The Development of the Community College Model in Vietnam at the Time of the Country's Reorganization and International Integration

The birth, as well as the rise and fall, of community colleges in Vietnam has its roots in the radical changes in the country in the last 60 years. At the end of the Second World War, Vietnam successfully carried out the August Revolution (1945) by seizing power from the Japanese army, and establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. However, not long after that, the France-Vietnam War broke out and lasted from 1946 to 1954. From 1954 Vietnam was temporarily divided into two zones – North and South. The North existed under the control of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, followed the way to socialism, and participated in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CEV). The education system was constructed according to the Soviet model. South Vietnam operated under the control of the Saigon government set up by France. The French influence on politics, military affairs, economy and education was gradually replaced by the influence of United States. Thus, the first community college in the South was established in that context.

In 1975 the Liberation War in South Vietnam came to a successful end and Vietnam became reunified. From 1975 to 1986, Vietnam followed the Soviet model of socialism and suffered a crisis in economic development. To overcome this crisis, in 1986 Vietnam began implementing the innovative policy of charging from a cen trally planned, command and subsidized system to a market economy and imple menting an open policy in foreign relations. Thanks to this innovation, for the last 20 years, the economy of the country has been growing steadily with 7.5% year on average. The Human Development Index has also gradually increased, from 0.456, ranked 121/174 in 1990 to 0.704, ranked 108/177 in 2005. [2]. Today, educational goals include educating and training people with relevance to the market economy in the context of globalization, so that they will be able to actively make people rich, the country strong, and the society equal, democratic, and civilized. In this effort, the community colleges are once again reestablishing themselves.