The taxi driver is young. He represents the statistical 70 percent of Vietnam's residents under the age of 35, out of a population of around 89 million. As he was boarding, he assured us with a smile as wide as the Mekong that he knew the way to VGU, the Vietnamese-German University in the Thu Duc district. But then he finds himself wedged between curving cars and honking mopeds and doesn't know which highway to take out of the metropolis of eight million people, Saigon. The country's largest city, divided into 21 districts, has many universities. The only thing that can help is a call to a German employee. He speaks Vietnamese without an accent.
Patrick Raszelenberg, the personal assistant to the president of the VGU, is already waiting. He stands behind a curtain of water. It is September, the time of heavy rain showers and no spiritual outpourings. Semester holidays. Raszelenberg, tall and slim, is one of the many bridge builders at the university simply because of his language skills. Like his boss Jürgen Mallon. As a North German, the professor gets straight to the point: “We want to become the best university in Southeast Asia,” he says in a tone that leaves no room for doubt.
He has already publicly stated this goal. That was in June 2012. At that time he gave his inaugural speech as the new president of the VGU to 50 of a total of 500 Vietnamese students. Not before 5000 - that's where the VGU wants to go, by 2020.
Its founding five years ago is based on a long friendship between Germany and Vietnam. And of course on the political will of both countries. The state of Hesse had a hand in the export of education made in Germany. The then Vietnamese Minister for Education, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan and Udo Corts, then Minister for Economics and Art in Hesse, knew each other. Nguyen studied and received his doctorate in Magdeburg. He knew about the advantages of research-oriented teaching with a connection to practice. This type of study is still unknown in Vietnam. Frontal teaching predominates here. The universities only provide training, research is carried out at institutes.
But the country wants to catch up. For the rapidly growing economy - Vietnam is striving for the status of an industrial country by 2020 - academics and young scientists are urgently needed. Embedded in educational policy reforms that the government has been consistently implementing for some time, “we are a new model university with the aim of bringing new forms of education to Vietnam’s higher education landscape,” says Mallon. This means that the still young university is one of a total of four international universities, each of which is supported by a partner country, in the case of VGU by Germany, and adopts their educational policy concepts. Lighthouse projects for research and teaching. In a decade they should be among the 200 best in the world. That's the plan.
The Federal Republic is leaning way out of the window for this. Millions of dollars come from Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The foundation for the technical and scientific orientation is formed by a non-profit sponsoring association to which over 30 German universities, including the association of the nine largest technical universities in Germany, belong. Professors fly in from Germany for block seminars. Bachelor's and master's degree programs are offered, as well as doctoral training. The future research fields such as environmental technology and biotechnology are based on Vietnam's development needs. The students receive a German and a VGU university degree.
“Sounds relatively easy, doesn’t it,” says Mallon. “But there is an entire university system behind it.” He still has to develop the university’s DNA, so to speak. This raises several questions for the man who, as the former head of three production facilities of a German company in Shanghai, takes on challenges in a sporty way: “How can the high level of autonomy granted in research and teaching be implemented? How best to build modern university governance under the cultural and legal conditions in Vietnam? The language of instruction at VGU is English, which must be mastered accordingly. German is taught alongside studies.”
Then the next challenge awaits. The master's graduates should have a level where they can also conduct research. “So we value full-time study,” said the professor. “But in Vietnam the parents say: After the bachelor's degree, there is no master's degree. Firstly, you start a family and secondly, you see how you can feed them.” If you study, then only part-time, in the evenings and on weekends. They also have to pay tuition fees; in the eyes of people here, free training is not a good investment in the future.
Huynh Nguyen Dang Khoa is one of those who made it. The 28-year-old completed his master's degree in Megatronics and Sensor Systems Technology in Mannheim. The city is the headquarters of Pepperl and Fuchs, a global automation technology company with a production site in Saigon. He does not have to pay the tuition fees of $1,500 per semester. Together with his fellow student Cao Dinh Dien, 27, he was selected for funding at an early stage. To do this, both had to commit to working for the company for two to three years. A stroke of luck for Khoa and Dien. “Here we can show what we’re made of,” says Khoa. There is so much trust in us that we can also implement our own ideas.”
There it is, the close practical connection to German business and industry, which Mallon wants to expand and which the students value. Made in Germany, whether in technology or education, has a very good reputation in Vietnam.
Upon closer inspection, the taxi driver couldn't find the VGU. The professor and his administrative staff and students are not just sitting on a construction site in a figurative sense. The university is spread across three temporary locations in the city and the surrounding area. Planning is underway for its own campus in the future city of Binh Duong, 40 kilometers from Saigon. Interdisciplinary research centers, administration buildings, student residences, sports and fitness fields are intended to create an international flair. With a $180 million loan made available to Vietnam by the World Bank, this may be one of the easier exercises.
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The taxi driver is young. He represents the statistical 70 percent of Vietnam's residents under the age of 35, out of a population of around 89 million. As he was boarding, he assured us with a smile as wide as the Mekong that he knew the way to VGU, the Vietnamese-German University in the Thu Duc district. But then he finds himself wedged
