Impacts of language and culture on the internationalization of higher education in VietNam and Japan

Japanese universities have not yet implemented a solid administration policy to support equally the needs of national and foreign students and academics. One of the ar[r]

IMPACTS OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE ON THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

IN VIETNAM AND JAPAN

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Huyền

In te rn a tio n a l S c h o o l- V N U H anoi, V ie tn a m Rosario Laratta, Dr.

G d u a te S c h o o l o f G o v e rn a n c e S tudies, M e iji U n ive rsity, T okyo, J a p a n

Abstract

There is a current inclination in a number of Asian countries to internationalize their universities through the adoption and development o f cooperative/joint-training programs, or broaden their reach in other ways, for example by recruiting international students, researchers and/or professors This development in the education market arises from the nature of labor markets and social globalization in general, since Higher Education plays such a significant role in socio-economic development HE internationalization presents both challenges and opportunities within global integration Students and researchers worldwide are seeking a better level o f education, more attractive research facilities and first-class intellectual affiliations, so there is a giant market fo r HE internationalization However, there are also many obstacles to overcome, one o f the greatest of which relates to language and culture With the goal of creating mutual understanding, the form er is the tool and the latter is the catalyst in the formation and greater development o f internationalization of HE

The scope of this paper is two-fold First, it develops a theoretical fram ework to understand what internationalization is in the context of Higher Education We believe that it is necessary to distinguish between the terms, ‘an age of internationalization’ and ‘an international vision’ Second, it analyzes the impacts of language and culture on the internationalization of Higher Education by comparing and contrasting developments in the two countries: Vietnam and Japan The research used both secondary data and information collected through the authors’ participatory observations in two international schools/colleges, one in Hanoi and the other in Tokyo The outcome is expected to be a model which exemplifies such issues as university administration policy, working conditions and foreign stereotypes (culture conflict), as well as student attitudes in order to provide some suggested policy changes for consideration

Keywords: Higher Education (HE), Internationalization, barriers, Vietnam, Japan

1 INTRODUCTION & THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Universities in a number o f Asian countries are being urged, essentially for fiscal reasons, to adopt a more Western academic ethos, a trend which may be seen in the international promotion of their programmes but which is likely to achieve little more than a boost to their aspirations as global players without a fundamental change in outlook

To understand what internationalization is in the context of higher education, we should consensually distinguish between the terms ‘an age of internationalization’ and ‘an international vision' The first of these may be understood more as a normative perspective for viewing the potentialities and necessities that students, researchers and faculty members have or face these days than as an objective characterization of the age itself as often depicted on university websites On the other hand, the international vision may be considered from an academic perspective as the driving force that dictates the direction which both national and foreign students, researchers, and faculty members could rationally take to operate in a cosmopolitan environment, if they are not deterred by infrastructural or administrative barriers, or even personal attitudes of the students themselves

While the internationalization of Vietnamese Higher Education is diversified: (i) sending Vietnamese students abroad (using both Vietnamese government scholarships and budgets funded by foreign universities, organizations and governments), (ii) accepting foreign universities and colleges to set up campuses in Vietnam to enroll Vietnamese students (i.e RMIT university, Australia, or PSB college, Singapore), or (iii) running cooperated/joint-training programs between a Vietnam ese academia and a foreign one The last trend has just developed for approximately a decade, but it is becoming more and more popular Besides, there are a great number of students who have managed to go study abroad themselves (by applying for a scholarship or self-financing) According to the statistics of the Vietnam International Education Department (VIED), Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), there are over 100,000 Vietnamese students studying abroad (2011), in about 49 countries, 90% of which are self- financed

The trend of internationalization of Higher Education in Japan is mainly internationalization in two arenas: a higher education system which has two parallel orientations towards internationalization, namely, (i) an expansion of their own system toward other countries, and (ii) a transformation o f learning environments fo r domestic students (Yonezawa Akiyoshi, 2009) On the one hand, Japan is a country with relatively strong national identities and can influence higher education systems in other countries (COE21, Global 30, etc.); on the other hand, they are trying to 'internationalize' their own campuses by inviting international faculty and students

Table 1: N um ber and Share o f International Students in Japan

China 72,766 58,76%

Korea, Rep. 18,862 15,23%

Taiwan 5,082 4,1%

Vietnam 2,873 2,32%

Malaysia 2,271 1,83%

Thailand 2,203 1,78%

United States of America 2,024 1,64%

Indonesia 1,791 1,45%

Bangladesh 1,686 1,36%

Nepal 1,476 1,2%

Others 12,795 10,33%

In 1877, the Japanese governm ent established the University o f Tokyo as the first modern university authorized by the modern government This university was aimed to be a ‘world class’ university from the beginning, and the governm ent concentrated its higher education budget into this single university before the second national university (Kyoto University) started 20 years later Many foreign faculty were invited

with salaries which w ere extraordinary higher than the national av e rag e , who w ere then replaced by

Japanese faculties who had been sent to study in developed countries with governm ent scholarship (Yonezawa Akiyoshi, 2009) In 1935, when in most of countries in the region higher education was still at the very early stage Japan already had 45 universities and 218 higher education institutions (Monbusho, 1990, cited by Yonezawa, 2009) Probably, high quality of Japan’s higher education system is one of reasons why the number of Japanese students studying abroad is traditionally relatively low But the number of foreign students in Japan is also low To change the situation, in 1983 the Japanese government launched a plan aiming to attract 100,000 international students to Japan by 2000 The plan was quite successful with the number o f international students increased from 10,428 in 1983 to 52,405 in 1993 (Huang Futao, 2007) and exceeded 100,000 in 2003 (Yonezawa 2009) However, international students count for only 2.2% of total student population (OECD Korea Country Note, 2006) In 2008, the Japanese government under Fukuda declared another plan to attract 300,000 international students to Japan by 2020 This plan was released along with the “Global 30” plan, which aimed at supporting 30 world class universities in this country (Ngo Tu Lap, 2011)

For Vietnam, for about more than a decade so far, the most popular form of internationalization HE is to run joint programs (JPs) Since 1998, when the MOET authorized the first JP co-offered by Hanoi University of Foreign Languages and Victoria University (Australia), this model of HE internationalization has become very popular in Vietnam In 2010, the MOET has publicized the list o f 112 authorized JPs This list does not include several dozen JPs at VNU Hanoi, VNU Hochiminh, and three regional universities in Thái Nguyên, Đ Nang and Huế, which have the power to approve the JPs offered by their member institutions VNU, Hochiminh have member institutions - the International University - VNU Hochiminh, specialized in conducting JPs in English The International School o f the VNU Hanoi (VNU-IS) is even more original: it conducts international degree programs in FOUR foreign languages, namely Russian, English, French and Chinese (Vietnamese is the instruction language only in the Vietnam Studies Program, designed fo r foreigners) (Ngo Tu Lap, 2011)

2 METHODOLOGY

By focusing on the International School at Vietnam National University and the Governance School at Meiji University (Japan), this study will: i) e xp lo re some of the key barriers that may retard the process of

internationalization; ii) e x e m p lify su ch issu e s by identifying the main similarities an d differences betw een

the two cases in dealing with HE internationalization both linguistically and culturally; and iii) p ro vid e some suggested policy changes for consideration

This paper used both secondary data and information collected through the authors' participatory observations Those two types of findings were then organized as two separate case studies which are reported in the next paragraph Due to a shortage of time, the authors were not able to collect primary data through questionnaire survey or face-to-face interviews as was originally planned

3 CASE STUDIES: ‘IS’(VIETNAM) AND ‘GS’(JAPAN)

One of the biggest barriers in running international programmes is the matter o f language and culture (cross-cultural communication) The affects of language and culture are exposed clearly under the university administration policy, working conditions and foreign stereotypes (culture conflict), as well as student attitudes and foreign lecturers’ behaviors

Established in July, 2002, International School - Vietnam National University (VNU-IS) is a school which provides joint-training programs authorized by Vietnam National University

Since 2002, ISVNU has recorded remarkable developments From a small institution only offering one undergraduate program in Russian, the School has designed and successfully offered a dozens of joint undergraduate and araduate programs In 2006 a Center of French Universities (Pole universitaire francaise - PUF), supported jointly by Vietnamese and French Governments, was established as a department of VNU-IS In 2010, VNU-IS’s Russian World Center (Russkiy Mir) was established with financial support from The Russian President's Foundation Today, VNU-IS has over 2000 students, a significant increase in numbers compared to 43 in 2002 Among the current students, 136 are foreigners (Canadian, Chinese, and Russian), and meanwhile 291 have transferred to ISVNU’s partner universities (Australia, Holland, England and Malaysia) In 2010, VNU-IS signed an agreement with the University of Social Sciences (Vietnam) and a group of French Universities (Nantes, Angers, Le Mans) on forming an International Doctorate School (Ngo Tu Lap, 2011)

The programs at VNU-IS are conducted in four foreign languages: English (with key partners are HELP University, Malaysia and Keuka College, USA); Russian (in cooperation with the University of Economics, Statistics and Information, Russia); French (partners: Paris Sud 11, University o f Nantes, and Lyon, France); and Chinese (students only study Chinese at VNU-IS to prepare for their degree program in China) The training programs include: English, Russian, French, and Chinese Preparation, Vietnamese courses for Chinese students, graduate programs in different majors in four listed languages and postgraduate programs in English Since 2011, VNU-IS opens a new program named International Business degreed by VNU (this is not a joint-training program), but still the major subjects are conducted in English

However, since the academic year 2011-2012, the number of students applied fo r French, Russian and Chinese programs is very small: around 10 for each More than 2000 students of VNU-IS now are taking English-based programs Hence, this paper will discuss matters in the scope of the English-used programs only

3.1.1 School Adm inistration Policy

VNU-IS has not yet implemented a solid administration policy to support equally the needs of national and foreign students and academics At present, all administrative documents and notifications from VNU (the mother university) are in Vietnamese, which creates a feeling and sense of “not belonging to the group” for—th e -fo re ig n s tu d e n ts -a n d -le c tu re rs —A t t h e schooH eve l—m ost-of-adm inistrative-d ocum ents-and- notifications are also in Vietnamese, only a few types of documents are bilingual such as working contracts (for foreign lecturers); and memoranda with foreign partners are in English All the activities and policies o f the Youth Union (which serve the benefits of students) and of the Labour Union (which serve the benefits of staff and lecturers) are informed in Vietnamese, which makes foreign students and lecturers ‘ignored’

A t the management level, all board members and manager positions at VNU-IS are Vietnamese people Generally, the management system is Vietnamese style In order to improve the internationalization,

should there be a qualified foreigner (English-speaking) to be in the board m em bers or at least a m anager

position?

3.1.2 Working Conditions

It is very complicated according to the law of Vietnam for a foreign employee to get the w ork permit, so only a few lecturers at VNU-IS have got a w ork permit to 'feel safe’ to work here Most o f the others have

to sign a three-to-six-m onth contract, which on the one hand m akes their job ‘u n stab le’, on the other hand

There is one more thing concerning the working conditions that language again is a barrier There is a fact that both technical and infrastructural staffs at VNU-IS not speak English, while lecturers need technical assistance alm ost all the time to deliver their lessons, especially English teachers need to borrow the cassettes, CD players and remote control to use in alm ost all o f their lessons Therefore, it is very important that every staff of VNU-IS speak at least basic conversational English

3.1.3 Student Attitudes & Foreign Lecturers Behaviors

At the English preparation program (GE) of IS, it is apparently that sometimes the Vietnamese students’ demand and the foreign lecturers’ response are mismatched due to lack of language competence and short of culture understanding which leads to mis-mutual-understanding It is quite often that foreign lecturers have troubles with understanding the students and being understood by them For example, a conversation between a lecturer and a group of students of the GE program to negotiate the schedule resulted in a situation that students appeared at school on the day that the lecturer didn't come

Another fact at VNU-IS at present is that there are hardly any foreign students, especially those coming from English-speaking countries in the English-based programs Naturally, IS’s students not have a demand to use English in their daily communication except for the lessons and assignments Thus, it is crucial that VNU-IS launch some policies to attract international students to study at IS

3.2 Graduate School of Governance study - Meiji University

130 years old and located in the heart of Tokyo within walking distance of the Imperial Palace, Japan’s financial and business center in Ohtemachi and Japan’s Mecca for Pop Culture in Akihabara, Meiji University is one of Japan’s most popular universities with 32,000 students The university’s Global Commons (GC) initiative has resulted in the university being selected as a Global 30 and Global COE institution The GC Project is to establish an "Intellectual Global Common", where people from all over the world can gather to advance research and education The intention is to form a foundation for transmitting Japanese culture, technology and intellectual property to the world Under the educational policy of "strengthening the individual," the university will develop students' ability to play an active role in International society and in multinational environments As for the scale of international exchanges of students, it aims to accept 4,000 students from abroad and send 1,500 students into the world, by the academic year 2020 Through these efforts, Meiji University will contribute to the sustainable growth and prosperity o f the world, and challenge to become one of the top universities in the world

Meiji University has also formed the International Education Partners in collaboration with The Asian Students Cultural Association (ABK), JTB Business World Tokyo Corp (BWT), and Benesse Corporation The International Education Partners aims to establish the Total Solutions Model for recruiting, enrollment and finding employment of international students using each know-how; transmission o f information about Meiji University in cooperation with JTB’s overseas branches, development of the versatile web application system jointly with Benesse Corporation, and implementation of Japanese language education along with ABK As of January, 2012, the total number of the agreements is 166, and the number of MOU for the student exchange is 111 of them In addition to this, some Cooperation Agreements were also newly concluded with 10 institutions from 10 countries such as M.v Lomonosov Moscow State University and The University of the Philippines Diliman, as well as The University of Crete (Greece),

Jn October 2011, Meiji University conducted the international symposium "For the Development of Global Competency - Partnership between Businesses and Universities," Problems and concrete measures were presented through the keynote speeches and panel discussion by Presidents from partner institutions and famous companies Approximately 400 participants joined the symposium

o Development of Study in Japan Platform: The web application system was developed: School of Global Japanese Studies introduced online registration and th e screening fee payment system at English Track application in FY2011 The portal site and homepage of Meiji University in English were revised

o Japanese Language Education Offered by Japanese Language Education Center: "Japanese Intensive Programs for intermediate and advanced level” has developed as the regular subjects Supplemental Japanese study as well as advise for the doctoral and master’s thesis were implemented in collaboration with The Asian Students Cultural Association (ABK)

o Employment of Foreign Faculty and sta ff/ English Training Programs for Faculty and Staff: Foreign faculty were hired to expand the English courses and curriculum Faculty, staff, and English program coordinators were employed to handle internationalization in Meiji University The FD Program for Japanese Professors at the university in the U.S and The Foreign Language (English and Chinese) Training Program for administrative staff were implemented

o Satellite Office in Beijing: utilized the JTB’s overseas shared office as the satellite office of Meiji University in Beijing since April 2011, to survey current situation of high schools, Japanese language education and study abroad

Currently, there are schools at Meiji University which provide degree programs in English and registering an increasing numbers of international students There is, however, a fourth one to be established in 2013, the Graduate School of Science and Technology, which will offer an English Course Architecture Program The three schools are:

oGraduate School of Business Administration - English Course in Double Degree Program and having

international students enrolled in FY2011

oSehool of Global Japanese Studies - With 16 international students enrolled in FY 2011

oGraduate School of Governance Studies (GS) - This is a certified professional graduate school established in 2004 This offers a Master’s program in Public Policy 40 international students were enrolled in FY2011 Students come from many countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, and some from African countries such as Tanzania, People’ Republic of Congo In spring 2012 new students from El Salvador (Central America) also joined this school Most of these international students are government officials from emerging countries funded -thr0ugh^lGA/dlGE-and-having-a-2-yeaFd9S-fell0Wshipr-By f0rming-th0se-g0veFnment offiGialsT-the-school-

aims to foster better governance and governance education throughout the world

The number o f international students enrolled in this school can vary according to these two factors: 1) the support from the Japanese Ministry of Education & JIGE who are the providers of the fellowships for international students; and more generally 2) the overall Meiji University real commitment toward a full internationalization process The dependency on these two factors and the number of international students being enrolled in the school can be seen as directly correlated However, there are still also barriers at a more general level which are preventing the full process of internationalization from occurring in traditional universities such as Meiji In the next part o f this paragraph we will give a few examples of these barriers in the Japanese context and make some suggestions for improvement

3.2.1 University Administration Policy

best For instance, e-mails in Japanese sent to foreign students and academics by their secretariats sometimes relate to possible funding sources By the time the recipients realize they can apply, the deadline has often passed To be considered as internationalized, universities should have one or two permanent administrative staff that are trained and can communicate fluently in English in each department

3.2.2 Working Conditions & Foreign Stereotypes

Another barrier consists in the way foreigners are contracted to conduct teaching or research activities by Japanese universities For example, it is almost impossible for foreign scholars to get tenure track employment in Japan This certainly discourages good professors from coming to teach in this country from abroad At the same time, the standard to year contract makes it impossible for foreign professors to make any long term plans for themselves and their families An internationalised university should be able to reward foreign academics with first-class working conditions On the same theme, I found it rather strange that newly employed foreign academics are not notified of their salary level till they start teaching in Japan, which can result in some unpleasant surprises!

Many Japanese academics tend to have a stereotypical attitude towards foreigners For example, they are considered incapable of working at the same pace as the Japanese or to need considerably more leisure time As a result, the Japanese tend to avoid sharing administrative or academic tasks with foreign colleagues even when they may need the help This can have two adverse effects: a) it can promote a feeling of isolation or lack of involvement among foreign scholars; b) it can encourage unethical work practices from certain foreign scholars who pretend not to speak Japanese or feign ignorance about the Japanese culture in order to escape from administrative and/or academic tasks

3.2.3 Student Attitudes

I recognized the other barrier at student level Usually, Japanese students are reluctant to communicate with their overseas counterpart This is often no more than a lack of confidence in their ability to speak English accompanied by awareness that most foreigners not understand Japanese Consequently, Japanese students tend to create their own circles which are difficult for foreigners to enter This unwillingness to communicate also presents a problem for foreign academics in Japan in that many professors spend entire seminars listening to the sound of their own voices because Japanese students not want to ask questions This, in my opinion, represents two types of barrier - one real and the other artificial The real one stems from the fact that many Japanese students have not studied English abroad and so have only a limited ability to express themselves However, the artificial one is their misconception that only fluent English is acceptable This may be attributable to their un-willingness to lose face by making a mistake and sounding foolish when they formulate questions or comments There is another possible reason for this parochial attitude Japanese universities are notoriously demanding in their undergraduate selection procedures but, once in, it is relatively easy to graduate As a result, many students consider that, after passing the entry examination, they are on a four-year holiday, during which they are not required to put in too much of an effort

4 CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

From the case studies we can exemplify the issues by summarizing them in the following table: International S ch o ol-V ietn am National

University

Graduate School of Governance study - Meiji University

Function Running joint-training programs in cooperation with foreign partner colleges and universities

A school involved in HE internationalization Projects by the government

Lecturers Vietnamese lecturers and lecturers from foreign partner universities

Japanese lecturers and foreign lecturers working for Meiji University

Languages in

lessons Vietnamese, English, Russian, French, Chinese Japanese, English Lanauaae for

administration Mainiy Vietnamese Mainly Japanese

School Administration

Policy

-Not equally support administratively between national and international students

-Youth Union’s and Labor Union’s activities are all in Vietnamese

-Technical and Infrastructural staffs not speak English

-Not equally support administratively between national and international students

-Emails relating to funding sources are in Japanese -Administration staffs not speak English

Working Conditions for Foreigners and Stereotypes

-Difficult to pursue a work permit, without which the working contract is only three to six month -The standard contract is one to three years

-Impossible to get tenure track employment -The standard contract is three to four years -No notification of salary for lecturers until they start

teaching in Japan

-Foreigners are considered incapable of working at the same space as the Japanese or to need considerably

more leisure time.

Student attitudes

-Students' foreign language competence is not high enough to communicate effectively with foreign

lecturers, so sometimes they are indifferent in studying with foreign lecturers. -Students don't have enough chances to speak English at most, since there are almost no foreign

students in class to talk with.

-Students are reluctant to communicate with their overseas counterpart because of lack of confidence and

misconception that only fluent English is acceptable

This table has clearly displayed the similarities and differences between the two cases in dealing with HE internationalization-linguisticallyandculturally. - -To surmount these barriers will require a considerable effort from all concerned, including academic policy makers, faculty deans, administration heads and students alike

REFERENCES

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2 Guide Book, International School, Vietnam National University International student Policy of Japan:

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2011

5 List of joint-training programs in Vietnam

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