Vietnam has become one of the 20 countries sending the highest number of students to the United States, with 30 percent more students enrolled in US universities and colleges in 2007 than the previous year, said a US official.

President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of International Education Allan Goodman, who led a delegation of US educational managers to Hanoi, said they were proud to be a bridge linking US school managers with the Vietnamese Government and school managers in Vietnam.

Goodman said they would work to find out ways to make their educational co-operation as effective as possible.

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan, in a reception given to the IIE president and the presidents of seven leading US universities, briefed his guest on the challenges Vietnam faced in education and training.

These included the training of education managers, especially at the tertiary level, as well as long-distance and community college education and training.

Nhan highlighted an ongoing co-operation project between the two governments to build a US-Vietnam university in which Vietnam would provide facilities and equipment and the US personnel training, curriculum and management expertise.

He also said the two countries were working on building a list of US and Vietnamese standardised universities and colleges.

There are about 6,000 Vietnamese students currently studying in universities and colleges in the United States, and the seven US university president said the presence of out standing Vietnamese students in the US had contributed to the diversity of the learning environment at US schools.

The presidents also supported cultural and global educational exchange achieved by sending American students to Vietnam.

Source: VNA
Photo: chinhphu