Vietnam aims for 1 million STEM students by 2030

At the Prime Minister's dialogue with youth program on the afternoon of March 24, Dr. Hoang Anh Duc, RMIT University, pointed out the current situation of students and postgraduates studying in the key fields of mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, engineering and technology. While this is an important field to participate in the development of science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation.

"What breakthrough mechanisms and policies has the government had and will have to further increase the number of people studying in the above fields?", Dr. Duc asked.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son affirmed that national development requires many groups of human resources and each group has its own role. Sectors in the fields of education, medicine, national defense, security, law, business administration, finance... all play an important role in the socio-economic development of the country.

However, at a time when Vietnam wants to develop rapidly and sustainably, attract FDI enterprises as well as domestic enterprises in the fields of science, technology, engineering, especially high technology, the demand for high-quality human resources in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) will need a larger quantity and higher quality.

Currently, the rate of students participating in STEM majors at university level is on average 28-30%, equivalent to 600,000 people. Meanwhile, this rate in some developed countries such as South Korea is 35%, Germany 39%, Finland 36%. "The rate of students studying STEM majors in Vietnam is not much lower than that of countries with developed industry and technology, especially in a country of hundreds of millions of people, but given the country's rapid and strong development requirements, this number must increase even more," he said.

According to the minister, the 2018 general education program is encouraging students to study STEM subjects. Vietnam has strengths in mathematics, with the International Mathematical Olympiad team regularly ranked in the world's top 10. Therefore, he believes that with a good general education foundation and high-quality STEM human resources, Vietnam will grow strongly in the future.

Education leaders said the national education development strategy also aims to have 1 million STEM students by 2030. The Prime Minister has assigned the education sector to prepare a project to train high-quality human resources to develop high-tech fields. Many policies will be introduced to encourage and motivate young people to study in these fields, including supporting scholarships for learners and encouraging and attracting foreign experts to work.

In addition, many non-public universities have grasped the development trends of the world and Vietnam's orientation to invest in laboratories, increase enrollment, and invite experts. "We are focusing highly on and prioritizing the field of human resource development. It can be said that the future prospects are very optimistic," said Minister Son.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh frankly acknowledged that Vietnam has not yet comprehensively developed all fields of science, especially basic science, which has not met the requirements of national development and the trend of the times. Therefore, he requested that there be preferential mechanisms and policies, such as honors and scholarships, to encourage students and postgraduates to pursue their passion for science.

The Government leader emphasized the spirit of creating all favorable conditions for learners to promote their passion and strengths; at the same time, focusing on training a team of quality teachers, taking the school as the foundation, teachers as the motivation and students as the center.

"If students have a passion for basic science but encounter difficulties, they can easily switch to other fields," the Prime Minister said.