MALAYSIA ranks high up on the leader board for tertiary education. In fact, the progress made by Malaysia’s higher education system over the past five years has been one of the most noteworthy higher education narratives to emerge from Asia.
According to QS World University Rankings 2021, Malaysia has five universities ranked among the world’s top 200.
However, we can’t afford to be complacent as there appears to be many universities mushrooming in neighbouring countries.
Now more than ever, educational reform and internationalisation are becoming a priority in many Southeast Asian countries.
For example, be wary of the target set by Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNUHCM) to become one of the 100 top universities in Asia by 2030.
In 2019, VNUHCM maintained its ranking in the top 701-750 by the QS World University Rankings.
The international programmes at VNUHCM’s member universities meet students’ various demands. They have deemed training quality as a top priority, and their programmes are the same as those in foreign countries or are tweaked by the universities and their partners.
The average fees for foreigners at VNUHCM’s member universities range from 80 mil to 90 mil dong (US$3,467 to US$3,900 or RM13,972 to RM15,740) per year, while the living cost in Ho Chi Minh City is around 10 mil dong (US$433 or RM1,748) a month.
VNUHCM was established in 1995 by the Vietnamese Government as one of the country’s two national universities to train undergraduates and postgraduates, carry out research, transfer technologies, and lead the higher education system.
It has 36 institutions under it for training and doing research and transferring technologies, including seven member universities: the VNUHCM- University of Technology, VNUHCM-University of Science, VNUHCM-University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNUHCM-International University, VNUHCM-University of Information Technology, VNUHCM-University of Economics and Law, and VNUHCM-An Giang University, and the Institute for Environment and Resources.
Its target is to become one of the 100 top universities in Asia by 2030.
Last year, VNUHCM had 45 international programmes offering bachelor’s degrees, including two that confer two degrees.
There are currently 329 foreign students at VNUHCM’s member universities from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, China, Japan, France, Canada, the US, and other countries. – Dec 22, 2020
