"Brain Drain" in Viet Nam

From: Rylan Higgins

Date: Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 5:54 AM

Dear list,

I am hoping to get people’s thoughts with regard to “brain drain” in Viet Nam. Recent reports and newspaper articles indicate that only 30% of students that study abroad return to work in Viet Nam. These portrayals also argue that this has resulted in the countries “best and brightest” leaving the country. Do members of this list agree that it is accurate to conclude that those who study abroad are by definition the countries “best and brightest” people? It would also be interesting to know on what basis individuals agree or disagree with this conclusion.

Thanks,

Rylan

--

Rylan Higgins, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Coordinator of Vietnam Programs

Loyola University Chicago

----------

From: dan hoang

Date: Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 6:14 AM

Hello Rylan,

Not only they stay abroad but many of whom who returned to VN run to work for foreign companies and joint ventures. Those, who work for the Gorvenment Agencies, spend most their time to work for the intenational projects or research works funded by intenrational foundations. I don't have exact statistics, but I think if you do a small survey you can see this braindrain.

The braindrain leaks by several ways. This due to many reasons: lack of respection to people's ability, bad working environment, low salary, lack of new knowledge and then reject the new things students have brought from overseas...

In 2002 I applied for a grant to do the research on this problem, but I felt to get the fund and I did nothing. However, this problem is concerned by those people who feel painful for Vietnam's education and VN's development.

I hope you can find the data of this problem.

Best,

Lieu

----------

From: Thomas Jandl

Date: Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 4:04 PM

I am sure there is significant brain drain.

I am also aware of the reverse phenomenon, though -- young (to medium-young) viet kieu who return home and bring the expertise of a U.S., European or Australian upbringing with them. The number of these reverse brain drainers is significant, and it is particularly important because these people often don't bring only their brain (and Western education) but also capital, market experience and Wetern business/finance contacts etc. with them.

I would suggest that any study on brain drain should take this reverse, offsetting flow into account.

_________________________________

Thomas Jandl

School of International Service

American University

----------

From: Oscar Salemink

Date: Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 2:28 AM

That is why most influential research these days does not speak of 'brain drain' but of 'brain circulation', for which China is often seen as an exemplary 'model'.

Oscar Salemink

----------

From: Jim Cobbe

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 4:20 AM

Lieu is probably right about especially those who go abroad for second or higher degrees, but I'm not so sure about those who go abroad for their first degrees (which increasing numbers are now doing). They are almost exclusively those whose family resources, inside or outside the country, are sufficient to pay for it; the belief among many students and staff at Vietnamese universities seemed (to me) to be that they were largely those who had not scored well enough on university entrance exams within Viet Nam to be admitted to an institution acceptable to their parents. If that belief is correct, and those entrance exams are at least a not totally inappropriate test of "brightest and best," then the answer to Rylan's original question is definitely "not necessarily." Jim Cobbe

--

Jim Cobbe

--------------------

From: dan hoang

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 5:44 AM

Hello Jim, and every one

I donot surely know all cases. But I know some of undergraduation students,who have scholarships applying based on the foreign university criteria of school average score, TOEFL score, National prizes for talent students, etc. after their bachelor degree, they continue to do master or PhD and then stay abroad, Even some have not done master or PhD they also stay abroad and found a job to live.

For those rich students, I know one case who has his relatives in Australia, he stays there and does not return too. (I met that boy on my flight back from Australia).

But we talk only about "brain drain", so we mention only to those who have "Brain" and use their ""Brain" for whom who appreciate their"Brain".

Lieu

----------

From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 5:27 AM

I do not believe that Vietnamese are going abroad because they are not being admitted to top universities in Vietnam. Vietnam has no world class universities. In fact, every year there is a scandal involving high school graduation exams and university admissions.

More and more wealthy parents send their children to schools such as Amsterdam (tuition, room and board, US$20k) or to Singapore. Once the children have graduated, they can even afford to foot bills of US$50k per year for an American college education. As I write, I know of cases at Harvard and Boston University.

Regarding brain drain, I know of Ph.D.s from top Western universities who have been marginalized or even driven out by their departments/universities because they tried to disseminate the knowledge they had acquired, apply the pedagogy to which they had been exposed. But they did not have the support of their colleagues. Those who stay at universities or research institutes typically earn less than US$100 per month. With teaching, this can come up to $150 per month. If they pursue their own research (as opposed to one sponsored/mandated by the State (cap Bo) or institute (cap Vien), they have to do so using their own fund.

More worrisome than brain drain is the poor state of higher education in Vietnam and the poor remuneration of academics.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

----------

From: Lan Van Nguyen

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 5:59 AM

I can confirm that there are people who go abroad to study because they are not qualified for good local universities. I actually know some of them. Most of them come from wealthy families, but not good enough. I also know some/many who are very good/ and from rich/middle class families to go abroad to study.

Re: income of lecturers, I would say very low, say, a few hundred USD, but should not be less than 100 USD.

Lan

----------

From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 6:06 AM

The information I have regarding lecturers' salaries comes from a researcher at a major institute with fifteen years of work and a Ph.D. Her basic salary is US$95. she supplements it with teaching, often in a different city and is able to make about $150 per month. I talked to her superior about a couple of years ago. His salary was about $175.

Which universities would be considered good in Vietnam?

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

----------

From: Sidel, Mark

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 6:13 AM

This is particularly to spotlight and endorse Hue-Tam's last statement, based on recent field visits to law schools throughout Vietnam for a research project: "More worrisome than brain drain is the poor state of higher education in Vietnam and the poor remuneration of academics."

Mark Sidel

----------

From: Lan Van Nguyen

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 6:17 AM

The basic salary of a young lecturer could be 95 USD two or years ago. Vietnam has increased basic/minimum salary several times over the last few years. My basic salary was about 170 USD (15 years of teaching). Good lecturers, especially those who can teach in English could earn much more from their teaching, they could earn more than 1,000 USD. The teaching market is very open these days. They can teach for several universities/ institutions at the same time.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

----------

From: Jim Cobbe

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 6:30 AM

I agree entirely with Mark's endorsement of "More worrisome than brain drain is the poor state of higher education in Vietnam and the poor remuneration of academics", and this is actually reinforced by Lan's post below -- one of the factors causing the poor state of higher education in Viet Nam is that basic salaries are so low that virtually all lecturers teach "far too much" to be able to do a good job, or keep up with their subject, or do any worthwhile research, even when they have the training and talent -- my personal opinion, of course, there are always a few exceptions, although often then they have foreign funding. A great shame the Ford Foundation has left. Jim

----------

From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 7:29 AM

That is the trouble, isn't it? I was told that the most promising students shun what we in the US would consider mainstream academic departments (History, anthropology, etc..) for departments of area studies. But within these departments of area studies, all they are interested in are language courses. They are interested in learning Japanese, for instance, but not about Japanese history, politics, culture. Their goal is not to become academics but to work for foreign outfits.

The information I have regarding salaries is as of this year, not from two years ago. The person involved is not teaching languages. And the salary is for being a "full-time" employee of a major research institute.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

----------

From: Dinh Lu Giang

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 8:05 AM

Dear list,

I read your messages and found them every interesting. I specially agree with what Lan Van Nguyen wrote in her posts.

As a member of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in HCM city where Prof Hue-Tam, Dr. Shawn McHale and many of us here have visited recently, I can confirm that now the basic salary for a teacher/lecturer is more than $150 per month. The basic salary is what? It's the amount a young lecturer receives every month, at the beginning of his/her academic life, regardless of his/her teaching activities and for each of the hours he/she teaches, he/she get paid extra. So a young lecturer in my university can earn at least $200 per month. And that is not all. There are many research projects we can apply: a University level research is about $700US, a translated book can give $600US. A State level project or National university level research can be paid about $12000 up to $20000 USD (for a group of 4 or 5 peoples). So a hard-working teacher, with ability of research, can earn up to $500 or more per month.

I usually heard about foreign funding for research, like Ford, Toyota, Korea foundations etc. but to be honest I rarely meet peoples in my university who can receive any funding from those foundations. And most of people in my University do not know about those funding. We always paid research fees and field trips by ourselves, even airfares for conference attendance, so the fact that Ford Foundations has left Vietnam is not an event among us.

I sometimes look around and I can count about 80% of the students who go study abroad because they can not stand in a very competitive environment of study in Vietnam now, and many of them (coming from rich families) have failed the university entrance examination in Vietnam.

Maybe my humble ideas can give some insights from someone inside the Vietnamese academic system.

Giang

--

--------------------

From: Diane Fox

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 10:13 AM

Thanks, Giang, for helping us see across our categories, which sometimes trouble our understanding by sounding the same while masking differences.

Just a word of historical perspective. In 1991, when I taught at what was then called the Hanoi Foreign Language College, the basic salary (that's "luong", is it?) was $5 per month. There were various bonuses, but most of my colleagues who taught languages worked at two or more often three jobs to make ends meet, and wondered how their colleagues who did not have such sought after marketable skills to teach could survive, and discussed whether the salaries should be divided in some way to make it more equitable for all, regardless of what they taught.

How to compare the nearly 40-fold increase in luong in 20 years? It would take an economist or wizard, I suppose. If my colleagues had subsidized housing on campus (24 square meters per family), the rent was $1 per month. Costs for food, health care and education were quite different, etc.... So is the $150 to $200 today better or worse than the $5 of twenty years ago?

This is not really a comment on the main thread of this discussion, more of a question about how teachers in Viet Nam might experience life, whether by point of reference to their own past, or to foreign standards? (This question fails in many ways, of course, starting with its breadth -- which foreigner? which teacher in Viet Nam? But perhaps it has some use.)

Diane

----------

From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 8:19 AM

Thanks to Giang. My information comes from researchers based in Hanoi. I wonder whether rates are different? I have no reason to question the veracity of my informants, especially since I was not asking specifically for the information. My foreign-trained niece earns twice that much in a 9 to 5 job in a foreign company in HCMC, basically using the English she learned abroad pursuing a B.A.

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

----------

From: Lan Van Nguyen

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 9:19 AM

The basic salary is the same in Hanoi, HCMC, and other provinces. Incomes are different. People including lecturers can earn more in HCMC than in Hanoi. Many universities including the National Economics University where I was from have two salaries. We call salary 1 and salary 2. Salary 1 (basic salary) is paid by the government, I.e., from state budget. Salary 2 is from the revenue generated by the university. In general, the income is low. Many good people/ educated overseas are leaving universities to work for foreign companies.

----------

From: Linh Vu

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 9:29 AM

From my experience and my discussion with some friends working in academic environment in Veitnam, I think the income of a young university lecturer at some major public universities in Hanoi is around $200-$500 per month from university-related activities. Those who freshly graduated from university may earn about $200 while those with a Master or Ph.D. can earn up to $500. In few cases, some lecturers with Ph.D. or Master abroad might get as much as $700-$800 if they also teach in English in some internationally-linked programs. Of course, these estimates excludes the incomes from outside the system, such as in international projects, which could be significant in some cases.

So, one lecturer might earn $2000/month while another working at the same department lives on $150/month. But I think the range would be around $200-$500.

For the researchers at some institutes, the income varied too, depending on the position of the researchers, his/her expertise, his/her government and international relationship. Their basic salary would normally be around $200 but their monthly income could be $200, $500, $1000 or more.

Linh Vu

----------

From: BoiTran Huynh

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 1:43 PM

I might add that the atmosphere / morale at work is an important fact to brain drain.

a graduate from overseas might become a minority in the workplace and a target for scrutiny because of his/her higher degree and because they have changed, and because of their innovative ideas (that would lead to reform, and more work to do at the work place). As Hue-Tam wrote, they did not have the support of their colleagues.

One day, that graduate realised that he/she cannot make a change, and left. Worse if that is a woman. Vietnamese men can hardly handle innovations generated by women.

Boitran

Forwarded conversation

Subject: [Vsg] The other "brain drain" in Viet Nam

------------------------

From: Sidel, Mark

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 7:58 AM

Perhaps worth noting that not all of this extra teaching that the lecturers and professors are doing is voluntary -- in our recent work on legal education we learned of at least two law schools where the extra teaching (on top of very heavy "regular" teaching) is required, assigned, compensated for, but not necessarily welcomed by all faculty. If you're already teaching 15-20 hours per week and you're now told that one or several additional evenings of teaching a week are required as part of your university's external contracts and teaching agreements.... We all get the picture, even though compensation is provided and welcomed.

In addition to the extra teaching requirements, which are a function of both institutional needs to earn funds and the enormous demand for teaching in a very student-crowded system, there are other issues: the new credit-based curricula, the beginning of some student choice through credits, and the move toward smaller classes, while all laudable in terms of higher education policy, also appear to be imposing significantly higher burdens on faculty and making research and other work even harder to undertake -- at least in legal education.

When put all together, it's not easy being a teacher (at least a law teacher) in this current economic and policy environment, especially if you want to be doing research as well. The policy levers and economic constraints appear aimed almost entirely at teaching while another key leg of the stool needed to improve institutional quality (that is, strengthening research) is often left in the dust.

Are other fields different or similar?

This is the "brain drain" that concerns me: If it were me, my brain would indeed be drained by these institutional and policy constraints, particularly the extremely heavy teaching pressures resulting from the multiple factors identified above, and I'd be more than ready for some academic work overseas....

Mark Sidel

----------

From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 1:34 PM

Here is a link to a recent report produced by Ben Wilkinson and Tom Vallely.

Ben is the Associate Director of the Fulbright program at the Economics University in HCMC.

The report supports assertions that lecturers earn more than US$100 in basic salary. I'll check with my sources to see if they converted wrongly.

http://www.thanhniennews.com/education/?catid=4&newsid=52915

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

----------

From: Binh Ngo

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 3:55 PM

Dear List,

We have talked about transnational "brain drain" - Vnese students with

overseas education who do not return home to work and Viet Kieu who bring

their education, capital, and expertise back to VN.

What about sectoral "brain drain" which is happening within Vietnam? Many

multinational, corporate, foreign companies have attracted the top of the

"brain cream", mostly in their 30s and late 20s to work for these

companies. Not only is the whole package of high salaries, different and

innovative work culture, promising training workshops, fringe benefits,

and prestige attractive but the whole package also boost the professional

credentials of foreign sector employees, making them highly competitive in

the job market.

In 2006 I worked part time for a foreign-owned "head hunter" company as an

evaluator. My main duties were to evaluate the CVs of prospective

candidates, interview short-listers, pass over to the client companies,

follow up with clients, and seale the deals for commission contracts after

candidates were successfully selected.

This part-time job gave me insight into the existing small section of

mobile, competitive, qualified middle-young and young Vietnamese is being

much sought after by many foreign companies. The foreign sector, mostly

fast-consumer goods industry, wants to have managerial employees to be

local employees, except the highest positions which are often held by

non-locals. Local qualified staff has an advantageous edge over non-locals

in terms of their knowledge of language, consumer culture, local work

culture which are all crucial to increasing sales, besides their English

skills, previous training and working experiences in the foreign sector.

I know at least five successful candidates who were offered ranges of

salaries between $2,500 and $4000 at the time I was working. One

exceptional case was a 29 years-old marketing manager candidate selected

by BAT (British American Tobacco) at the monthly salary of $5000, paid

transportation allowance of $500 per month, paid business trips to Europe

and the US. This candidate also offers marketing consultancy to two other

foreign companies of consumer goods for an extra total of $3000 per month.

Basically, the "basic" salary is $8000.

Stories of professional and material achievement like this are not

uncommon among the savy, laptop-carrying, English-Vietnamese mixed

conversing groups of foreign-sector employees who also frequent many

garden cafes for business meetings. And stories like this are fuel more

sectorial "brain drain" since many wealthy parents are inspired to groom

their children and sponsor their overseas study in such "hot" fields as

accounting, banking, hotel management, finance, IT..... with the hope that

one day their children will come back and realize those dreams.

Binh

Graduate student

Anthropology, Cornell

----------

From: Lan Van Nguyen

Date: Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 5:51 PM

if your informant is working for a research institute, not a university, her basic salary should be about 20% lower than a university lecturer with equivalent experience. As an incentive scheme, lecturers get 20% more than their peers working in other state organizations/government agencies/ research institutes.

"Good" universities are established state universities such as National University, Hanoi University of Trade, National Economics University and Polytechnic University and so on. "Bad" universities are newly established private or semi-state universities.

I agree that the quality of Vietnamese universities are poor, but it's really tough to pass the entry exam to a "good" university.

----------

From: Thomas Jandl

Date: Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 4:18 PM

One thing (in addition to the many issues already addressed) I found interesting in the harvard article was this:

The teacher (an MA) in Buon Ma Thuot earned $2,000 a year after 11 years of teaching -- a good junk above average income in that poor province. She said she cannot make end's meet.

The teacher in expensive HCMC (a Ph.D.) earns $3,300 a year. He says that has paid him a little house. Yet my guess is that average income in HCMC is probably higher than this salary, and cost of living many times Buon Ma Thuot.

_________________________________

Thomas Jandl

School of International Service

American University

--------------------

From: dan hoang

Date: Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 7:43 AM

From what members of the list said, I feel the importance of "Market hand" in Vietnam's Universities. Markets pay salaries for lecturers based on their competences.

How salaries of lecturers or professors in other countries are paid?

How is important of the State or Government hand or universities in motivating lecturers, teachers, professors to work effectively and creatively, to do more research works and use research findings for their teaching? What are policies for talented students? for talented professors and teachers?

I know that the US has a policy of permitting PhD foreign students in technology field to stay to work and live in the US after graduation. (See at website: www.nap.edu/catalog (Rising above the gathering storm: enerigizing and employing America for brighter economic future)

One foreign professor asked me some questions about teaching overload of some

professors in Vietnam and how this happened? Whether MOET has norms for teaching and doing research? How much money people feel enough for them to do a good job?

MOET has norms for teaching and research work, however I don't understand how universities impement the norms.

Lieu

----------

From: Dinh Lu Giang

Date: Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 6:05 PM

Dear Boi Tran and al,

It is true that sometimes, the atmosphere at work in universities in VN may be the reason for people to leave, I think the students who stay abroad after their studies can be regrouped into the following.

1. Renumeration as main reason

2. Looking for better research / work environment

3. Continuation of their higher study

4. Personal reason

Boi Tran's atmosphere idea may be right in the field of natural sciences and polytechnique, but in the field of social sciences (except history and phylosophy), it is hard for me to agree that the above 2nd reason makes sense. In the field of linguistics and anthropology, for example, the USSH, my university in HCM City receives yearly many doctors and masters back from foreign universities, and it is difficult to describe how they are not supported by colleagues and how their creative ideas are rejected. Why? Because they are not the only peoples who go abroad to study, but many of their cooleagues did, too. As far as I know, most of the students stay abroad RIGHT after their studies and a very low percentage of students experience the difficulty of work in their university FIRST then decide to leave.

----------

From: Michael DiGregorio

Date: Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 7:25 PM

Dear Giang.

The anthroplogy department at your univesity received significant

support from the FF and significant intellectual support from Hy Van

Luong, among others, over a 10 year period. Most departments are not

like that and the isolated young overseas trained faculty member faces

a very difficult work experience, to say the least. For this reason,

FF focused on a few fields and a few universities in the expectation

that those fields could become centers for reform within their fields

and universities. Oscar Salemink was the original architect of this

strategy. I continued with it to the closure of the office. A report

done for the FF office in Moscow criticized that office for shifting

from this field and department based approach to a more policy

oriented higher education reform strategy that both Oscar and I

opposed and which, as we both had assumed, served mostly as a form of

income redistribution in the case of Russia.

Mike

----------

From: Hue Tran

Date: Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 10:28 PM

Bay Vut - provided by Vietnamese Service Radio Website - did this series of stories (in Vietnamese language) about brain drain and job opportunity in Vietnam for oveases graduates a while ago:

http://www.bayvut.com.au/category/tags/ch%E1%BA%A3y-m%C3%A1u-ch%E1%BA%A5t-x%C3%A1m

In one stories a person said, living condition actually is the factor that people don't return rather than woking condition in Vietnam. They want their children to have the best education and life style. Also some Viet kieu who returing and working in Vietnam after having kids comeback to their country so the children could study in US, Oz and... The living costs in Vietnam may look very cheap in the outer but in order to receive quality leaving like developed countries you have to pay 5 to 10 folds than normal, for example a KFC meal is affortable for any one in Australia, US, Canada but in Vietnam it's probably luxury thing for avrg people, compare to a normal meal of worker it probaly 5 times more expensive.

Also 70% of students who stay aboard doesn't mean there is 'brain drain' as many Vietnamese students just want to study higher and higher to avoid facing the reality of workplace.

Lili Tu

------------------------

From: Judith Henchy

Date: Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 7:16 AM

Attachment

Folks,

In relation to the recent discussions about the "brain drain" and Higher Ed, Dennis Berg suggested forwarding the attached US-VN Joint Task Force on Higher Ed report. Forwarded here with the permission of the US Embassy, Hanoi.

Best

Judith

---------

From: Dennis Berg

To: judithh@u.washington.edu

Hi Judith…

I’m not sure I have posting rights on VSG

But also, I’m not sure I know how you would want to distribute these..

I have not seen them referenced and in light of the brain drain discussion

It might be a good resource….

Here are copies (English and Vietnamese) of the US – VN Joint Task Force on Higher Education Final Report..

Signed last week I believe…

Den

----------

From: David Brown

Date: Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 6:11 AM

There's an extraordinary thirst for knowledge here, if only to secure one's future. The energy young people expend in pursuit of it is prodigious. Many of them learn a lot in spite of the inadequacies of the system. Enough ranting. Here's a story we're posting tonite on VietNamNet Bridge (english.vietnamnet.vn), originally from Dan Tri (a good vernacular site that's sponsored by the national PTA). It has some interesting numbers in it. Regards, David Brown, VNNet Bridge, Hanoi.

----------

From: Dinh Lu Giang <lugiangdinh@gmail.com>

Date: Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 8:40 PM

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

I think I am missing something here. I guess that with the title giáo sư (Professor), tiến sĩ (Doctor) like TNT, the monthly basic salary must be at least $250US. And as I indicated in another reply, that basic salary does not includes the hours he teaches. In general, a professor can be paid with the followings activites:

----------

From: Hue-Tam Ho Tai <hhtai@fas.harvard.edu>

Date: Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 1:13 PM

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

I believe we've been keeping the discussion limited to those who teach at the university level. Some are located in universities and some at research institutes.

One problem is that teaching and research are separate in Vietnam (a prior Minister tried to merge universities and research institutes but did not succeed).

Another problem, flagged by both Dinh Lu Giang and my informants, is that income varies significantly between universities and research institutes and among individuals as a result of "extra" activities and funding (meals, transportation, and so on).

In the US, calculation of university professors' income is based on their basicsalary. Some professors do augment their income by teaching evening classes or summer school. Many economists act as consultants as well. But I would say that the majority of professors in the humanities and social sciences rely solely on their salaries. Perhaps colleagues at other institutions have different perspectives.

One issue that I have not seen discussed but that bears on "working conditions" is the expectation that researchers must be involved in institute-wide projects no matter what their particular training may be. As a result, their own research plans must be shelved in favor of work for which they are not well trained (often not trained linguistically).

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

----------

From: Michael DiGregorio

Date: Sat, Oct 17, 2009 at 10:01 AM

The Ford Foundation has been funding the Journal Donation Project at New School to provide 20 plus universities with journal subscriptions for the past 5 years There is another year remaining on the grant. The website lists the journals and libraries and also a contact person who can direct you to a source for any article.

http://www.newschool.edu/centers/jdp/Vietnam.aspx?s=11

with the closure of the FF office, the librarians involved in this project will be looking for other sources of funding. JDP has negotiated deals with publishers of physical and online journals that brings the cost to subscribers in Vietnam down 30-60 percent. This means the cost to each university is in the range of 4-5 thousand dollars per year.

Mike

--------------------

From: dan hoang

Date: Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 1:34 AM

Dear List,

Take a look at

Think Again: Brain Drain

New research supports the idea that the movement of skilled workers from poor countries to rich ones is nothing to fear. In the long run, it will benefit both

http://www.shapingtomorrow.com/nav-frameset.cfm?hl=http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/22/think_again_brain_drain?page=0,0

Lieu

Return to top of page