Vietnam has been building their position in global economy step by step.

The rapid developing of economy creates high demand for highly skilled
and qualified workforce. As a result, changing and improving national
education system as well as raising educational standard appear as a
great concern for government (Nguyen 2012). However, reforming a
national system takes long time and huge investment. In this case,
pursuing studying abroad becomes a solution for this problem.
Meanwhile, the quality of higher-education in Vietnam appears as one of
important reason for parents to send their children abroad. The
Economists (2013) claims that Vietnamese higher-education system has
lagged behinds far from neighbour like The Philippines, Thailand and
Singapore and cannot compared with China, Taiwan and South Korea.
Vallely and Winkinson (2008) state that Vietnam did not have any
university in leading Asian universities ranking chart. This crisis in
higher education system is explained due to the history of wars and the
profound governance failure (Vallely and Winkinson, 2008). Moreover, the
higher-education programmes is considered that too heavy lessons but
lack of practical. Consequently, Mr Pham Vu Luan, Vietnamese minister of
Education, claims that low quality of universities and higher education
have produced student that not meet requirement of employers,
especially in English and informative knowledge (Pham 2013). The report
from International Labour Organisation also emphasized that the lack of
essential skills becomes the biggest barriers for Vietnamese graduates to
have smooth transaction to contemporary workplace. It also leads to high
unemployment rate in youth that more than 165,000 unemployed
graduates which makes up 17% of overall jobless in this country (Pham
2013). In addition, 50% of graduates cannot find the job suitable with their
specialization in university (ILO 2013). Otherwise, as a result of low
recovery after economic crisis, the number of graduates continues to enrol
postgraduates courses has been increasing (Ngan, 2014). For example,
this number in Da Nang University has jump up from 20% in 2010 to
around 50% in 2014. Therefore, it indicates partly the increasing demand
on master courses of Vietnamese students, especially in fresh graduates.

In this case, pursuing studying abroad does not only bring and build up
competitive advantages, especially in English and soft skills to students
but also help them avoid the unemployment at this time. Last but not
least, Vietnam is considers as degree-preferable society (Tran 2014),
hence, it effect significantly on parents and also students when they
decide to apply a master courses outside Vietnam.
In the past, studying abroad was taken in former socialist countries like
Russia, Ukraine, Hungarian, etc. and fully funded by government through
scholarship programs (Gribble 2011). Therefore, only small number of
excellent students can achieve these opportunities. Nowadays, studying
abroad is opened for everyone who can afford higher education in other
countries.

The

blooming

economy

creates

widening

section

of

population is willing to invest time and money for studying abroad. Until
2013, there are more than 100,000 of Vietnamese students have been
studying abroad worldwide, estimates increase 10-folds compare to a
decades ago and 90% of these students are self-financing and funded by
their parents (BBC 2014). It indicates the high priority of Vietnamese
family for higher education and the potential of this market.
According to statistics of UK Border Agency, the number of Vietnamese
students who immigrate into UK for studying increased 18% in 2013,
compares with same period last year (BBC 2014). There are 2645 students
are living and studying in UK, increase 22.91% compare with academic
year 2008-2009 (British Council 2010). Until 2010, UK becomes an ideal
destination for Vietnamese students, especially master students due to
advantage of studying time and cost compare with other countries.
Eventually, Vietnam becomes a potential market for UK universities in
general and Bournemouth University in specific.
Bournemouth University whose precursor was Bournemouth Polytechnic
was found in 27/11/1992 (Bournemouth University 2014). The University
offer wide range of education programs from business to archaeology or
computing for both undergraduate and postgraduate level. At this time,

the university has 16,683 students with 2,000 students from more than
100 countries and territories (Bournemouth University 2014)..
1. Aim and objectives
Vietnam is considered as one potential market for Bournemouth University
due to high demand for higher education. At this time, the university have
faced with high competition, especially from other universities of middleranking groups. Therefore, the university need to have wide range of
marketing activities that increase brand awareness and communicate
directly with their target segmentation in effective and efficient way.
Therefore, the main aim of this study is assessing the effectiveness of
marketing mix that Bournemouth University have implemented in
Vietnam, especially marketing activities for master course.
Based on the main aim, this research is carried out to achieve the
following objectives.

Examine current marketing mix of Bournemouth university for

master programs in Vietnam, especially in promotion activities;
hence,

identifying

competitive

advantages

of

Bournemouth

University in Vietnam market

Analyzing and accessing the impacts of marketing mix on target

segmentation

of

Bournemouth

University

master

courses

in

Vietnam.

From

these

results,

the

study

will

propose

some

promptly

suggestions for Bournemouth University Marketing Department for

improving their marketing mix in Vietnam.