Prof. Detlef Briesen - DADD education expert presented on university autonomy in Vietnam

The presentation presented the results of a survey conducted by the author between August and October 2019 with university leaders in Vietnam. Using expert interviews, the author collected and summarized opinions from leaders and managers of 15 universities in Vietnam on issues surrounding university autonomy in Vietnam: the need for and general assessment of reforms, the main aspects of university autonomy, changes that need to be made in the direction of reform, strategies and visions that universities set out to improve autonomy capacity. Finally, the consequences of the reform process towards autonomy for German-Vietnamese higher education cooperation.

According to the survey results, most leaders of the surveyed universities affirmed the necessity and importance of university reform. In the future, universities all want to have autonomy not only in the financial sector but also in research, teaching and international relations. However, these are also the areas that bring them many challenges, especially finance. In the context of autonomy, state subsidies will be gradually cut, so universities will have to find other sources of income to compensate for the budget. In the medium term, increasing tuition fees will be a temporary solution; but in the long term, they must find other sources of funds such as research funding, technology transfer, service provision, etc. This requires synchronous reform and innovation in all areas of operation.

To cope with the challenges in the reform process, the surveyed universities have their own strategies such as: promoting research in parallel with teaching, aiming to develop according to the research university model; enhancing interdisciplinary content in subjects and training programs; promoting the connection between cluster universities and member universities; promoting international cooperation, especially multilateral cooperation to seek new sources of funding.
Regarding cooperation between Vietnamese universities and German and European partners, Prof. Detlef Briesen affirmed that the reform towards autonomy will not have a negative impact, but on the contrary, will enhance the possibilities for cooperation between the parties. Educational organizations such as the German Academic Exchange Service are always ready to support and fund research projects of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities as well as Vietnamese universities. Prof. Detlef Briesen also proposed a number of ideas to enhance Vietnam-Germany higher education cooperation such as establishing alumni research groups (DAAD); building joint research and teaching groups; building research associations; synchronizing research funding application processes, for example through the establishment of a joint Vietnam-Germany funding fund with a common appraisal mechanism.

The presentation received a lot of response and attention from the audience with many opinions exchanged on issues such as the current autonomy of the Vietnamese higher education system; experiences in building autonomy of German universities; the revised higher education law and the legality of university reform in Vietnam; the difference between the perception of public and private universities on the issue of autonomy... The wide reception of the school's staff and lecturers will be the motivation for Prof. Detlef Briesen to expand his survey next year.