Vietnam's journalism training and education challenge of a free market economy

Journalism schools in Vietnam only opened in the early 1990s. Like other media organisations, journalism schools are required to follow strictly the Party’s media instructions and decrees. The shortcomings of journalism education and training in Vietnam are numerous, the most pressing being staff qualifications and teaching approaches in journalism education. Journalism programs continue to attract school leavers each year. However, journalism graduates are not highly regarded by media organisations. Along with senior Party media officials, educators and practitioners, there are also heads of journalism schools and senior media executives who criticise the poor quality of journalism education attendant with teaching methods, the lack of teaching materials and the selection of students into journalism courses. To improve the quality of Vietnam’s journalism education and training, the primary requirement is that the ideological concept of journalism education and training needs to change.