As of June 2021, there were 25,816 Vietnamese students in the US, most enrolled in the nation’s colleges and universities, according to the latest SEVIS update. That’s an increase of 5.23% over March 2021. There are now nearly as many as there were last September, a positive sign.
If you add language training (802) to the mix, there are 18,189 Vietnamese undergraduates comprising 70.86% of total Vietnamese enrollment. Among community college (6,045) and four-year students (11,342), the breakdown is 34.77% and 65.23%. This gap has been widening in recent years because of more choices and lower price points for both private and public four-year institutions, with and without scholarship and financial aid packages.
Viet Nam currently ranks fifth among the top 10 sending countries. All of the these countries saw increases over the past three months except India (-2.42%) and Nigeria (-4.88%).
China: 275,996
India: 159,323
South Korea: 43,773
Canada: 26,017
Viet Nam: 25,816
Brazil: 24,853
Saudi Arabia: 23,313
Taiwan: 18,534
Nigeria: 14,204
Japan: 13,520
Here’s one way to look at Chinese vs. Vietnamese enrollment. Viet Nam’s population of 98 million is 7% of China’s population of 1.4 billion. The percentage of Vietnamese vs. Chinese students in the US in proportion to the population of each country is 9.35%.
There is also some forward momentum on the student visa issuance side, according to the US State Department’s Monthly Nonimmigrant Visa Issuance Statistics. In May 2021, the US Mission in Viet Nam, the Embassy in Hanoi and the Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), issued 514 F-1 visas. That’s a 1185% increase over May 2020 when only 40 were issued at the beginning of the global pandemic. More importantly, for the purpose of comparison, it’s a 58% decrease over May 2019 (1223) and a 53.69% decline over May 2018 (1110) in the pre-COVID era. Those are the benchmarks we need to focus on in the coming year.
One issue that is having an adverse impact on the ability of the US Mission in Viet Nam to issue student and other visas is that the consular section of the US Consulate in HCMC is currently closed because of a recent spike in COVID-19 cases in that city and vicinity, and only scheduling emergency appointments. The US Embassy in Hanoi remains open. The current visa appointment wait times are 46 and 32 calendar days for HCMC and Hanoi, respectively.
Shalom (שלום), MAA
An International Educator in Viet Nam 
Read or listen to Michael Hudson. I have been a teacher at universities and colleges since 1983, in many states. USA universities and colleges, in general, are devoid of heart, connectivity, writing and learning across curricula and are just money pits. Run by Deans and Admin class that make too much money, who are anti-independent faculty and are just antithetical to what liberal arts should be.
I’ve taught Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese and many other students in community colleges. It’s a scam, truly.
Hudson: So I’m developing an alternative agenda, an alternative syllabus of the history of economic thought. A summary of my ideas is going to be published in Chinese and American next month. I have a series of lectures that are right now on youtube in English with Chinese subtitles that are sponsored by the Lingnan University in Hong Kong. I think the first lecture had 148,000 viewers, so you have an idea of how much interest there is in China to see that an alternative to neoliberal thought. If they want to find out how America got prosperous, they should actually look at how America did get prosperous in the 19th century and early 20th century – and also how it’s not getting prosperous anymore, but is destroying its prosperity.
If China were to send its students to America, the essence of what they are taught is that China never should have developed. It was all a big mistake for China to make its population richer, because that’s interfering with the free market. If China would have left a free market, then you’d still have a coolie trade, you’d still have poverty, you’d still have a free market as the status quo. They’re taught that China should just dissolve the government and turn power over to the banks.
You can imagine what the Chinese students must be laughing about when they hear these courses. But they have to get the degree, because that’s what they’re here for.
I’m trying to revive the alternative discussion of classical economics which of course is what led into Marxism. China identifies itself as a Marxist country. Quite right, but I’m saying that Marx was the culmination of a classical tradition that led naturally to culminate in Marxism, so I’m showing the classical foundations of Marxism.