New Rules Mandate Service or Repayment by Government Funded Students

State-financed Vietnamese students studying overseas who failo come back to the country as planned must pay back all the grants they received during their time abroad. The decision comes from Circular 75/2000/TTLT/BTC-GDÑT, which was made public by the ministries of Finance and Education and Training recently and came into force as of August 4. It is applied to State officials, postgraduate and undergraduate students and vocational trainees from the 1999-2000 academic year.

The repayment must be made if a student does not return to the country three months after his training courses’ conclusion, or if the student has to return to Vietnam ahead of time due to violations of academic rules or because he has chosen to drop out of his course.

Repayments will also be claimed from students who return to the country as planned but refuse to work for their former office, or who apply for residence in another country while studying abroad. This also extends to students who quit their offices or apply for residence in a foreign countries when their time of public service is less than three times the length of their study abroad.

Repayment would include overseas training fees paid by the Vietnamese Government, local institutions or foreign organizations under agreements signed with Vietnam. Also repayable would be training fees in Vietnam, airfares, monthly stipends, and other relevant expenses. The proportion of the student’s grant that must be repayed will be determined by the specifics of each case, but must be at least 50 per cent of the total expenses. In another measure, State officials and postgraduate and undergraduate students who go abroad for further study and training as of this academic year will be required to either deposit US$1,000 as a guarantee or present their family’s warranty before leaving Vietnam. The money and its accrued interest will be returned to them after they complete their overseas study and return to the country as scheduled. (VNA)

Washington State U., N.E.U. in Hanoi Cooperate for MBA Program

The Prime Minister of Vietnam recently approved the first cooperative MBA program between the National Economics University in Hanoi and Washington State University. The program includes recruitment and selection of outstanding Vietnamese students who will study in Vietnam for two semester and at WSU for the second half of their MBA courses. Students will also complete a research proposal. Upon completion of the program, successful students will receive a WSU MBA degree. A professor exchange has been going on between Vietnam and WSU for five years already. So far there are no American students traveling to Vietnam to study, but professors hope it will truly be a two-way student exchange someday.

From the Daily Evergreen, Washington State University

NGO Self-Profile:
Work Camps in Vietnam

A cooperative program between the Peacework Development Fund of Blacksburg, VA and the Viet Nam Youth Movement for Cooperative Activities (VN YMCA), formerly Viet Youth Services, provides opportunities for workcamps in Vietnam. Workcamps were held in 1998, 1999, 2000, and another is planned for January 2001. Participation is open to anyone with a spirit of cooperation and adventure. The work usually involves painting and preparing new elementary schools and hospital facilities for use. Peacework volunteers are joined by VN YMCA volunteers and local teachers or staffs, and work hard for several days at each of two work sites. Peacework provides funds in advance for the construction of the new facilities, which are ready for painting when workcampers arrive. No particular skills are required; there is always something for everyone to do. And there is a lot of singing, language learning, even some tourism, wonderful food, and, most of all, a lot of friendship building.

Workcamps typically start in Dong Thap province in the Mekong Delta to complete an elementary school building, and then make their way to Nhatrang to complete facilities at a provincial rehabilitation hospital. Visits are made to places like the College of Agriculture at Can Tho University, the mountain town of Dalat, the famous Cu Chi tunnels, ancient Cham remains, and beaches in Nha Trang bay. The total cost of the two-week adventure is about $2,200-$2,300 plus air fare from Los Angeles or New York. Pictures of the 1999 workcamp are available on the web at: http://www.uark.edu/depts/hesweb/hdfsrs/vietnam/index.html.

For Peacework contact Mr. Steve Darr at the Peacework Development Fund, 305 Washington St., S. W., Blacksburg, VA, 24060-4745, tel. 540-953-1376, sdarr@CompuServe.com, http://www.peacework.org/, and for the Viet Nam Youth Movement for Cooperative Activities contact Mr. Vu Trong Thuc at 114A Tran Dinh Xu St., District 1, HCMC, Viet Nam, Tel: (84.8) 8375217, Fax: (84.8) 8375201, vnymca@hcm.vnn.vn.

This information was provided by Donald E. Voth, Professor of Rural Sociology, University of Arkansas, leader of Vietnam workcamps, School of Human Environmental Science HOEC 118, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701. (501)575-2409, (501)442-6017,.