Patterns of Ownership and Management in Vietnam’s Private Higher Education: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Since 1988, Vietnam’s private higher education sector has developed into an integral part of the higher education system. Nevertheless, we know very little about who owns private universities, or what their management models look like. Interviews with institutional leaders, policy-makers, and the analysis of archived policy documents reveal that ownership models of Vietnamese private universities are considerably diverse. In general, almost all ownership models that exist in worldwide private higher education sectors—i.e., venture, enterprise, shareholder, and foreign—are reflected in the case of Vietnam. However, we highlight that business corporations own and manage many of Vietnam’s private universities. Our data also finds a parallel between the development of higher education privatization and the state’s persistent efforts to keep collective ownership—a Communist ideology signature—in practice. We conclude the article with a discussion on how ownership diversity in private higher education reflects the remarkable changes—more specifically the growing pluralism—in Vietnam’s political economy.