Last week I had the opportunity to visit the campus of a Vietnamese university. That's not to say that I couldn't do this on my own if I wanted, but it's always more educating to do it with someone who knows how the system works.
My tour guide was a university student I met the first time I was in HCMC. We didn't have a lot of time as I'd screwed up on catching the correct bus. But for the few hours we had, Ongbau showed me a few places and explained a few things.
I had already known that Vietnamese high school students are allowed to pick what they study - they don't have the restrictions that the Turks have. And in their last year of high school, they have to take a test which determines which universities they can go to - unlike Mexico where, if you get too low a score, you're wasting a year away before the next test. So Communism seems to have an advantage.
Ongbau showed me her university, comprised of several buildings, but the university was on the same land as several other universities. Apparently, at least in HCMC, universities commonly share land. The ones surrounding hers were both private and public. One university which she pointed out, only had one building! And it wasn't particularly large. This isn't to give you the impression that all unis are always grouped together in the same zone. There are others scattered around the city. But this seems to be the cheapest way for some to do it.
Surprisingly, her university (and a few others) were located among a "forest". Not exactly a forest, but an area with tall evergreens or whatever normally grows in a forest. There were tables and benches all around and it made for a nice resting spot after the long, hot walk. Of course, I was the only westerner on campus, so early on in our conversation, 2 female students walked over and took a seat across from us. I felt like it was de-ja-vu of my park visit in HCMC.
After our rest, our first stop, at my request, was a classroom. I was interested to know how "advanced" or "antiquated" it was. When I peered into a large, empty classroom, I saw that it was filled with long wooden tables and matching benches. No desks were to be seen - all the students slid in next to each other. There was no white board on the front wall, but a very long blackboard which used chalk. The room could easily have fit 100 students, which is what Ongbau had told me most classes had. When we had first arrived on the campus, I had seen several classes in session, with the professor using a microphone. Now I understood why.
Our next stop was the cafeteria of a different university. Apparently it doesn't matter whose students eat at which cafeterias. Again, as we entered the basement where the food was located, I was quite conscious of the fact that I was the only non-Asian in the area (until later when I saw an orange haired lady looking for a table and was informed by Ongbau that she was one of 20 French exchange students at that university). The cafeteria was pretty decent with a large selection of (Vietnamese) lunch dishes - soups, vegetables, noodles, chicken, pork, rice, bananas (quite common here), drinks and I think dessert. And for only 12,000 dong, (my cheapest meal yet), I ate quite sufficiently on rice, chicken, veggies, and soup.
Afterwards, we headed out to one of the libraries in the area. I had requested this in the beginning, always interested in seeing what foreign libraries look like and how popular they are. (Don't ask me why I have this interest. I don't know!) When we arrived, we had to get special permission just to look around! It seems that the unis in HCMC don't care to let in just anyone. Ongbau had forgotten her ID, which made it more difficult. But I told her, "Don't worry. Just tell the security guard I'm a foreigner and want to see what a Vietnamese library looks like. He'll say yes." Which he did. But after we passed him, we had to also get approval from the 2 ladies at the reception desk.
The library was modern both inside and out. It was a 3 or 4 story building which contained shelves of books, large lounging areas, study areas with long tables and access for computer plug-in. What I noticed however, was how much space was used for non-book space. For a library, there really weren't that many books. However, the university probably wasn't as large as I'm used to, and there were other libraries nearby (on other campuses).
That was my university tour.
