Minister of Education and Training welcomes Irish Ambassador

Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha welcomed Irish Ambassador Cait Moran in Vietnam

At the meeting, Minister Phung Xuan Nha and Irish Ambassador Cait Moran discussed promoting co-operation in the field of education and training between Vietnam and Ireland. In particular, Vietnam proposed Ireland to support and send experts to Vietnam to work and exchange experiences, especially in the field of quality accreditation in education.

Vietnam also suggested that Ireland assist in organising seminars to exchange experiences and training for education managers, as well as consider to negotiate the recognition of diploma equivalence and credit transfer with Vietnam. At the same time, Ireland was requested to encourage co-operation between higher education and general education institutions of the two countries.

The Irish side proposed the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam (MoET) to promote co-operation between Vietnamese and Irish universities by first supporting and co-ordinating the organisation of the Vietnam-Ireland higher education workshop in October 2019 and the Working Group activities periodically rotating between the two countries and falling to Ireland in 2019.

Vietnam and Ireland established diplomatic relations in 1996. In the field of education and training, the two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on higher education co-operation between the MoET of Vietnam and the Department of Education and Skills of Ireland, and the MoU on co-operation in the field of information and communications technology training between the MoET of Vietnam and Ireland's ECDL organisation in November 2016.

Over the past years, the MoET has strengthened co-operation and supported the Irish Embassy to deploy two scholarship programmes for Vietnamese students with the number of about 30 scholarships each year. Ireland is currently implementing a VIBE project on joint training and scientific research within the framework of the Vietnam-Ireland Bilateral Education Exchange Project.

Although agreements have been signed, educational co-operation between Vietnam and Ireland remains modest. The number of Vietnamese students studying in Ireland under scholarship programmes funded by the state through the MoET is still limited. Currently, there is no training linkage programme between Vietnamese and Irish higher education institutions.