Higher Education Finance and Cost-Sharing in Vietnam I. Brief Description of the Vietnamese Higher Education System

The Vietnamese people have always given a high priority to education, especially higher education. Vietnam’s first university, Temple of Literature (Van Mieu – Quoc Tu Giam), was founded in 1070. Nowadays, the Vietnamese higher education system is diversified and multilevel. In the 2006-2007 academic year, it included 322 universities and colleges of which 47 were private. Of the 275 public institutions, large multidisciplinary universities dominate. Fourteen of these have been designated key universities and they enroll almost one-third of all higher education students (Hayden and Thiep 2006).