A contrastive analysis of “đại học”, “trường đại học” and equivalent terms in English

Abstract

Currently, the terms university and college have not been consistently used in higher education institutions in Vietnam. Consequently, many institutions make mistakes in identifying themselves both in Vietnamese and therefore in English. Such inconsistency not only leads to confusion among stakeholders such as students, and other stakeholders in the society, etc., within the country but also affects the credibility of the educational institutions in the international community. This article analyzes the terms đại học and trường đại học in order for them to be used more accurately, and also proposes the most suitable equivalent terms in English.