Despite introducing strict rules including a required escrow account containing US$23,800 (VND500m), the government has not announced the deadline for when all agencies must comply in order to remain in business.

One education agency has told The PIE News that the nearly US$25,000 expectation is exorbitant in a Vietnamese context.

“The new rules are a good thing but $25,000 is a lot of money. Vietnam isn’t rich,” said Duyen Nguyen, owner of Access American Education.

“There are 38,000 agencies in Vietnam and if every one had to put up $25,000 in an account that’s a lot of money that’s just stuck in the bank. Businesses need that money to flow.”

To be licensed, agency owners and their counselling staff have to undergo an eight-week course and pass an exam on agency operations, recruitment practices and the ethical relationship between owner and staff.

“The certificate will improve business and I’m proud I have it because it proves AAE does the right thing”

The licence is just one stipulation outlined in legislation introduced by the Minister of Education and Training in January 2013 and put into effect by the Prime Minister the following March. Agency owners must also have a university qualification and be proficient in at least one foreign language.

Nguyen, owner of Ho Chi Minh City-based Access American Education said she has completed the first licence for the business and is now in the process of obtaining her individual certification.

“The certificate will improve business and I’m proud I have it because it proves AAE does the right thing,” she told The PIE News.

Agencies must also publish information about their partner schools and send annual activity reports to their respective departments of education under the new policy.

According to Nguyen, the government deadline for when all agencies must comply is 2015 however no date has been specified.

“Parents in Vietnam are seeing that if they send students in high school they struggle less with language and culture”

The move will significantly impact operations in one of South East Asia’s fastest growing student markets. In 2012, 106,104 Vietnamese students studied overseas mostly in the United States and Australia.

With the country’s biggest urban hubs, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi sitting at opposite points of the country, the market has traditionally been polarised between the north where demand for postgraduate programmes is high and the south where there is most interest for undergraduate courses.

However, Nguyen says high school level programmes are gaining traction nationally.

“Parents in Vietnam are seeing that if they send students in high school they struggle less with language and culture because they’re younger and they can adjust easier,” she said.