Educating indigenous commercial executives. A business school in colonial context: The case of the Indochina Higher School of Commerce (1920–1932)

Abstract

Research has traditionally addressed higher commercial education in the setting of Western countries, which does not consider empirical evidence that historically some higher education institutions devoted to commercial education were also founded in the colonies. Drawing on archival analysis, this article details the case of the Indochina Higher School of Commerce, founded in 1920, which was officially the first commercial school at the tertiary level in Vietnam in colonial times. Although this school was formed to contribute to the formation of a new type of ‘indigenous elite’, as the colonial administration referred to them, its development was hampered by the contradictions of French colonial policy. Despite its brief existence, the analysis of the Indochina Higher School of Commerce adds a significant layer to the literature concerning the global history of commercial education at higher level.