The Research Of Laos Higher Education Management System

In1909, Laos started to develop higher education and established the firstnormal school in Vientiane. In1958, the first university was established in Vientiane.As education continued to grow with time, government started building morevocational schools and colleges, private colleges began to rise in1990. Today’s Laoshas five universities, ten teachers’ colleges,22vocational schools and colleges, and90private colleges.Since the founding of Laos, government attached great importance to education,making development of education as a basic national policy. Since1986, the objectiveof higher education has been changed from only serving government to providingeconomic and social development of human resources. New Education reform，initiated in2000comprised of implementation of three strategies, including strategiesto expand education opportunities, improving education quality, making educationin-line with market strategy and enhancing the level of management strategies.Higher education in Laos has been under continuous development, educationlegislation has also been made in1962to develop and publish the first education Act.In2000, government announced a new education law. Meanwhile, the Governmentdeveloped and published the private education law to promote the development ofprivate colleges and schools. Furthermore, the government also used the lawdepartment of the Ministry of Education to manage government’s higher education.Laos’s higher education consists of four parts: teachers’ education, universityeducation, vocational education, private higher education. Laos adopted a centralizedmanagement system of higher education managed by the Ministry of Education,respectively, the four management departments: Teachers’ education department,higher education department, vocational training department, privately administerededucation department. Central government takes decisions such as approval of theestablishment and improvement of schools, curriculum development, etc. Localgovernments have the financial and human resource management authority. Laos isdivided into two kinds of education management system: public educationmanagement system and private education management system.Main problems faced by Laos’s higher education management system are Laoshigher education management system for the main problems facing then evendevelopment of higher education, colleges and universities are mainly concentrated inlarge cities, leading to low proportion of ethnic minority and remote area children to school; weak focus on elementary, higher education and vocational education sector;Narrow degree of professional and government attention and Less social recognition,Inability to meet the economic development need; low college enrollment, fewteachers and relative lack of teaching equipment, coupled with the overall lowerqualifications of teachers, Resulting into unsatisfactory quality of teaching; Incompleteinternal management system in schools, including insufficient legislation, inefficientfinancial management, backward educational supervision, and very little foreignexchange and cooperation.In response to the problems, the first is to increase education funding. Most of theproblems are related to educational funding; second, we must adjust and improve theteaching quality of higher education institutions. To improve the quality we mustimprove teachers’ education, living conditions of teachers, teaching facilities andcurriculum content. At the same time to adjust the legislation and regulatory system ofhigher education schools, International exchange and cooperation has to bestrengthened, Cooperation with domestic enterprises has to be improved, foreign studyscholarships to developed countries should be arranged and good educationmanagement system from foreign countries should be introduced.