Global Development

The American Association of Community Colleges

The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), formed over 85 years ago, is the voice of America’s community colleges throughout the world. AACC serves its constituency through its work in advocacy with other sectors of higher education, policy makers, and the media; learning and accountability; leadership and professional development; economic development; extensive research; and international outreach. The Association represents approximately 1,200 associate degree-granting institutions and some 11 million students. AACC is motivated and committed to provide the leadership that will further support the colleges in expanding the health and vitality of America's communities by building a nation of learners.

AACC is housed at the National Center for Higher Education in Washington, DC, along with 20 other higher education associations. Additional higher education and international-related organizations are also located nearby in the city. This proximity to so many other professional groups representing the nation’s colleges and universities means that AACC can easily and regularly both give and collect information about issues that affect community colleges and their students, as well as globally-related issues.

Thirty-two community college presidents and representatives of related organizations serve rotating three-year terms on AACC’s elected board of directors. Additional input from the field comes to AACC through its seven advisory commissions. Twenty-four councils, affiliated with AACC, are separate community college organizations that meet criteria set by the board.

Although there are some individual members and a growing number of international affiliate members, AACC membership is primarily institutional and includes over 95% of the regionally accredited community, technical, and junior colleges in the US. A 32-member board of directors who are elected or appointed for a three-year term governs AACC.

The Association communicates with its members through a biweekly electronic AACC Letter sent to member presidents; special email alerts; a biweekly newspaper, the Community College Times; and a bimonthly magazine, The Community College Journal. AACC also publishes books on community college topics through the Community College Press.

AACC is nearly always engaged in media campaigns to promote community colleges and to enhance their image. AACC joined with other higher education associations in 2005 in a campaign to promote higher education in general and to make the case for the importance of investing in higher education, including community colleges.

By almost any measure, community colleges have been a great success. But the problems of today and those of the future are and will be challenging. AACC will help meet those challenges as it continues its role to promote and enhance a strong image of community colleges, both in the U.S. and abroad. Today’s and tomorrow’s jobs in the US require higher-level skills that can be attained only by education beyond high school. Close to half of all students now preparing to enter American higher education will enter through the doors of the nation’s community colleges. Many of these students will become certified for employment in careers that will keep our businesses and industries globally competitive. Others will transfer to four-year institutions to work toward advanced degrees, made ever more possible by improved transfer policies.

Community colleges are an integral part of American higher education, and are key providers of the wider education needs of their community. The U.S. community college system is key to providing a variety of opportunities for every citizen to pursue and obtain a postsecondary education.
References
Boggs, G. and Cater, J. 1994. “The Historical Development of Academic Programs in

Community Colleges” in Baker, G. (ed) A Handbook On The Community College In America—Its History, Mission, and Management. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press

Brint, S. and Karabel. 1989. The Diverted Dream. New York: Oxford University Press

Phillippe, K. and Gonzalez-Sullivan. 2005. National Profile of Community Colleges:

Trends and Statistics. Washington, DC: Community College Press

Vaughan, G. 2000. The Community College Story. Washington, DC: Community

College Press

Survey of Community College Development in Vietnam:

A Global and Local Dialectic
Diane E. Oliver

Sandra Engel

Analy Scorsone
This chapter provides evidence that, although not continuous, there has been a community college movement in Vietnam and it began in the late 1960s. The movement has gone through long periods of dormancy and has faced numerous challenges. It has been gaining momentum since 2001, but there continues to be many uncertainties with regard to the systemic structure and perhaps even the survivability of the newly formed institutions. The chapter’s narrative and analysis are based upon the literature as well as data from interviews, documents, and archival materials.

Vietnam’s community college movement is particularly interesting because it illustrates two much broader themes that are relevant to higher education systems throughout the world. First, this movement demonstrates the close link that exists between a country’s political climate and the characteristics of its higher education system. A reasonable proposition can be made that the status of Vietnam’s community college movement has paralleled the orientation of the country’s international relations. This is not to say that there is a definite causal relationship between the community college and international relations; it is to say, however, that certain political conditions facilitate the exchange of information and people thus enabling a concurrent transfer of educational concepts across borders.

Second, this movement exemplifies the “dialectic between the global and the local” (Arnove & Torres, 2003, p. 1) in which organizations such as the World Bank, United Nations, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and others play a significant role. The term globalization is extremely complex and used frequently with different meanings (Torres & Rhoads, 2006). As conceptualized in this chapter, globalization involves the movement of economies, technologies, people, and ideas across borders, and it affects individual countries differently as a result of their unique contexts (histories, cultures, and socioeconomic priorities) (Knight, 1999). The “local” (Arnove & Torres, 2003, p. 1) can be conceptualized as internationalization, which is the way that the country deals with the impact of globalization while maintaining its own identity; thus globalization is the catalyst and internationalization is the response (Knight, 1999). For community colleges the local goes to another level because they respond to the needs of their communities.
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam

“Vietnam, which has been described as a shoulder pole with a rice basket at each end, stretches in an S-shape from China in the north to the Gulf of Thailand in the south” (Ashwill, 2005, p. 9). It has a large population of 83,535,576 (CIA Fact Book, 2006), approximately half are under the age of 25 (Ashwill, 2005), and many live in the northern Red River Delta and the southern Mekong Delta. Although Vietnam is home to 54 ethnic groups, each having its own language, about 90% of the population is ethnic Vietnamese (Kinh) (Ashwill, 2005). The official literacy rate is 93.9% (CIA Fact Book). Religious practice generally combines Buddhism and Taoism with Confucian philosophy. The country is controlled by the Communist Party of Vietnam, and its senior representative legislative body, the National Assembly, meets twice yearly for several weeks. The country is divided into 59 provinces and five municipalities, which are governed by People’s Committees.

“Eighteen years of economic reforms have opened Vietnam to the outside world and spurred high economic growth” (Ashwill 2005, p. 19). The U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement implemented in December 2001 was an important achievement for both countries. Vietnam’s average economic growth from 2000 to 2005 was 7% annually and today the gross domestic product per capita is $3,000 USD (CIA Fact Book, 2006).

Vietnam has had a long and difficult history. From 207 BC to the 10th century, Chinese dynasties ruled, and in the mid 19th century the French colonized Vietnam, except for a brief period of occupation during World War II by Japan. During the Cold War, the North was supported by China and the Soviet Union while the South received support from the United States. Tensions escalated into the Second Indochina War, U.S. troops were withdrawn in March 1993, and the North overtook the South on April 30, 1995 followed by reunification of the country as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

In the Beginning

The history of Vietnam’s community college movement began in the late 1960s when peace talks were underway and the Republic of Vietnam in the South was optimistically planning for reconstruction. As stated by Yee (1995), “the concept of the community college, with a comprehensive curriculum responsive to the needs of the community was accepted with enthusiasm by the common people” (p. 142). The plan was to convert military installations that would no longer be needed and underutilized education facilities into community colleges, which would retrain demobilized military personnel for civilian jobs and relieve some of the pressure on the universities (Doan, 2000). Thus community colleges originated with a decree by the President of the Republic of Vietnam on August 15, 1971 (Thuy, 1971; Thu, 1974). According to the decree, each community college was to include six types of programs: occupational, transfer, remedial, guidance and counseling, general education, and adult education (Thu, 1974). It is worth noting that these also are core programs in U.S. community colleges.

In 1971, the first two community colleges were established, Tien Giang (Upper Delta) Community College in My Tho (in the Mekong Delta) and Duyen Hai (Coastal) Community College in Nha Trang (in the Central Region) (Thu, 1974; Doan, 2000). Although several Vietnamese academics make creditable claims that a third community college was established during this period, a search of the Cong Bao Cong Hoa (public record) in the Texas Tech University Vietnam Archive provided no evidence of this.

A telephone interview conducted in 2001 with the former rector of Duyen Hai Community College indicated that it operated from 1972 to 1975. He also said that in preparation for taking over as the rector he had a 3-month internship at a community college in Texas, and he visited two community colleges in California. Additionally, he stopped in Japan to visit community colleges. Japan’s approach seemed to have potential for Vietnam in view of its quick recovery with U.S. assistance after World War II.

Duyen Hai Community College had two divisions, career and transfer; many students in the transfer division went on to study at Saigon University and Hue University. Approximately 800 students were enrolled and the main programs were fisheries and marine mechanics. The former rector said that the community college had quite a lot of autonomy, but the Ministry of Education was kept informed and, if a concern arose, the institution was required to respond (Oliver, 2002). However, Naughton (1979) argues that higher education in the South was modeled after the very centralized French colonial system with “Confucian undertones” (p. 102). “The decision-making reflected national policies which were, in reality, those of the French in the 1950s and to some extent the Americans of the 1960s” (Naughton, 1997, p. 104).
From Dormancy to Awakening

Two additional public two-year institutions were to be established in the future (Thu, 1974), but the Second Indochina War did not end as planned by the Republic of Vietnam. After reunification in 1975, the Soviet model of higher education was adopted for the entire country. The community colleges were closed, private institutions were either converted to public institutions or closed, multidisciplinary universities became mono-disciplinary, except Can Tho University (CTU) in the Mekong Delta, and separate research institutes were established. The new political order was clearly reflected in the structure of the higher education system.

Perhaps the next most defining event for higher education in Vietnam was the 1987 implementation of doi moi, which “in Vietnamese literally means renovation and refers to the process and consequences of pursuing an open-market orientation while maintaining the principles of socialism as interpreted by the CPV [Communist Party of Vietnam]” (Le & Sloper, 1995, p. 3). Tran Hoa Phuong (1998) states, “higher education no longer had the sole purpose of supplying manpower for the state sector. It would now serve the market-based economy” (p. 170). In 1993, a needs assessment of education and training conducted by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) also had a substantial impact. One of the major issues identified by the UNDP report was poor coordination and a lack of linkage between the components of higher education and the needs of research, production, and employment (Sauvageau, 1997).

Two of MOET’s proposed initiatives in response to this issue were (a) to establish community colleges that would develop training strategies for transitioning the economy and (b) to create community colleges out of the pedagogical institutions located in provinces throughout the country (Sauvageau, 1997). Although there was a long-range vision and related collaboration had begun in 1990 with the Association of Canadian Community Colleges (ACCC), as well as with several Canadian community colleges, the major restructuring of higher education in 1993 did not really address this vision. The pedagogical colleges were merely renamed as junior colleges (Sauvageau, 1997). However, a provisional regulation was decreed on March 30, 1994 that served as the legal foundation for establishment of community colleges in Vietnam (Harvey, 2005).

Thus the impact of this UNDP report was substantial and it illustrates the influence exerted by international agencies on the education systems of developing countries. Another transnational actor is the World Bank, and ranking high among its global solutions is diversification in relation to types of higher education institutions and funding. Relevant to the development of community colleges, the World Bank (1994) states, “in the most successful cases, non-university institutions offer training that responds flexibly to labor market demands and is linked with university programs through appropriate transfer mechanisms such as credit systems and equivalency provisions” (p. 5). Diversification of institutions has been evolving in Vietnam, but tuition was implemented in 1987, and by 1994 public universities were receiving 22% of their recurrent expenditures from student tuition (World Bank, 1994).

In 1995, diplomatic relations were restored between the U.S. and Vietnam. And 20 years after the closure of Duyen Hai Community College its former rector, now a professor at Lansing Community College in the U.S., found himself once again to be a player in the history of Vietnam’s community college movement. On October 18, 1995, the Minister of Education and Training sent a letter to the President of Lansing Community College inviting him to visit and “discuss the development of a national community college system in Viet Nam” (Memorandum of Understanding, May 1996,

p. 1).

But this begs the question of why Lansing was selected for the invitation. A subsequent interview with another Vietnamese American professor at Lansing revealed that he had been in the Republic of Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and some of his former students were now working in the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). He stated that he had facilitated the contact between MOET and Lansing Community College. MOET also invited the ACCC to develop a joint proposal concerning the development of community colleges (MOET & ACCC, n.d.). Thus Vietnam’s community college movement began to come out of dormancy through the exchange of people and the enabling interim regulation of 1994. However, in 1996 the Minister stepped down and MOET discontinued the community college projects.

A Pilot Program

Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCMC) was established in January1995 through the consolidation of nine independent universities (VNU-HCMC, 2000), and in 1996 VNU-HCMC ran a pilot community college program in three provinces: Tien Giang, Dong Tap, and Binh Thuan. According to interviews and translated archival documents, the rationale for establishing community colleges was that remote areas are generally poor and the students cannot afford to live in the big cities. Additionally, it was thought that the community college programs should match the needs of the local area; for example, in the Mekong Delta they should teach agriculture, fishery management, and forestry (Oliver, 2002). Yet this project was particularly unique because it also included transfer of successful community college graduates to VNU-HCMC affiliated universities. MOET did not endorse this initiative, but VNU-HCMC proceeded because it reports directly to the Prime Minister and could obtain the necessary funding from tuition and the existing VNU-HCMC budget.

Exchange visits were arranged that enabled Vietnamese academics, including the vice president of VNU-HCMC, to visit Kentucky community colleges in May 1996, and the vice chancellor of the Kentucky community college system with other representatives from the University of Kentucky visited Vietnam in April 1997. The U.S. visitors met with university officials in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, and with community as well as technical college officials in Phan Thiet, Tien Giang, and Dong Thap.

But after two years MOET still had not certified the community colleges nor had it provided any additional funding to operate them, so in 1998 these institutions closed and their 3,000 students were transferred to other colleges. Three problems were identified by the senior academic who led the pilot project: (a) lack of understanding regarding the community college concept, especially by those in higher authority; (b) concern that graduating students would have not received a good quality education; and (c) concern over damaging the reputation of the sponsoring university if the community colleges were unsuccessful (Oliver, 2002). A subsequent interview revealed that there also was a problem in not having articulation agreements established with the receiving universities, which all had different entrance requirements. One could reasonably conclude that this was another significant factor in the decision to close the community colleges. It also is important to note that most of the academics in MOET have been Soviet trained and the Soviet higher education system focuses on topics with a narrow scope and great depth. The community college’s broad knowledge and practice-oriented curriculum was very foreign to their way of thinking; consequently, they could not relate to its fundamental concepts. And this continues to be somewhat problematic for the community colleges.

Six Community Colleges

It was primarily through the efforts of Can Tho University (CTU) with its leadership’s excellent international relations skills and sustained interest in having community colleges in the Mekong Delta that the movement was kept alive. According to an interview with a senior academic at CTU, one of the rectors who had received his Ph.D. in the U.S. tried to convince MOET that community colleges should be established, but he was unsuccessful. This rector had developed excellent relations with the Netherlands, so he discussed his ideas concerning community colleges with the Dutch (Oliver, 2002).

According to Teekens (2002), in 1995 MOET requested that the Netherlands’ government consider providing assistance for core programs at six pilot community colleges. These institutions ultimately were located in Hai Phong, Ha Tay, Quang Ngai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Dong Thap, and Tien Giang. Hai Phong opened in December 2000 and the rest became operational in 2001. Three of the community colleges had food processing core programs and three had mechanical engineering programs. Interestingly, a long-range objective was to enable the transfer of students to a sponsoring university.

Although the Netherlands does not have community colleges, “’universities of professional education’ (HBO) and ‘regional education centres’ (ROC) provide education and training based on much the same ideas” (Teekens, 2002, p. 174). In addition to funding, the Netherlands provided technical training to the Vietnamese community college faculty. However, in 2003 apparently some issues developed between the Netherlands and MOET; the Dutch withdrew their funding. The six community colleges continued to operate, but there was no equipment to establish the core programs in food processing and mechanical engineering.

The Vietnam Canada Community College Project

Tra Vinh Community College (TVCC) was approved by MOET on August 3, 2001 (Pham & Harvey, n.d.) as a result of CTU sponsorship and substantial assistance from CIDA in cooperation with the ACCC and a consortium of four Canadian institutions led by the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST). The Tra Vinh People’s Committee, which had been highly supportive, established TVCC on August 29, 2001 and construction began (Pham & Harvey, n.d.). Particularly helpful to the acceptance of the TVCC project was a well-planned study tour to a Canadian community college by a Vietnamese technical team and a decision making team comprising representatives of the Tra Vinh People’s Committee and MOET in 2001. Considering that it is almost impossible for people in Vietnam to imagine what a Canadian or U.S. community college might be like without actually seeing one, these types of exchanges have been of great importance.

Tra Vinh is considered to be one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam. The economy primarily depended on rice farming with labor-intensive methods, although aquaculture and some industrial capacity were emerging (Harvey, 2005). Of Tra Vinh’s 985,000 residents, approximately 85% lived in rural communities. And a particularly important consideration for developing the community college was that only 10% of the population had completed secondary school and “women, rural residents and the Khmer minority (representing 30 percent of the provincial population) have traditionally been under-represented in the education system” (Pham & Harvey, n.d., p. 2). The province planned to diversify crops and expand “the services, manufacturing, and commercial sectors” (Pham & Harvey, n.d., p. 2). Thus the community college model was seen as providing the relevant training programs and accessibility needed to support economic development.

The initial courses to be offered were agriculture, aquaculture, information technology, office education, electrical construction, and building construction (Pham & Harvey, n.d.), and it was assumed that TVCC would focus on three-year college diplomas. As cited in Harvey (2005), who conducted a careful analysis of changes incorporated into the 11th Draft Education Law of 2004, Article 28, stated:

College level is trained with duration of three years served to learners who hold Upper Secondary Education Certificate; and trained with duration of 1.5 – 2 years for learners who complete and hold the Certificate of Technical Education of short and long-term training of similar trades with [practical] working experience. (p. 66)

However, of particular interest was the outcome of a Tra Vinh Province labor market analysis that was conducted in October 2002: “Local and regional employment and self-employment training demand was inversely proportional to credential level and training duration” (Harvey, 2005, p. 81). This meant that college level graduates would likely have difficulty finding employment. The greatest demand was for short duration agriculture and aquaculture production programs.

Reflective of the situation in Vietnam’s other rural provinces, this finding posed the problem of reconciling the demands of the labor market with the political pressure for a new institution that offered a college level diploma and, to a certain level, academic esteem. TVCC dealt with this challenge through the formulation of “an innovative model for program articulation between post-secondary vocational and college level programs” and students “exited with a post-secondary vocational certificate at six months, one year or two years of training” (Harvey, 2005, p. 82). By completing another 18 months of training, a two-year vocational graduate could be awarded a three-year college diploma. TVCC also offered flexibility through a continuing education program that enabled students to return at a later time for upgrade of their skills or certification. MOET approved this pilot program in March 2005 (Harvey, 2005).

In November 2004, TVCC also opened four satellite training centers for the purpose of offering short duration courses in locations that are accessible, and the instruction is delivered in a way that meets the needs of rural adult learners. Harvey (2005) also states that TVCC established an agreement with Nong Lam University in Thu Duc that “facilitated articulation between the TVCC college diploma and Long Nam University degree programs in agriculture, aquaculture, and post harvest technologies” (p. 83). This is interesting as MOET had previously been resistant to allowing transfers from the community colleges to universities.

In summary, TVCC has established an impressive model with the financial support and highly professional assistance of the Canadian agencies and partners. Although other community colleges could learn from this model, historically, exchanges of information among higher education institutions in Vietnam have not been common practice. Additionally, the staff and faculty at TVCC received excellent training from the Canadians in needs assessment, strategic planning, and curriculum development that will enable this institution to continue its progress. This type of knowledge and these skills do not generally exist at the other community colleges.