t is an honor to be invited to contribute an article about the Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) at the Inauguration of The ViPLOK Journal, a brand new medium for scholarly publication. As the VEF Executive Director, I would like to use this opportunity to address readers about VEF's mission and programs, and to report some up-to-date statistical data on the program.
The Vietnam Education Foundation is an independent federal agency established by the U.S. Congress and based on the initiative of former President Bill Clinton during his historical visit to Vietnam in 2000. Its mission is to further the process of reconciliation and to build the bilateral relationship between the United States and Vietnam, serving the interests of both countries through educational means. The VEF mission is accomplished by bringing Vietnamese nationals to study in the United States at the graduate and post-graduate levels in sciences, medicine, technology, engineering and mathematics; by sending U.S. citizens to teach in those same fields in academic institutions in Vietnam, and by building capacity in science and technology in Vietnam through joint projects between the scientific and academic communities of both countries. VEF is governed by a Board of Directors, whose thirteen members consist of three U.S. Cabinet members, two U.S. Senators, two U.S. Representatives, and six presidential appointees; and it is headed by the Executive Director appointed by the Board. The annual funding for VEF is $5,000,000, which began in fiscal year 2001 and continues through 2018.
VEF Fellows’ Profiles and Statistics
Since operations began in March 2003, 190 VEF Fellows have studied in graduate programs in 56 top-tier U.S. research universities. Another 40 Fellows have been selected for cohort 2007 to begin studies in the fall 2007. So far, 18 Fellows have graduated, 9 of them have returned to Vietnam, 3 have continued on to Ph.D. programs in the U.S. with sources of funding other than from VEF, and 6 are in post-graduate Academic Training (AT) in the U.S. An AT experience helps VEF Fellows develop their professional skills beyond their academic degree and helps them expand ties to U.S. experts in their field, whether in academia or in other sectors before returning to Vietnam. The maximum time for AT for J-1 students is 18 months for an individual in a Master’s degree program and 36 months for an individual in a Ph.D. program. VEF Fellows are required to return to Vietnam for two years after completing their academic program, which includes subsequent training.
VEF organizes annually the VEF Fellows Conference as a forum to share knowledge and experiences among the Fellows and with other scientists and scholars in order to encourage professional ties among VEF Fellows and U.S. experts. Furthermore, by providing conference grants, VEF encourages Fellows to present at professional conferences their research results. In addition, by providing travel grants, VEF encourages Fellows to work, do research, and/or teach in Vietnam in their field of interest as a means of keeping the Fellows connected to, and interested in, development in Vietnam. To develop further these strong ties and networking and to develop skills in self-governance, VEF has assisted the VEF Fellows to organize the VEF Fellows Association (VEFFA), which can be contacted through VEF.
Most Fellows pursue a doctorate (87%), and the majority is in the fields of engineering (43%) and computer sciences (22%). Among those in engineering, the majority is in electrical engineering (46%). Most Fellows (69%) range in age from 23-28, and females account for 23% of the total number of Fellows (Fig. 1).
Field of Study
Engineering Specialties
Age Range
Gender
Degree Program
Figure 1: Some statistics on VEF Fellow profiles
As for the regional origins in Vietnam and regional locations of their U.S. universities, most Fellows come from the North of Vietnam (63%). Half of the Fellows (50%) attend universities in the middle region of the U.S (Fig. 2).
VEF has established an Alliance with over 100 leading U.S. research universities through a Memorandum of Understanding to pursue cost-sharing arrangements. VEF provides a grant to the University of $27,000 per Fellow per year for the first two years of a Fellow’s graduate study. In exchange, the university manages and supplements the grant funds to cover required tuition, required fees, mandatory health and medical insurance, and a monthly stipend for 12 months, which must be equivalent to what a graduate student in the designated department would receive. The universities are expected to support VEF Fellows fully by their third year through a graduate assistantship or other means. At that point, VEF provides directly to each Fellow a professional development grant of $3,000 per year for years 3, 4, and 5.
VEF Fellows are doing very well academically (Fig. 3). As of the spring 2007, among enrolled Fellows, 40 (23%) have already passed the doctoral qualifying exams. The majority (77%) have a cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of B+ or better.
Figure 2: Demographic distribution of VEF Fellows based on their origin in Vietnam (left), and their attended U.S. universities (right)
Origin in Vietnam
U.S. School Location
Application and Selection Process
The VEF Fellowship is not envisioned as a simple funding mechanism for graduate study in the U.S. On the contrary, it aims to support talented and ambitious Vietnamese who desire to contribute to the scientific and technological progress of Vietnam and to the VEF mission. To attract the best and the brightest candidates, VEF designed a competitive, transparent, and open selection process in order to assure U.S. universities of the high quality of VEF Fellows, who will help build the reputation of Vietnam in science and technology. Because some top level U.S. universities are still unfamiliar with Vietnamese graduate students, VEF engages the assistance of the U.S. National Academies in the selection process, culminating in an oral exam/interview conducted by U.S. scientists, who write a letter of recommendation for each candidate that they nominate for a VEF Fellowship.
Figure 3: VEF Fellow’s performance in the U.S.
Academic Progress
Grade Point Average
Once the final candidates are approved as VEF Fellows and before their departure to the U.S., VEF organizes a Pre-Departure Orientation in June to provide them an opportunity to hone their skills for academic success, to ensure a smooth transition to the U.S., and to begin their integration into the VEF family.
Recognizing the success of the VEF Fellowship program, the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has indicated that they are adopting the VEF application and selection process for its own scholarship program, known as the 322 Program. Furthermore, MOET has asked VEF to train MOET staff in the VEF application and selection process, related systems, and online forms.
To explain the VEF process further, one can obtain a VEF Fellowship through two different means, either Process A or Process B. In Process A, having succeeded in a series of standardized exams, a finalist must demonstrate his/her ability to excel in the U.S. academic environment through a highly competitive oral exam and interview conducted in English by renowned American professors and scientists invited to Vietnam by the National Academies. In Process B, the candidate must have already been admitted to a U.S. university. In both cases, the candidates must have an excellent academic record and significant professional and/or research experiences; they are expected to receive admission to a U.S. research university, which is highly recognized in the applicant’s field, and they must demonstrate a strong commitment to contribute to the development of science and technology in Vietnam.
As an example, in the on-going 2008 Fellowship competition of Process A, 330 qualified applicants met the posted deadline. After completion of the standardized exams, 38% of the initially qualified applicants, totaling 127, met the requirements to be invited to the final stage of the competition—the oral exam/interview—to compete for 30 Fellowships in August 2007. As another example, during the 2007 competition for Process B, 23 applicants met the application deadline and, in the end, 10 (43%) were accepted as VEF Fellows.
VEF found that the oral exam/interview and the process of applying to appropriate U.S. universities can present a challenge to the candidates. To help participants become familiar with the exam process, VEF organizes a “Pre-Oral Exam Meeting” in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City several weeks before the oral exam/interview. To help Fellowship candidates that have already been nominated to receive a Fellowship, VEF organizes an orientation on U.S. university application procedures. The purposes of these meetings are to inform the candidates of necessary requirements and expectations and to give them a chance to meet with VEF Fellows from previous cohorts, who can share their valuable experiences.
Visiting Scholar Program
The Visiting Scholar Program is a pilot project recently established for Vietnamese nationals, who already hold a doctorate in the fields that VEF supports, including sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This program is intended to support professional development training, which may include studies, research, and/or observational activities, to take place in cooperation with the leading U.S. academic institutions. The scholar will develop and undertake a program of a minimum of three months up to one year in length, which may include formal courses, workshops, seminars, laboratory or field research, or other types of professional development activities. Upon returning to Vietnam, the Visiting Scholar must use the knowledge and skills acquired in the U.S. to train others. In this way, the VEF Visiting Scholar Program is a training-of-trainers (TOT) program. For the 2007 Visiting Scholar Program, 27 qualified applicants met the deadline, out of whom 12 (44%) have been accepted.
Among this year’s Visiting Scholars, the primary fields of interest are agricultural sciences, electrical engineering, and physics. The majority of Visiting Scholars are female (58%). The region of origin in Vietnam is equally divided between the North (50%) and the rest of the country with the South representing 42% and the Center 8%. Half of the Visiting Scholars are hosted by U.S. universities in the East while only 17% are attending schools in the West. Most Visiting Scholars are between the ages of 30-39 (51%), followed by the second largest group of those between the ages of 40-49 (33%). The majority (67%) will stay in the U.S. for 6-12 months to complete their intended professional development program.
Building Capacity
VEF has developed strategic activities ranging from seminars and workshops to special projects to help build Vietnam’s capacity in science and technology. As part of the Seminar and Projects Program, VEF has sent more than 60 American scientists to Vietnam to deliver seminars and lectures at almost 60 scientific and educational institutions throughout the country. Furthermore, VEF has been involved in several special projects, in particular, the potential development of Millennium Science Initiative (MSI) Centers of Excellence, the investigation of the potential establishment of a top-tier university in Vietnam, and the development of Vietnam Open Courseware (VOCW). Currently, the VOCW project is in full development with the participation of 14 educational establishments located throughout Vietnam.
VEF also sponsored U.S. experts to investigate the current status of teaching and learning in computer science, electrical engineering, and physics as well as agricultural sciences in the higher education sector in Vietnam. The outcome was two successful reports, entitled Observations on Undergraduate Education in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, and Physics at Select Universities in Vietnam and Observations on the Current Status of Education in the Agricultural Sciences in Vietnam. A follow-up workshop on the reports to suggest new directions for improvement will be conducted in Vietnam in August 2007. VEF is also co-sponsoring the "Second International Conference on the Development of Biomedical Engineering in Vietnam and the Second Young Vietnamese Scientists Meeting" in Hanoi in July 2007 to bring scientists from the U.S, Vietnam, and elsewhere to present state of the art information in this emerging technology and to pave the way for sustainable collaboration.
In essence, the objective of these projects is to contribute to the establishment of a new standard for research and education in sciences and technology in Vietnam.
Future Directions
In the initial phase of its activities, VEF has established an excellent infrastructure with high-quality working operations. In view of its small size and ambitious mission, the vision is to bring VEF to the next level of operations, which will concentrate on sustainable and high standard activities to bridge the scientific, educational and industrial communities of the U.S. and Vietnam.
The goal of VEF is to leave a profound scientific and technological impact on Vietnam by facilitating partnerships between the U.S. and Vietnamese research and education institutions and by helping VEF Fellows to build their dreams, to transform their dreams into their visions, and finally to bring their visions into actions. To that end, VEF will continue to support the basic sciences. Furthermore, VEF will concentrate on the development of pilot activities, with the active participation of VEF Fellows, and researchers and educators in Vietnam, to demonstrate the necessity and feasibility for Vietnam to develop emerging technologies and sciences, to embrace the concept of interdisciplinary collaboration, and to engage in the invaluable relationship between research, education, and entrepreneurship. VEF plans to establish a U.S. Scientific Advisory Council to include Vietnamese-Americans and other experts with professional interests in Vietnam that eventually will pave the way for the establishment of a scientific and technological think-tank for Vietnam.
All of these efforts, focusing on the development of science and technology in Vietnam, together with the involvement of U.S. and Vietnamese scientists and experts in VEF activities in Vietnam, will dynamically continue to build the bridge between the U.S. and Vietnam, building a bright future for the relationship of the two countries.
Acknowledgment
The author would like to thank all the VEF staff for their contributions to this article and the National Academies for their assistance.
the AUTHOR
Toi Van Vo , Ph.D. is an Executive Director of the Vietnam Education Foundation based in Washington, DC. He is concurrently an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University. Prior to his appointment at Tufts, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Biomedical Engineering Center in the Division of Health Sciences and Technology--a combined program of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned his Ph.D. at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. He has been instrumental in building the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts, and the Eye Research Institute in Sion, Switzerland. He co-founded the Vietnamese North American University Professor (VNAUP) network, the Biomedical Engineering Consortium of Vietnam-International Universities and the Vietnamese Association of Biomedical Engineering. Contact him at:
Vietnam Education Foundation
2111 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 700
Arlington, VA 22201, USA
Phone: 1-703-351-5053
Fax: 1-703-351-1423
Email: toivo@vef.gov www.vef.gov and www.tufts.edu/~vvo
