The Higher Engineering Education Alliance Program
Authors: Mianmian Fei and Georgia Thorne
The Higher Engineering Education Alliance Program (HEEAP) is a collaboration between academia, government, and the private sector which aims to transform engineering Higher Education (HE) in Vietnam using a blended financing mechanism. Born out of a difficulty to recruit qualified engineering graduates in the country, HEEAP was founded in 2010 by the United States Agency of International Development (USAID) and the Intel Corporation. The programme, which is currently in its third phase of operation, first began with Arizona State University (ASU) as the primary implementation partner (Intel, 2013). Since then, it has received increasing support, including from the Vietnamese government since phase two. Currently, in phase three, HEEAP is working with 13 international corporations, and 15 universities and vocational colleges in the country (HEEAP, n.d.-b).