Beyond the Apex: Toward a System Level Approach to Higher Education Reform in Vietnam July 2010 *** DRAFT: Please do not circulate or quote without permission of the authors. Please send comments to Ben Wilkinson (
[email protected]) and Laura Chirot (
[email protected]).*** This publication is a joint collaboration between the New School, the Harvard Kennedy School, and the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program (FETP) in Ho Chi Minh City, under a contract agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to provide a White Paper on the Future of Higher Education in Vietnam. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations Development Programme, its Executive Board or its Member States, neither does it necessarily reflect the views of the New School, the Harvard Kennedy School or Harvard University. Beyond the Apex July 2010 Page 2 of 151 Preface This is the second of two white papers produced by The New School and the Vietnam Program at the Harvard Kennedy School‘s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation with funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam. The first paper, ―The Intangibles of Excellence: Governance and the Quest for a Vietnamese Apex Research University‖ was completed in June 2009 and revised in January 2010; the key findings of this paper are included in an appendix. Both the first paper and the present study draw intellectual inspiration from a path-breaking study conducted ten years ago by the Task Force on Higher Education and Society, a blue- ribbon commission convened by the World Bank and the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and chaired by Professor Henry Rosovsky of Harvard University and Professor Mamphela Ramphele of Cape Town University.