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Patterns of Ownership and Management in Vietnam’s Private Higher Education: An Exploratory Study

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Since 1988, Vietnam’s private higher education sector has developed into an integral part of the higher education system. Nevertheless, we know very little about who owns private universities, or what their management models look like. Interviews with institutional leaders, policy-makers, and the analysis of archived policy documents reveal that ownership models of Vietnamese private universities are considerably diverse. In general, almost all ownership models that exist in worldwide private higher education sectors—i.e., venture, enterprise, shareholder, and foreign—are reflected in the case of Vietnam. However, we highlight that business corporations own and manage many of Vietnam’s private universities. Our data also finds a parallel between the development of higher education privatization and the state’s persistent efforts to keep collective ownership—a Communist ideology signature—in practice. We conclude the article with a discussion on how ownership diversity in private higher education reflects the remarkable changes—more specifically the growing pluralism—in Vietnam’s political economy.

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Notes

  1. For more information on for-profits’ characteristics, see Angulo (2016), Cottom (2017), Floyd (2005) for the US case, and McCowan (2007), Salto (2018) for the Brazilian case.

  2. Neither of the two newly licensed nonprofit universities—both of which were founded by Vietnamese investors—has started recruitment yet.

  3. Document 7369, Government’s Office Collection, National Archives III.

  4. During our data collection, we heard information of foreign investors becoming strategic shareholders at some private universities. However, we do not discuss the matter in details here, due to the lack of information.

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Acknowledgements

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is part of the Project “Solutions for Vietnamese non-state universities’ sustainable development” (Nghiên cứu đề xuất các giải pháp phát triển bền vững các trường đại học ngoài công lập ở Việt Nam) [KHGD/16-20.ĐT.017]—under The National Project for Science & Technology development 2016-2020.

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  1. Department of Educational Policy and Leadership, SUNY Albany, 1400 Washington Ave, Albany, NY, 12222, USA

    Quang Chau

  2. Association of Vietnam Universities and Colleges, 1 Ton That Thuyet St., Cau Giay Dist., Hanoi, Vietnam

    Dang Ba Lam

  3. Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, 101 Tran Hung Dao St., Hoan Kiem Dist., Hanoi, Vietnam

    Nguyen Xuan An

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  1. Quang Chau
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Chau, Q., Dang, B. & Nguyen, X. Patterns of Ownership and Management in Vietnam’s Private Higher Education: An Exploratory Study. High Educ Policy 35, 155–177 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41307-020-00199-6

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