[jackbl]

Same situation as sgp.....

What is the duty of state-funded study abroad
students?
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VietNamNet Bridge – Despite their best intentions, students who study abroad using government funds find it difficult to contribute to the State when they return. Some pay back the money and choose lucrative careers with foreign firms or in foreign countries.

The following stories have been provided by insiders who say that it would be better to offer suitable options to encourage students studying abroad to return home after graduation. Creating favorable conditions for graduates to work well and devote themselves to Vietnam country is seen as a better alternative than trying to keep a tight rein on them.


Debts end friendships

Minh and Hung were once friends and colleagues. They both worked at the HCM City Post Office. Both were lucky enough to be sent to study abroad with state money. They shared the same room when they studied in Australia. They could never imagine that one day they would become opponents.

Strange, but true. Hung became the HCM City Post Office representative who requested Minh “pay his debts,” while Minh acted as a “defendant” because he resigned. Hung believed that Minh owed a material and moral debt to the Government for training him, whereas Minh felt that paying back the money was his only duty.

The HCM City Post Office was determined to have Minh pay back his training expenses because the post office had underwritten the cost of sending Minh abroad and for his training. Before Minh left to study abroad, he had signed a contract that committed his to work for the post office.

The case went to court and in the end Minh was required to pay 10 million dong each month to the HCM City Post Office until he repaid the expenses, estimated at 600 million dong.

Minh quickly found a job with a foreign company in Vietnam and he had more than enough money to “pay his debts.”

Minh’s story was once discussed widely, especially among people who planned to study abroad using state funds. They whispered that the HCM City Post Office was determined to be repaid because many workers planned to use this method to leave their post office jobs.

Ta, a postgraduate in Singapore, said that he heard the story when he was in Singapore.

“I know that some people still decide to go studying abroad with the state’s money, though they know that they will not continue working for his agency any more when they return,” he said.


Dreams dashed

Ta said that he once considered whether or not to return and also whether or not to continue working for his agency. Finally, he decided to pay back the money spent on English courses and went to study with his own money.

“Foreign companies that spend money to train their staff only require them to work for five years at maximum afterwards,” Ta explained. “Meanwhile, I was asked to work by the Vietnamese government for at least 15 years upon my return. 15 years? My youth will be over after 15 years.”

In another case, a Can Tho University lecturer was sent to study in the Netherlands in 1990 using state money. Afterwards, the lecturer received a university scholarship that included funds to bring all his family members abroad.

After finishing his Master’s degree, he obtained another scholarship to pursue a doctorate in the US. After that, he worked for NASA for seven years and was not allowed to return to Vietnam during that time. Two years after he left NASA, he was allowed to return to Vietnam. After so many years, no one asked him to pay back the training expenses any more.

Tran Van Thanh introduces himself as a student who spent 10 years studying in foreign countries on the state’s dime. After returning to Vietnam, Thanh could not find a suitable job.

While studying in the Ukraine, Thanh always cherished hopes of working for a big oil and gas company like Vietnam Oil and Gas Group.

“The State spent money to feed me and support my study, therefore, I believed that I had to return to Vietnam to serve my country,” he observed. He added that his study branch, petrochemicals, was really hot and important to the economy.

“This did not happen for me or any of my friends,” he noted. “All of us had to find jobs ourselves and none of us had enough money to pay back the State.”

“My friends have jobs at foreign companies with very high salaries,” he added. “And now I am working for a US group, one of the five largest in the world.”

“Sometimes I ask myself why I studied with government funds, but now I do not work for the State, Thanh wondered. “Why do I work for a US company and create value for this business instead of Vietnam?”