Vietnam offers free Marxism degrees to draw takers
(free re-education! I wonder if they have any online courses.)
CHRIS BRUMMITT, AP
HANOI,
Vietnam (AP) — Market forces are working against college degrees in
Marx, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, where the Communist government
has resorted to offering free tuition
to attract students.
Prime
Minister Nguyen Tan Dung signed a decree last month giving free tuition
to students agreeing to take four-year courses on Marxism-Leninism and
the thoughts of Ho Chi Minh, the country's
revolutionary hero, at state-run universities.
Students
have been shunning such degrees because employers are not interested in
it, said Pham Tan Ha, head of admission and training at Ho Chi Minh
City Social and Human Sciences University.
Degrees in subjects like communications, tourism, international
relations and English are more popular because students believe "they
will have better chances of employment and better pay when they
graduate," he said.
Students
who study certain medical specialties such as tuberculosis and leprosy
also will get a free ride under the decree. Ordinarily they would have
to pay the equivalent of about $200
a year for tuition.
Currently,
all Vietnamese students must take at least three classes in
Marxist-Leninism and Ho Chi Minh studies, but few go beyond that minimum
requirement.
Vietnam
is run by a Communist regime but embraced free-market reforms in the
1980s. These days, the country's past is mostly apparent in its large
and inefficient state-owned sector,
a repressive state apparatus, the occasional Soviet-era statue or
building and lingering alliances with other leftist countries.
Getting
a good job — rather than the nuances of a discredited political and
economic ideology that runs counter to the capitalism coursing through
the country's towns and cities — is
the primary concern of most young Vietnamese and their families.
More
than 60 percent of the country's 90 million people are under 30, a
demographic sweet spot that can lead to fast economic growth in
developing countries. Competition for well-paying
jobs on graduation is intense among the around 500, 000 graduates who
enter the job market each year.
Many
employers, among them multinationals looking to staff factories or
service industries, complain about the quality of graduates that
Vietnamese universities are producing. There are
many private universities alongside the state-run system, but for those
with money, studying overseas is considered the best option.
Duong
Van Quang, a second-year student at the Hanoi University of Pharmacy,
said students wanting to join the government bureaucracy, especially in
rural areas, were the most likely to
take a degree in Marxist-Lenin philosophy. He felt it unfair that they
should get a free education, regardless of the subject.
Others met over lunch hour in the capital, Hanoi, weren't enthused by the subjects either.
"Studying
Marxism and Leninism is rather dry and many students don't like it,"
said 23-year-old Tran The Anh, a fifth-year student. "The number of
students studying these courses is very
modest because many of them believe that it is difficult to find a job
after graduation."
Phan
Thi Trang, another pharmaceutical student, conceded that the subjects
might be interesting if she studied them further. But she'd had enough
of them for now.
"They are just not applicable to my daily life," she said
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