Vietnam Plans $82MLN for Postgraduate Education
Vietnam is expected to spend around VND1.3 trillion ($82 million) on a project to send excellent
students and state officials aboard to attend postgraduate training courses from now to the year 2010, announced a reliable source from the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET)
The project No. 322 is now in the second stage lasting from 2006 to 2014 of the national postgraduate training program
Accordingly, state capital allocated to this project is estimated at VND260 billion ($16.4 million) a year during the 2006-2010 period
Annually around 400 people receive scholarships from the project to study abroad, including 200 for doctor, 100 for master, 40 for tertiary degree training and 60 for scientific practice courses
The training fields of priority under this project are information technology, electronics - telecommunication, energy, material science, biotechnology, the areas serving infrastructure building, agriculture - forestry, and some areas of social and humanity sciences
Launched by MoET in 1999 with the sponsorship of the state budget, the postgraduate training program is an effort of the local government to further increase capacity of the human resources
Last year, Vietnam reported spending a total number of $44 million carrying out the first stage of the program. The country is expected to pour an additional capital of $110 million in the second phase, said MoET
Between 2000 and 2002, more than 1,700 people were sent abroad for study under the program, with annual funding of around VND100 billion ($6.46 million). The number decreased to 412 last year from 453 in 2003
Currently, the country has 146 centers offering postgraduate education
Source: Vietnam News Briefs
