As part of the DIVE project, on the morning of April 4, 2025, at Room 104, 35-37 Ho Hao Hon Campus, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City Open University (HCMCOU) organized a seminar titled “Inclusion in Higher Education: Current Approaches.”
The DIVE project, or Digitalising Vietnamese Education Project, is a three-year Erasmus+ initiative (2024–2027) to promote digital transformation in Vietnamese higher education institutions. The project focuses on developing comprehensive digital transformation strategies, enhancing digital education capabilities, and ensuring the quality of training.
Attendees at the event included: Dr. Le Thi Thanh Thu – Member of the Advisory Board for the University’s Strategic Development Plan 2020-2030, DIVE Project Coordinator; Dr. Le Thai Thuong Quan – Head of the Department of Cooperation and Science Management; along with esteemed lecturers who are leaders of various units and staff members of the University.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Le Thi Thanh Thu stated: “In the context of modern education, accessibility, quality, and equity are three crucial policy pillars that every higher education system needs to strive for. Among these, the policy on equity is increasingly seen as central, not just ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to learn, but also including the creation of an inclusive school environment – where students from all backgrounds, abilities, genders, ethnicities, socioeconomic conditions, and disability statuses can participate, contribute, and develop comprehensively. The element of inclusion is an area where many higher education institutions are still weak, often overlooked or not fully recognized and implemented. This is a core part of educational equity that needs more emphasis in the current period”.
“We need to recognize that higher education is not only for those who are ‘good’ by conventional standards, but also for students with special circumstances and differences, from physical and psychological disabilities to economic, cultural, or gender factors”. Dr. Le Thi Thanh Thu emphasized.
Creating conditions for students with differences to integrate into the university environment is crucial because it not only helps them avoid being left behind but also opens up opportunities for them to develop comprehensively and contribute back to society. Higher education is only truly equitable when all students, no matter how different, can enter the doors of knowledge with the belief that they are welcomed, supported, and can thrive.
At the event, lecturers discussed and proposed many solutions to promote inclusion in higher education, such as issuing specific policies for students with differences, providing tutoring and academic support, fostering an inclusive learning environment, and coordinating between the Health Clinic and the Office of Student Affairs and Communications to monitor and support students facing psychological or physiological difficulties or obstacles in their studies. In admissions, the University also needs to have appropriate priority mechanisms, for example, reserving certain quotas for students with disabilities or special circumstances, thereby contributing to creating more fair and equal learning opportunities for all.
Ho Chi Minh City Open University is committed to continuing to promote digital transformation in education, linked with the values of equity and inclusion. Through continuous efforts, the University has been and is striving to build a modern, sustainable, and humane higher education environment, where all students are allowed to develop comprehensively and contribute positively to society.
