Ly TranDeakin University · School of Education
Ly Tran
Doctor of Philosophy
International education, international students, employability, Australia-Indo-Pacific student mobility, Vietnam HE.
About
221
Publications
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2,677
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Additional affiliations
September 2017 - present
ARC
Position
- Fellow
January 2017 - present
July 2013 - March 2015
Education
March 2003 - July 2007
Publications
Publications (221)
http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZKJMfIY2df9gRUIpbXP8/full
Around the world, 4.3 million students are engaged in international education each year. However, there is a paucity in theory and empirical research on teachers’ professionalism in international education. This paper aims to fill out this gap and contribute to our understanding of teache...
With a population of about 98.5 million, Vietnam is the world’s 14th largest and ASEAN’s 3rd largest nation. Since 1986, when a policy of Đổi mới (economic renovation) marked the transition from centralized planning to a socialist-oriented market model, many changes have been made to the higher education sector. This chapter provides an overview of...
Graduate employability does not equate employment but is instead a process of professional and personal development, in which universities play a crucial role. This chapter reports on how employability skills, knowledge and attributes are viewed by a key group of stakeholders in the graduate employability space: university leaders and academics. Th...
The previous chapter, Chap. 7, discusses university leaders’ and academics’ perspectives of the core employability skills, knowledge and attributes, echoed by those of the employers reported in Chap. 5. This chapter focuses on the findings about universities’ strategies and barriers in enhancing graduate employability, based on the focus group disc...
To understand and support the development of graduate employability, it is essential to take into consideration the perspectives of different related stakeholders, among which employers play a crucial role. This chapter, therefore, presents employers’ perceptions of the key generic skills, knowledge and attributes that new graduates need to demonst...
This chapter analyses employers’ approaches to assessing graduates’ professional skills and knowledge as part of their recruitment process. The study shows that graduates are assessed by various stakeholders using criterion-based performance indicators, observation, group meetings or subjective judgements. The recruitment procedure mainly consists...
This chapter explores graduates’ experiences and perspectives on the employability knowledge, skills and attributes required by the labour market. The data were drawn from interviews with graduates across disciplines and universities within a broader project on employers’ needs and graduate employability in the Northern region of Vietnam. Graduates...
Over the past few decades following Đổi mới (Economic and Social Reform), the Vietnamese government and its ministries have issued many legal normative documents to provide direction and guidance to build a highly qualified workforce to achieve the country’s development goals in the new era. This chapter examines the Vietnamese government’s view on...
This chapter discusses the broader socio-cultural economic and educational context of Vietnam, which shapes the demand for graduate employability in the country. It begins by analysing the impacts of Đổi mới policy on graduate employability. It then proceeds with a critical review of existing research on core issues related to graduate employabilit...
Graduate employability is one of the critical issues facing universities and related stakeholders worldwide. The current labour market constraints, exaggerated by COVID-19, have made graduate employability more pressing than ever. Vietnam urgently needs to develop more nuanced understandings about graduate employability based on the views of key st...
This chapter summarises the main themes emerging from the study reported in this book and identifies recommendations essential for strategic planning, policies and practices to enhance graduate employability. It brings together key findings about the labour market needs and skills gaps encountered by employers in Vietnam. It synthesises the practic...
While a growing body of literature focuses on international students, their post-study experiences and employment outcomes when they are on temporary graduate visas in the host country are under-researched. The article addresses this critical gap by investigating international graduates' employment experiences and outcomes. It is derived from a stu...
This article examines how graduate employability is viewed by employers in six economically disadvantaged mountainous provinces in Vietnam. The study reported in this article identified continuous self-learning, resilience, adaptability, devotion and empathy for the local people and local community to be among the main employability attributes expe...
Embedding learning abroad as part of the curriculum has become popular in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US and European countries. In Australia, the government has actively promoted and committed to funding students’ learning abroad in the Indo-Pacific region which is considered to be strategic to the nation's prosperity and public diplomacy....
For further details and sign up: https://ln.edu.hk/sgs/student-graduate-agency-and-self-formation-a-hong-kong-symposium?fbclid=IwAR1x7NJwsFVEe2JOJrwedlyQhB675LbqGmJLN0djrwUy5wQY9N7DFy7Jw2Y
Conceptual note:
What is higher education?
What is the role of students in it?
The existing scholarly literature mostly posits higher education as a place fo...
Major host countries of international students such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US have introduced post-study work rights as a strategic policy to both enhance their destination attraction and support international students’ post-graduation work experiences. While this policy is generally welcomed by both host institutions an...
This paper interrogates international and domestic peer relations in two Australian schools and how they are shaped by structural, cultural and discursive dimensions of schooling. In particular, it analyses intercultural relations between domestic and international students in the context of policies promoting "internationalisation-at-home". We arg...
Over the past decade, a growing number of graduates, originally from key source countries of international students such as China and Viet Nam, have returned home after graduation from overseas universities. In particular, there seems to be a recent surge in the number of international graduates heading home due to the high unemployment, tightening...
East Asia is a most dynamic region and its fast developing higher education and research systems are gathering great momentum. East Asian higher education has common cultural roots in Chinese civilization, and in indigenous traditions, each country has been shaped in different ways by Western intervention, and all are building global strategies. Sh...
This article focuses on school staff' perspectives about the value of international students, using data from interviews with 51 teachers, school leaders and international student support officers across eight schools in Australia. The positioning of international students by the interviewees shows how hosting this cohort can assist to boost school...
The Australian government has considered youth mobility to the Indo-Pacific to be crucial in building Australia’s connection with the region. Despite a growing trend of Australian student mobility to the Indo-Pacific, there has been a dearth of research on mobility youth’s agency in public diplomacy.1This article makes an original contribution to t...
Over the past decades, the Vietnamese government has strategically encouraged the import of the ‘Western’ curriculum through the so-called Advanced Programmes. It is envisioned that by learning from the more advanced systems such as Australia, Canada, the US, and the UK, Vietnamese universities will be able to overhaul their outdated curriculum and...
A growing number of pre-service teachers (PSTs), who traditionally tend to be less internationally mobile than students in other fields, are participating in mobility programs to the Indo-Pacific region. This article analyses the extent to which Australian pre-service teachers’ international mobility experiences via the New Colombo Plan (NCP) contr...
This study delves into emic perceptions of Chinese international doctoral students’ navigation of a disrupted study trajectory during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with students and the conceptual framework of bioecological systems theory and needs-response agency, the article reveals a nuanced picture...
International graduate employability is critical to host universities’ positioning in the education export market, internationalisation agenda and ethical responsibility to international students and alumni. However, little is known about the positioning and re-positioning of international graduates in their home labour market. This article respond...
One in four Australian undergraduate students participates in learning abroad during their study. Since 2012, faculty-led mobility programmes have overtaken exchange programs to become the most popular outbound mobility type in Australia. However, little has been known about how faculty-led short-term mobility programmes affect students’ employabil...
Most research on international students’ experiences has focused on tertiary settings and consistently shows that this cohort negotiates significant risks during their time abroad. This paper draws on data from the first year of a three-year Australian Research Council funded study to address the un(der)examined cohort of young people who complete...
Transnational education has experienced a phenomenal growth over the past decade. As a dynamic but complex phenomenon, transnational education involves the delivery of curriculum and educational practices developed in one country to students in other countries. Therefore, transnational education is associated with not only benefits but also challen...
Abstract
Purpose
International student employability has been accorded increased emphasis in the internationalisation agendas, especially in major destination countries as it shapes universities' attractiveness to prospective international students. Having insights into returning graduates' employability in their home country has become critical gi...
en Australia has shifted its student mobility agenda since 2014 with a commitment to see learning abroad in the Indo‐Pacific region, rather than in traditional destinations such as anglophone countries, as a ‘rite of passage’ for Australian students' future life and career. While there has been rich literature on the impact of outbound student mobi...
Learning abroad is a primary dimension of internationalization of higher education, but little is known about the social impact of learning abroad. While a significant body of the literature in international education has examined learning abroad from the student and academic perspectives, how host communities, especially in the Indo-Pacific, perce...
Despite a significant number of international graduates staying in the
host countries on post-graduation visas, their experiences in gaining
access to the host labour market are less documented. This article
addresses this critical but under-researched topic. It discusses the
ecological circumstances impacting international graduates’ participation...
Despite a significant number of international graduates staying in the host countries on post-graduation visas, their experiences in gaining access to the host labour market are less documented. This article addresses this critical but under-researched topic. It discusses the ecological circumstances impacting international graduates’ participation...
This article is based on a study that explores international students’ understanding of academic literacies in New Zealand library environments. The article aims to provide insights into international higher degree students’ (IHDSs’) understandings of their academic literacy practices in library environments. To address this issue, the study utiliz...
This paper explores the professional development needs of leaders in response to emergent demands for leadership and competing pressures within the changing landscape of Australian international education. Framed within Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus, this study addresses five dimensions of professional development needs reported by leade...
New abstract: In a competitive international education market, the opportunity to gain post-study work experience in the host country is one of the key drivers of international students’ decision making and critical to education export, especially in top destination countries, such as Australia, Canada, the UK and US. Understanding the impacts of p...
In a competitive global education market, the opportunity to gain post-study work experience in the host country is one of the key drivers of international students’ decision making and critical to education export, especially in top destination countries, such as Australia, Canada, the UK and US. Understanding the impacts of post-study work arrang...
Link to the article: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2019100710555827
In a competitive global labour market, the opportunity to acquire work experience post-graduation in the host labour market is seen as universities’ drawcard for international students.
Top provider countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Euro...
COVID-19 has left governments scrambling for balanced economic, social and ethical policy responses.
The Australian government’s A$130 billion JobKeeper payment – a wage subsidy to keep Australians in work – is vital for our response to the pandemic and future economic recovery.
But temporary visa holders, including international temporary gradua...
https://theconversation.com/australias-temporary-graduate-visa-attracts-international-students-but-many-find-it-hard-to-get-work-in-their-field-123997
The number of international students who stay in Australia after graduating on the temporary graduate visa – often referred to as the 485 visa – is growing fast. There were nearly 92,000 temporary gr...
Tran, L. T. & Bui, H. T. N. (2019), ‘International graduates: navigating the host and home labour markets’, International Education Association of Australia (IEAA). Retrieved from https://www.ieaa.org.au/documents/item/1743
Abstract: This research digest focuses on how international graduates navigate the labour market both in their host country a...
Link to the discussion paper:
https://www.ieaa.org.au/documents/item/1586
In recent years, employability has become a key driver in
international education. In the United States, the wage premium for
a four-year degree has doubled over the past 40 years, primarily
because of decreases in unskilled wages, while the cost of that
degree has tripled (...
International graduate employability and employment outcomes are critical to sustainable international recruitment. Prospective international students and their families are increasingly paying attention to the evidence host universities can present in terms of graduate employment outcomes.
In a broader context, international graduate employabilit...
Link to the report: https://www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/1900922/Cultural-Understandings-of-Graduate-Employability-in-Accounting-in-China-and-India-2019.pdf
The project was funded by the Global Research Perspectives Program of CPA Australia. It investigated how socio-cultural
understandings of employability and generic skills info...
Tran, L., Rahimi, M. & Tan, G. (2019). Temporary graduatification: Impacts of post-study work rights policy in Australia. REDI: Deakin University.
Link to the full report:
https://www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/1964317/Post-study-work-rights_Final-report_20092019.pdf
Post-study work rights (PSWR) are becoming
increasingly influentia...
https://www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1964316/Infographics-final-003_20092019-1.pdf
Student mobility from countries in the Anglosphere to the Indo-Pacific has recently become a significant and growing phenomenon. While there has been a large body of literature on international Asian students’ motivations to undertake overseas study, much less has been known about the desires students from English-speaking countries such as Austral...
The coronavirus outbreak is the biggest crisis ever to hit international education. Article in 'The Conversation' https://theconversation.com/the-coronavirus-outbreak-is-the-biggest-crisis-ever-to-hit-international-education-131138
Together with Canada, the UK and the US, Australia is one of the most active countries in promoting education export and recruiting international students with international education as the country’s biggest and most successful services export ‘industry’. However, staff capacity building in international education has not been adequately invested....
Scholars who analyse the policies that provide for the rights of international students have tended to focus on challenges posed by racism, discrimination and unjustified stereotyping. This discussion has focussed overwhelmingly on the higher education sector but recently has begun to be extended to vocational and training education (VET). We enter...
Over the past three decades, the higher education landscape in many Asian countries has witnessed various changes, many of which have resulted from foreign influences and the interactions of local education policy discourse with neo-liberal globalisation, market forces and the demand for a market economy. This article provides nuanced insights into...
The chapter draws on an Australian branch campus case in Vietnam. It addresses how work-integrated learning (WIL) is incorporated into curriculum, pedagogies and institutional support. The findings show that WIL enhances students’ work readiness, strengthens industry linkages and improves graduate employability. WIL should therefore be shifted from...
The chapter discusses the context of higher education reforms in Vietnam. It sets the scene by exploring the global forces that have shaped and reshaped the landscape of Vietnamese higher education. It then examines how the local demands have affected the higher education sector and concludes with an outline of the book structure.
This article discussed the development of a framework that visualizes the ontological reality of educational research participants that is incumbent on existing grounded and positioning theories. The proposed framework constructs the ontological reality of participants from qualitative data collected in semi-structured interviews. This framework re...
Despite the rapid flow of international students to Anglo-Saxon countries, especially the US, UK, Canada and Australia, the professional development needs and practices of teachers working with international students are still under-researched. According to the OECD, around the globe, over five million students are pursuing tertiary education in an...
Scholars who analyse the policies that provide for the rights of international students have tended to focus on challenges posed by racism, discrimination and unjustified stereotyping. This discussion has focussed overwhelmingly on the higher education sector but recently has begun to be extended to vocational and training education (VET). We enter...
Evidence now calls into question the efficacy and appropriateness of pedagogical practices that force international students to adapt to Eurocentric expectations when they enrol in tertiary education outside of their home country and cultural environment. In response to calls for alternative perspectives, this article introduces the educational phi...
The growing popularity of Asia as a destination for study abroad for Australian students has been largely attributed to the introduction of the New Colombo Plan (NCP) in 2014. Despite the NCP being positioned as a ‘Rite of Passage’ between higher education and employment for Australian’s young generations, to date little is known about how it impac...
This book deepens readers’ conceptual understanding of and provides practical insights into Vietnam’s higher education reforms. Globalisation has had profound impacts on higher education worldwide, creating transnational linkages and junctures, as well as disjunctures. At the same time, it has generated fluidities, hybridities and mobilities. Withi...
Internationalization of higher education has been seen as the goal, process, and vehicle for change, diversification, innovation, and commercialization of higher education (HE) in many parts of the world. In Australia, internationalization is related to student and staff mobility; export and commercialization of educational services including both...
The Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector in Australia has recently undergone significant changes, notably internationalization, which affect VET operations and the nature of VET teachers’ work. However, there is little empirical research and literature available on teachers’ perceptions of the professional learning they need in order to m...
This chapter presents teachers’ recommendations to enhance their professional learning practices under the changed circumstances of the VET sector. These include a reconfirmation of the need for cultural training, particularly in relation to Asia, a participatory approach to professional learning with an emphasis on self-initiated, self-directed pr...
This chapter presents VET teachers’ perceptions of their professional roles and responsibilities under the changed circumstances of the internationalized VET. The analysis of the data gained from semi-structured interviews and fieldwork show that the teachers position themselves mostly as cross-cultural facilitator and mediator. The findings reveal...
This chapter summarizes the key findings of a study about VET teachers’ professional learning needs and practices in response to the internationalization of vocational education and training. It argues for a re-conceptualization of VET teachers’ professional learning that takes into account the current context of internationalization and commercial...
This chapter examines the current formal professional learning practices of VET teachers from a variety of institutes in Australia. Findings from interviews with the VET teachers in this study show that the teachers’ formal professional learning activities currently focus mostly on generic, technical issues and compliance requirements while matters...
This chapter presents findings about VET teachers’ professional learning needs in relation to preparing students for global labor market, developing intercultural capabilities for students, and teaching international students onshore and offshore. It highlights the teachers’ unique professional learning needs including enhancing understandings of i...
This chapter examines VET teachers’ informal professional learning activities to address their professional needs under the impact of the internationalization of the VET sector. Findings from interviews with the VET teachers reveal two most common informal practices of the teachers under investigation: reciprocal learning from immediate colleagues...
Purpose
Vietnam’s 11th National Party Congress prioritised integration, modernisation and industrialisation as the new key orientations for Vietnam. It outlined Vietnam’s integration with the world, not only economically, but also in terms of the social, cultural, educational, scientific and technological areas that can support social and economic...
Projects
Projects (16)
Australia’s future is increasingly connected with the Indo-Pacific region. Preparing young Australians to learn and understand about the people, cultures, societies as well as professional practices of this region is critical to Australia’s economy and prosperity. This Future Fellowship project, funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council to the value of $809,051, explores Australian students’ learning in and engagement with the Indo-Pacific through the New Colombo Plan (NCP) program. Using a multi-method research design, it examines two issues of vital importance for universities and the nation: (1) the learning and engagement of Australian students in the Indo-Pacific; and (2) the effects of their learning and regional engagement. The project addresses a critical need to have nuanced understandings of the longer term impacts of mobility experiences in the region for all students and for the possibility of using student mobility to the Indo-Pacific as a mechanism of public diplomacy. It aims to generate practical recommendations based on sound theoretical perspectives and multi-dimensional empirical research that looks closely at different stakeholder views.
Our program of research focuses on international student graduate employability, labour market demands and migration. Our team have undertaken various projects on the relationship between learning abroad and domestic student employability and international student graduate employability in Australia, China, India, Japan and Vietnam. Our research on this theme has been funded by the Australian Research Council, IDP Education, CPA Australia, DFAT’s Aus4Skills, IELTS, Victorian Department of Business and Innovation and Deakin University (See ‘Projects and Consultancy’ for a range of our funded projects). Our research has made contributions to both conceptual knowledge and good practice in enhancing international student and graduate employability. Our projects have informed curriculum development, student career support services, university strategy and government policy. Our team have provided professional consultancy and policy advice and our research has been extensively featured in a range of media
In particular, our program of research focuses on:
• opportunities and challenges facing international students and graduates in home and host labour markets
• employability development, internships and work-integrated learning for international students
• agency and strategies used by international students/graduates to navigate home and host labour markets
• impacts of post-study work policies on international graduates, international education and labour markets
• relationship between education, work, temporary student/graduate visas and migration
• labour market demands, employers’ needs and skills shortages
• professional development for teachers and academics to enhance international graduate employability
• impacts of learning abroad and international internships on Australian students’ career pathways and employability (via the New Colombo Plan).