Improving Higher Education Quality Program in Vietnam

The United States Agency for International Development, otherwise known as USAID, is a US federal government agency that's fundamentally accountable for administering civilian foreign aid to several countries around the globe.

The grants and programs of the USAID are all tailored to aid in the accomplishment of its general agency mission which is to"extend a helping hand to those people overseas struggling to make a better life, recover from a disaster or battling to live in a free and democratic country."

In line with this mission, the United States Agency for International Development Headquarters in Bangkok has recently established the Improving Higher Education Quality Program in Vietnam.

The program intends to fortify the human and institutional capacity of local Vietnamese higher education institutions, in an effort to create and administer quality education programs, training, and various research programs that support important economic expansion.

USAID has explained this programme resulted from the movement of Vietnam, turning into a middle-income country standing, instead of originally being a low-income country. Due to this speedily changing industrial landscape, the education system of the country is suffering from incredible pressure.

The Improving Higher Education Quality Program attempts to remedy that concern, by way of constituting programs and activities that can potentially leave behind academic legacies which are highly capable of providing effective human capital development.

Among all of the areas of concern are the educations system's institutional differentiation and autonomy, training, pay, and promotion of professors, reconstruction of instructional strategies, development of 21st century education managers and leaders, and eventually, the development and usage of relevant curriculum.

In its Higher Education Reform Agenda (HERA), the Vietnamese government has said that the education system will be critically improved through improving the standard of teaching and research, extending the autonomy of higher education institutions specifically in academic and administrative matters, with an end goal of improving responsiveness to the requirements of beneficiaries; and finally, increasing private sector investments.

The recipients of the grant award will be tasked to develop programs and initiatives that will address these concerns, and as a result, the USAID Headquarters in Bangkok is ready to administer a funding amount of $2,500,000 to help this initiative.

USAID has stipulated that the organizations and institutions who will be eligible to submit an application under this program are the following:

a) US or non-US non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

b) Non-profit or for-profit setups

c) Academic institutions

d) Private sector entities.


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Using Online Learning to Improve Your Education

Online education has made it easier to get a music degree or nursing degree. Learning online has enabled many people to get a better education. If you know how to surf the Internet, then you have knowledge at your fingertips.

It is no longer necessary to travel long distances and sacrifice work and family in order to expand your skill set and your knowledge. You can get a degree online or in a hybrid arrangement that allows you to do most of your studies on the Internet while you visit a campus for hands-on training. Consider these examples.

Online Paralegal Degree
A bachelor degree in paralegal studies can get you into the legal world without having to acquire training in law. Paralegals do most of the research and prepare cases for lawyers. The only thing that a paralegal cannot do is represent clients in court.

Thanks to the Internet, you can now do much of the class work and reading online. You do not have to lose time traveling to a campus and sitting in a classroom. The Internet can bring all the resources you need to study into your home or any where with access to the online world.

Online Music Degree
A music degree is a good example of a course of study that can benefit from a hybrid approach to distance learning. You will need to study theory. There is no need to take that class on a campus. Instead, you could easily listen to music samples and evaluate them online.

Other classes may require you to play instruments or participate with your instructor in musical performance. By allowing the flexibility which distance learning offers, instructors can adapt courses to meet the needs of students of all kinds. This is especially true for those beginning a second career or simply trying to get a degree that they always wished they had.

Nursing Degree
Some degrees, such as a nursing degree, require a lot of hands-on training. However, even a nursing degree has prerequisites which include a lot of reading and writing. These courses are ideal candidates for distance learning and online education.

Eventually, in a course of study that required hands on experience such as a nursing degree, you will need work on campus or at another specified location. That does not mean, though, that the online world has lost all use for you. No matter how much time is spent on campus, the Internet is always a valuable resource to have.

Even courses which require daily meetings in a classroom can profit from using the technology that makes distance learning possible. Students can save money by purchasing electronic textbooks and bringing them to their classes on laptop computers. Instructors now have access to any video or audio presentation that they think will be helpful to their classes.

Whether you want a paralegal degree, a music degree or a nursing degree, you will find the Internet to be helpful. It can offer mountains of valuable information. It can also make it possible for you to enhance your knowledge without having to give up your job.

Importance of Education in Society

Education, if looked at beyond its conventional boundaries, forms the very essence of all our actions. What we do is what we know and have learned, either through instructions or through observation and assimilation. When we are not making an effort to learn, our mind is always processing new information or trying to analyze the similarities as well as the tiny nuances within the context which makes the topic stand out or seem different. If that is the case then the mind definitely holds the potential to learn more, however, it is us who stop ourselves from expanding the horizons of our knowledge with self-doubt or other social, emotional, or economic constraints.

While most feel that education is a necessity, they tend to use it as a tool for reaching a specific target or personal mark, after which there is no further need to seek greater education. Nonetheless, the importance of education in society is indispensable and cohering, which is why society and knowledge cannot be ever separated into two distinct entities. Let us find out more about the role of education in society and how it affects our lives.

Purpose of Education in Society

Education is Self Empowerment
Receiving a good education helps empower you, thus making you strong enough to look after yourself in any given situation. It keeps you aware of your given surrounding as well as the rules and regulations of the society you're living in. It's only through knowledge that you can be able to question authority for its negligence or discrepancies. It is only then that you can avail your rights as a citizen and seek improvement in the structural functioning of governance and economy. It's only when a citizen is aware about the policies of its government can he be able to support or protest the change. As a whole, people can bring about development only when they know where improvement is necessary for the greater good of mankind. Education helps you understand yourself better, it helps you realize your potential and qualities as a human being. It helps you to tap into latent talent, so that you may be able to sharpen your skills.

Financial Stability and Dignity of Life
Another importance of education is that it helps you gain sufficient academic qualification so that you are able to get suitable employment at a later stage. A decent employment would be combined with hard-earned remuneration or salary through which you can look after your personal expenses. While you earn for yourself, you gradually begin to realize the true worth of money and how hard it is to earn it. You realize the significance of saving for a rainy day and for unforeseeable contingencies. You feel empowered because there is a new sense of worth that develops within you, and you feel the need to be independent and free from any further financial support. You take pride in the fact that you are earning for yourself, and are not obligated to anyone.

Growth in Personal Aspiration
There also comes a phase when the amount you are earning presently will seem inadequate because your aspirations and expectations from yourself would have grown considerably. After this, you will want to change jobs so as to have a higher profile. However, here is when you need to be prepared. A promotion of this figure can occur in two given situations, which are, that either you have the necessary higher academic qualification or a college degree which allows you a safe passage, or that you have amassed enough practical experience which allows you to be a suitable candidate for the employment you seek.

On the Job Efficiency
This is why college education is very important after high school and must not be taken for granted. When faced with the option of choosing between a highly qualified candidate and a not so educated candidate, the employers will most probably go in for the qualified person. The reason being that, a qualified candidate will not require much investment of the employer's time and money. The organization need not teach him or her the tricks of the trade, or the various ways of functioning and performing the tasks of the workplace. On the contrary, a novice / amateur applicant would need to be taught everything from scratch, which many employer's are usually not willing to do. The same applies for people who seek higher education and get advanced diplomas while working. These people are continuously improving their profile and their knowledge base so as to go higher up on the competitive ladder.

Helps Plan Ahead
Those who have amassed enough education, steer the path of development and progress for their country. It is these individuals who go ahead and become teachers, scientists, inventors, welfare activists, soldiers, and politicians who work together to form the very backbone of the society. Without this pool of intellect, the economic and social framework would crumple and fall, paving its way for anarchy, degradation, and violence. While this intricate balance of growth is maintained, there will be a continuous rise in progress in all quarters of life, whether that be personal growth, or development of the nation as an entity. This progress has a very important role to play for the coming generations, which will reap the benefits of our hard work, as they develop it further. At the same time, the negative impact of our actions shall have its collateral damage on the coming generation as well. Which is why we must be exceptionally prudent about the decisions we make and the actions we take in the present.

Job Seeker vs. Job Provider
There will come a time, when you will no longer feel the need to be working as someone's mere employee. You would want to take charge and control over your own life and income. This is when you will decide to become a self-employed individual, who would like to watch his / her own ideas take realistic form. You would prefer being the one offering job opportunities to others and aid in providing income to them. At this stage of entrepreneurship, you may use your own expertise as well as that of other trained and skilled associates. As a team, you will find your business or venture expanding and yielding good results. You may even gain the confidence and insight, which will help you diversify and spread your expertise into other business arenas, which were previously unknown to you, or you were unsure about. This ability, comes with experience and knowledge amassed over the years.

An Idle Mind is The Devil's Workshop
Education and studying regularly, gives people of all age groups something substantial and challenging to do. It helps them think and use their idle hours, doing something productive and worthwhile. Education need not be purely academic and may include reading for leisure or as a passion for literature, philosophy, art, politics, economics, or even scientific research. There is no limit, to all that you can teach yourself, only if you take the interest to learn and grow as an individual. However, those who treat knowledge as trash, eventually find themselves getting absorbed with thoughts of violence, and jealously against those who are better off than themselves. It is people such as these who turn towards drug addiction, unnecessary rebellion, crime, and plain inactivity. Such people lack the self-esteem, that a good education often provides to its followers.

Education plays its continuous role in all spheres of life. The reason being, that if we are aware of the drawbacks of a decision and we know about the possible contingencies and the collateral damage, our consequent actions would be wiser, which would help us to keep danger at bay at all times.
By Rohini Mohan

Why is Education the Key to Success

Everyone of us is a bundle of unique gifts and talents. Our relative success in life depends on how much we believe in ourselves, trust our own private genius, nurture it and let it grow freely. What education does is that it provides us with the opportunity to unravel and realize our inborn talents, while providing us with the skills of thinking and solving problems on our own. Both education and success are relative concepts in the sense that there is a wide difference of opinion regarding what is real education and what is real success. In this Buzzle article, I present you with my argument about why is education the key to success, based on my own understanding of what real education and true success means.

What is Real Education?

Real education is the one which enables you to think for yourself and apply what you have learned. Purely knowing facts and being able to effectively remember and recall them isn't being educated. To be educated is being able to make your own decisions and form your own opinions about things. It is the imparting of skills that enable you to succeed in any field of human endeavor and make your original contribution. What good education requires is a one-to-one interaction between a good teacher and student.

There are two factors of education which must mold two different aspects of the human psyche - one is analytical intelligence and the other is emotional intelligence. The former deals with the ability to solve technical problems while the latter deals with the ability to empathize, communicate, connect with our fellow human beings. A wholesome education system must educate both these facets of the human psyche to mold a character with all the abilities required to live a happy and successful life.

Why is Education the Key to Success?

Man is what his thoughts make him. Education provides direction to these thoughts. Success is more than just accumulation of material wealth. I believe that success is not a destination but a never ending journey in self exploration. It is unlocking your true potential to make your life itself a work of art. Success has more than one dimensions to it. Acquiring material wealth is not the only one. To what degree have you conquered your self and achieved liberation from wanting and needing things is another indicator of success. Education plays a large role in determining our potential for achieving this success. Here are some of the prime arguments supporting the idea of education as the veritable key to success.

High Educational Qualifications Provide Better Job Opportunities
Specialized knowledge gained through higher education opens opportunities in the form of well paying jobs, with a challenging work profile. While higher education may not guarantee success, it certainly puts you in a position to work with the best in the field and gain valuable experience, which helps you in the long term pursuit of professional success. So graduation through college and working hard to get through graduate school has its benefits.

Provides the Requisite Skill Set to Succeed
Education that enables individuals to succeed is not just the formal kind. The direct education that one gains through hands-on experience and working with the masters in a field, that goes beyond purely bookish knowledge, prepares you for success. Real education begins when you start applying what you learned through formal education to solve real world problems. The discipline, perseverance and ability to apply oneself pave the path to success.

Provides Access to the Vast Store of Human Knowledge
Just being able to read and write, provides you access to the vast store of human knowledge in the form of books, which is the combined wisdom of ages. A man benefits from the path shown by the great masters of any field by accessing this knowledge store. Distilling knowledge to gain wisdom is the ultimate aim of education. Great minds like Newton have acknowledged the contributions of their predecessors which contributed to their success. Standing on the shoulders of the great giants of men who made magnanimous contributions to human knowledge, we can see further than they did.

Education Through Experience Provides the Real Edge
A college degree or any kind of formal education can provide you with the knowledge required to succeed in your field. It does not ensure success unless you learn to apply what you learned and apply it effectively to find innovative solutions. Education provides you with the means, but the application required to succeed must come from within you. The edge that winners gain over their competitors is through experience and out of the box thinking.

Ultimately Success Is All About Self Belief
No institution can provide better education than life itself. Besides conventional education, the lessons we learn through our day-to-day life, our ability to adapt and self introspect, adoption of a strong value system and most importantly, self belief are the keys to success. The importance of education lies in its ability to forge a man of character.

The real key to success is self belief, which can unlock your inner potential. Education which puts you on the path of self discovery, leading to self belief, adds meaning to your life and provides you with the means to achieve lasting success in life. As rightly put by W.B.Yeats, education lights the inner fire and provides us with the ability to think independently, making success only a matter of time.
By Gray Pilgrim

Necessity of Online Education for Older Women

The system of linking students, teachers and learning resources when they are not in the same location is called "distance learning". Earlier, distance learning made effective use of communication technologies like the postal service, and then television programs. However, a huge shift occurred after the advent of the Internet and "online education" was born. This transformed not only the methods of education but also the development and propagation of knowledge and communications between students and teachers. But how did all this effect older women? Technology granted new opportunities for many older women to achieve educational goals and they successfully managed to balance home and education.

Universities now form partnerships with businesses and even each other to compete better, in a greatly expanded worldwide market for students. The growth of online education can be attributed primarily to these reasons -

• You get to choose the class hours according to your discretion.

• Instead of a typical classroom environment, you get to learn in the comfort of your home.

• Since the actual sessions are never crowded, more attention is focused on you.

• Zero conveyance cost. Also you get to choose a class which fits your personal style and budget.

• Since there is to-and-fro involved, you save a lot of time.

According to a survey, more than 2 million students enrolled in online education courses in 2002 alone. If a recent U.S. government document is to be believed, the average age of online students is 34 years old and they are mostly female.

So why do older women pursue continuing education? According to a survey, the main impetuses of women for returning to education are -

• Expansion of their current career

• Enhancement of current salary

• Changing or beginning careers

• Returning to staff position

• Pursuing personal advantages

Among the women surveyed, 20% belonged to the age group of 41 - 50.

The top online colleges offering scholarships in America are -

(i) Liberty University

(ii) Post University

(iii) Kaplan University

(iv) DeVry University

(v) American Inter Continental University

(vi) Grand Canyon University.

The number of older women currently working to complete courses and degrees online represents a social wonder. Awareness of women's problems and measures to help overcome the tribulations are required to raise the success of both older women and online programs.

Although women are the main users, they are grossly underrepresented in high-tech sectors and among university administrators who are currently influential to online learning. Many adult women returning to college classes have to tackle significant hurdles not usually experienced by men. Many women balance career, community and household tasks against their curricular work. They often have serious economic liabilities too. Customarily, they have grappled with these difficulties while also facing inflexible class schedules and educational policies, incompetent childcare, lack of appropriate lodging, and lack of dependable transportation. Online education seeks to solve all this and more.