Students at the International University under the Việt Nam National University-HCM City, which is the only public general university in Việt Nam to exclusively teach in English. — VNS Photo Gia Lộc

HCM CITY — Many universities in HCM City offer programmes in English to enable their students to communicate in that language when they work elsewhere in the ASEAN Economic Community, within which the bloc’s nationals can freely migrate.

According to surveys done by recruitment companies, many enterprises complain that Vietnamese employees lack English skills.

They recommend that higher education establishments should strive to improve their students’ English.

More and more universities in the city are offering training programmes in English to address this problem.

The International University under the Việt Nam National University-HCM City has, in fact, switched completely to English, the only public general university in Việt Nam to do so.

A survey by the university on enterprises’ satisfaction with its students last year showed a level of 94 per cent.

The HCM City University of Technology offered its programme in English in 2006. The number has since increased to more than 30.

According to the university, the programmes aim to improve the competitiveness of Vietnamese engineers in the ASEAN labour market and meet the growing demands of companies.

They include computer science, computer engineering, automative engineering, and others.

Tôn Đức Thắng University teaches 11 majors in English.

Many private universities in the city also offer many programmes in English.

Hoa Sen University has programmes called the Hoa Sen Five Star Plus with classrooms having only 25 students and teaching in English. The programmes include the Vatel International Programme in co-operation with France’s Vatel Hotel & Tourism Business School and others in marketing, logistics and supply chain management and hospitality administration.

Hồng Bàng International University will launch nine more international training programmes in English in medicine, pharmacology, nursing, architecture, economic laws, finance-banking, industrial management, tourism and travel administration, and international relations in the 2020-2021 academic year, raising its total number to 16.

The programmes admit both international and Vietnamese students in order to foster a multi-cultural environment at the university, Assoc Prof Dr Hồ Thanh Phong, the university’s rector, said, adding that students in these programmes could easily transfer to the university’s joint training programmes with universities in the US, New Zealand and other places.

Many city universities also offer courses in which some of the subjects are taught in English.

Dương Văn Minh, a student of this course at the HCM City University of Science, told Việt Nam News: “I have been taught subjects such as analytical chemistry, nanochemistry and general chemistry in English. English textbooks for these subjects in this course are very good and easy for me to understand because they are not too academic.

“Moreover, my English reading and writing skills have improved thanks to the course”. — VNS