Education experts exchange ideas to reform higher education models at the forum in Hà Nội on Monday. — Photo courtesy of FTU

HÀ NỘI — Education experts discussed reform measures on Monday at the forum on Internationalisation in Higher Education 2019 (FIHE) in Hà Nội.

The one-day event, entitled “Innovative partnership in cross-border higher education", is organised by the Foreign Trade University (FTU) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training and the Bristish Council in Việt Nam.

“As we know, the higher education worldwide is currently witnessing substantial changes from the labor market, learners’ demand and information technology,” said FTU Rector Bùi Anh Tuấn.

“In that context, universities seek for innovative and effective cooperation models to help them achieve the big goal and spread their education philosophy.

“Knowledge sharing and the exchange of valuable experiences are critically important. FIHE, an initiative of FTU, is established to create an environment for universities to accomplish this mission.”

Tuấn said the forum has successfully created a flexible and innovative hub of empowerment for education transformation which is not just limited to the higher education level, university level or national boundaríe.

He added: “In order to raise the new generation of global students who are cooperative, agile to changes with a high sense of responsibility and positive impacts on the society, it is a high time for universities in Việt Nam as well as universities worldwide to join our hands to connect, collaborate, co-create new models to serve the community and above all, to ensure that we can truly build and spread the culture of innovation in a sustainable way.”

This year's forum attracted 300 people from 32 international universities and international organitations, 47 local universities and organisations and representatives of 12 embassies in Việt Nam.

At the annual forum, participants shared experiences and facilitated the innovation of international cooperation models between higher education institutions, organisations and enterprises in efforts to enhance operation efficiency and management capacity and also foster the influence of non-traditional universities and higher education service providers.

They also focused discussions on opportunities and challenges, together with the strengths and weaknesses of cooperative models between universities and businesses, especially in promoting social innovation and the formation of social enterprises.

Participants predicted new cooperation trends in cross-border higher education, discovered economic, political, social and technological factors that might have a critical impact on the cooperation trends in the future.

They also discussed topics related to international development and cooperation between higher education institutions and promoted opportunities for negotiation and cooperation between Vietnamese and foreign universities.

Participants also committed to support the Foreign Trade University's initiative of building and developing the Cross-border University Innovation Ecosystem, which has been laid foundation in the Hanoi Declaration 2019.

Initiated since 2017, the annual FIHE is an outstanding initiative of FTU that aimed to find new models to promote education internationalisation in Việt Nam. — VNS