes international students to encounter psychological problems for a period after returning home. The problems that international students encounter when returning to Vietnam are affected by factors such as age, gender, marital status, as well as the time they have lived abroad and the level of maintaining contact with family and friends in the country. The study also points out the directions of reintegration and social adaptation of international students. International students are mostly successful in re-adapting to society by changing part of themselves to suit the social environment, in parallel with changing their place of residence and changing jobs. Living in seclusion or opposing social values is almost absent in the adaptation of international students returning to the country. 11. Practical applicability: The study helps international students living and working abroad have a comprehensive view of life when returning home, so that they can prepare mentally and be motivated to return to work in the country. The study also helps policy makers understand more about the difficulties of former international students in order to propose solutions to make the most of this human resource in the process of national development. 12. Further research directions: (if any) This study is still quite new in Vietnam. The researcher recommends that there should be more research directions to understand the complexity and diversity of different groups of former international students, their specific orientations, with the aim of providing policies to prevent brain drain and make the best use of human resources. At the same time, the study can also contribute to finding new aspects of reintegration and social re-adaptation of similar social groups. 13. Published works related to the thesis: none
INFORMATION ON MASTER'S THESIS
1. Full name: Pham Ngoc Yen 2. Sex: Female 3. Date of birth: December 5, 1984 4. Place of birth: Ha Noi 5. Admission decision number: 2463/2006/QD/XHNV-KH&SDH. Dated November 3, 2006 6. Changes in academic process: September 2008 – August 2010: reserve academic record, defer for 1 year 7. Official thesis title: Graduates returned to Vietnam: re-integration and re-adaptation 8. Major: Sociology 9. Code: 60.31.30 10. Supervisors: Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Quy Thanh - Deputy Director of Institute for Education Quality Assurance, and Head of Department of Theory and Methodology of Sociology - Vietnam National University, Hanoi 11. Summary of the findings of the thesis: The study examines the advantages and disadvantages of returned graduated, factors to impact the process of re-adaptation and reintegration, and coping strategies that returners chose. Findings point out that returned graduates have big advantages, such as opportunities to develop their careers and high status in the society. However, they also had to face with many problems in re-adapting with the social life, including reverse cultural shock which led to problems in relationships with family, friends and community. The disappointment about working environment and daily life due to the lack of preparation caused returned graduated psychological problems when they came back. Problems of returners are affected by age, gender, marital status as well as the length of time they spent in foreign countries and frequency of contacts they maintain with family and friends in Vietnam. The study also pointed out that most returners were successful in re-adaptation through changing to fit in the society, along with creating a more suitable environment through changing job or accommodation. Alienation and rebelious way of acting is rarely the choice of returners during re-adaptation process. 12. Practical applicability: The study helps students who are studying in foreign countries have a better understanding of the life when they come back to Vietnam, so that they can be prepared and have more motivation to come home. The study also helps policy makers to understand the difficulties that returned graduates had to face with, so that they can advocate for solutions to make best use of these target group as human resource for development. 13. Further research directions, if any: This topic is still new in Vietnam. I recommend that further studies to look into the various characteristics of different groups of returned graduates, their orientation. More understandings about this group is aimed to issue more policies to prevent brain drain to make best use of our human resources. Also, studies on re-adaptation and reintegration will enrich the theoretical perspectives for further analysis of this phenomenon with other groups. 14. Thesis-related publications: None
