Attractive industries

Speaking to Thanh Nien at an information day recently organized by the Australian National University (ANU) in Ho Chi Minh City, Professor, Dr. Lu Nhat Vinh, Director of the Institute of Economic Research, Faculty of Business and Economics, ANU, said that more and more Vietnamese students are interested in business, management and STEM when coming to the land of kangaroos.

At the undergraduate level, according to Professor Vinh, about 60% of ANU students choose to study a dual degree. And if they want to prepare for a future with "wide open doors" for employment, Mr. Vinh advises students to consider combining business analytics with business administration, finance, computer science, and machine learning. "The demand in the labor market is very high," Professor Vinh commented.

Another major that is also receiving much attention is actuarial studies, suitable for Vietnamese international students who have a deep passion for mathematics but are oriented towards business rather than research. "This is a major that helps students 'make a living' because after graduation, they can take on positions such as investment analysis, risk analysis for insurance companies, investment funds, and financial funds," Mr. Vinh shared.

At the master's level, Professor Vinh said that to find work opportunities in Australia, Vietnamese international students are often interested in 2-year training programs to qualify for a work visa from the Australian government, instead of 1-year training programs such as business administration (MBA).

Among them, majors that intersect business and technology such as information systems management, project management, marketing management... attract a large number of Vietnamese international students, and about 30% of students in these majors "are retained by businesses after completing their internships," said Mr. Vinh.

Benefit from the policy

According to the international education website ICEF Monitor , the majors that attract the most Vietnamese students abroad are STEM, business, tourism and health-related fields. The latest data from the Institute of International Education (IIE) shows that the percentage of Vietnamese students choosing STEM and business and management majors is 47.6% and 24.7%, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the total number of Vietnamese studying in the US in 2023.

From the 2023-2024 school year, many American universities will also begin to open "intersectional" majors between STEM and business and management, such as applied business analytics, both business administration and STEM, according to Mr. Nguyen Hien, admissions representative of Northern Arizona University. That is because the labor market for business and management majors is "saturated". Meanwhile, "intersectional" majors are still considered to be in the STEM group and benefit from the policy.

"Normally, international students have one year to stay in the US to work under OPT (optional practical training program). However, if they graduate from a STEM major, this number increases by 2, up to 3 years. Not to mention, the value of STEM majors and career opportunities are growing in the digital age," said Ms. Dinh My Phuong, admissions representative of the University of Rochester (USA).

In Canada, Mr. Thai Dung Tam, Southeast Asia admissions representative of Vancouver Island University, said that international students generally prefer the following majors: computer science; business; tourism, entertainment, and hotel management; and digital media studies. Particularly in the field of health education, kinesiology is a major that many people are interested in.