When Socialism Meets Market Capitalism: Challenges for Privatizing and Marketizing Education in China and Vietnam

Abstract

China and Vietnam have experienced drastic social, economic and political changes, especially when these two socialist regimes have started economic reforms in the last few decades. In order to create more opportunities for higher education with limited national resources, both Chinese and Vietnamese governments have adopted strategies along the lines of marketization and privatization to reform their higher education systems. The major objective of this article is to critically examine how the market transition taking place in China and Vietnam has led to changes in education governance, particularly examine how these two governments have approached the challenges of global capitalism by transforming the socialist education model into a more market-oriented one. This article also discusses the major challenges and policy implications when education is increasingly privatized and marketized in China and Vietnam.

中國和越南都經歷了社會、經濟、政治方面的激烈變化，特別是這兩個社會主義國家在過去幾十年中開始進行經濟改革。爲了在有限的國家資源中為高等教育創造更多機會，中國和越南政府都採用了市場化和自由化策略對高等教育制度進行改革。本文主要是批評地考察兩國的市場化轉變如何導致教育管理中的變化，特別是兩國政府如何通過把社會主義教育模式轉變成更以市場為導向的模式以應對全球化資本主義的挑戰。教育在這兩國變得日益私有化和市場化，文章就主要挑戰和政策影響進行了討論。