Our recently-published research report for the Institute of International Education and the AIFS Foundation aims to answer questions about students' international mobility. It covers all physical movements across national boundaries for educational purposes, at all education stages, short-term as well as long-term. We find that international educational mobility is in good health with strong growth potential, but mobility patterns are changing and will continue to change.

International mobility for tertiary education lasting at least a year is well documented by UNESCO, the OECD and others. Information on other levels and shorter periods is patchy at best. The US and Australia are the only major countries to document all incomers for educational purposes. Our report presents the first full picture of international educational mobility into the US, thanks to unique access to the US State Department's exchange visitor visa statistics.

Analysing educational mobility more widely sheds new light on international students' university choices and motivations. Previous studies identified two main 'push factors' driving young people to go abroad for higher education: lack of suitable opportunities at home, and the wish to experience another country's life and culture.

We identify a third 'push factor': 'positioning', or moving at one education stage to be well-positioned for a later stage of education or employment in the same country. Examples include: secondary schooling abroad to facilitate tertiary entry; undergraduate study to qualify for postgraduate study; postgraduate study to 'position' for academic posts; and higher education or vocational training to qualify for employment. 'Positioning' is most evident among students from Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Vietnam.

We also identify 'anti-push' factors that may deter aspiring international students, including financial barriers and obstacles to leaving their home country...

If Vietnam is to follow China in becoming a low-cost manufacturing centre for the world it needs good universities geared towards 'world-class' research and innovation. The new University of Science and Technology Hanoi (UST) could cater to that need. But attracting the best students and academics requires institutional autonomy - a major cultural shift.

When the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced a huge loan of US$190 million for USTH in May, the amount raised eyebrows. It was clear that the Vietnamese government was serious about setting up a state-of-the-art technology university, and a partial admission that its existing universities were failing to meet world-class criteria.

The funding was requested by the government itself, said Norman LaRocque, Senior Education Specialist for the ADB.

"Vietnam's prime minister initiated the discussion with the heads of the World Bank and development banks in Vietnam to go forward on this new model of university. It meets the development needs of Vietnam, which recently achieved lower middle-income status."

LaRocque described it as a bottom-up reform of higher education. A consortium of French universities has devised the curriculum, which will be taught by professors from France until the university can attract or train top Vietnamese academics.

Although teaching will be in English and French, USTH is not an international branch campus or a private university but a Vietnamese public university that intends to provide international standards of teaching and research.

Its Rector, Pierre Sebban, a French chemist, must steer a delicate course. "I have to put myself in a Vietnamese skin as I am rector of a Vietnamese university and I have to obey Vietnamese rules. But at the same time I am running an international university. And the question of autonomy is a permanent debate," he told University World News.

For example, just putting out banners in the street in August to publicise USTH courses required approval from both the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).

Autonomy

Vietnamese institutions have limited autonomy. Enrolments are controlled, tuition fees are capped...