Some young Vietnamese people have opted to return to Vietnam for higher education after many years of studying overseas.

In early August, Sombatla Truc Deydeepya Lakshmi and her family members visited the Ho Chi Minh City University of Information Technology under the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City to conduct university admission procedures.

Lakshmi’s father is Qatari and her mother is Vietnamese.

Lakshmi has lived in several nations such as Qatar and India since she was young.

However, when she started to look for a university, she decided to go back to Vietnam for a bachelor’s degree.

Experiencing Vietnamese culture

Truong Quoc Dung, an employee at the student support center of the university, said that Lakshmi will major in information technology and take a 3.5-year transnational education program jointly run by the university and Britain’s Birmingham City University.

Lakshmi is living with her mother in Vietnam to experience her motherland’s culture.

The prestigious transnational education program taught in English encourages Lakshmi’s family to allow her to study in Vietnam rather than other nations.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang will return to Vietnam for the 2023-24 academic year at a university nearly 10 years after she started studying in France.

Hang left her homeland for France when she was 12 years old.

She went to university in France last year, majoring in interior design. However, Hang decided to come back to Vietnam to continue her higher education. 

She will study at Hoa Sen University in Ho Chi Minh City for interior design. Vietnamese is mainly used during the university program.

Attractive international academic curricula

Over the past few years, many universities in Ho Chi Minh City have adopted enrollment methods based on international certificates, with the combination between English certifications such as IELTS and TOEFL, and school reports.

The University of Economics and Law under the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City set a target of 10 percent of enrollees for this method last year.

Vietnam saw a wave of students returning for higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In mid-July, 2020, the Ministry of Education and Training sent a dispatch to universities nationwide asking them to admit overseas Vietnamese and international students who failed to continue their higher education due to the pandemic.

Most of these students chose universities offering academic programs taught in English, or featuring majors that they studied overseas, said Associate Professor Dr. Tran Tien Khoa, president of the International University under the Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City.

Now, many students who tend to return to Vietnam for higher education prefer a transnational academic program to a Vietnamese course, as a degree granted by a foreign university is more attractive to them.

Potential barriers

Language is seen as a disadvantage for those who return to Vietnam for higher education, said Truong Quoc Dung.

Though all lessons are taught in English, many extracurricular activities, teamwork programs, and clubs are carried out in Vietnamese.

It will take these students time to get acquainted with the new environment.

For example, Lakshmi can understand Vietnamese, but she cannot speak the language.

Dung said that Lakshmi will be supported via student activities to assimilate into the new climate.

Meanwhile, Thuy Hang finds it hard to get used to the social environment in Vietnam.

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