In 2005, the Government of Vietnam issued Resolution 14, on Higher Education Reform, specifying the means by which the state would achieve a “fundamental and complete renovation” of higher education by 2020. The resolution emphasized the need for “renovating the thinking and system of higher education”, the “clarification of the roles and responsibilities of state administration” and also “the protection of the right to autonomy, increased social responsibility, and the transparency of tertiary education institutions”. The resolution set clear targets for the expansion of the higher education sector, and recognized the need for clearer boundaries between the respective roles and responsibilities of the state and universities.

This chapter examines the relationship between universities and the state in Vietnam's education policy since the introduction of đổi mới (renovation) in 1986. The first section deals with the decade immediately following the introduction of đổi mới, and examines how a variety of different experiments in areas such as the private funding of higher education, the restructuring of administrative responsibility, and changes to the curriculum, shaped the relationship between universities and the state. The following two sections examine the period from 1998 to the present. The second section highlights key changes to the legislative framework for higher education, while the third section examines in more depth the limits of autonomy for a private university and for the curriculum. They show that where the first decade of đổi mới in higher education was one of searching for an appropriate direction, the last decade has been one of consolidating and refining the existing direction. In the final analysis this chapter considers the extent to which Resolution 14 foreshadows greater autonomy for universities and whether sufficient attention is paid to the role of the faculties directly responsible for actual teaching and course delivery. It questions whether, in the light of past experience, Resolution 14 is likely to bring about the “fundamental and complete renovation” it promises.