Brain Drain or Loss of Faith? Why Việt Nam’s Brightest Refuse to Return

Every international Olympiad season, the media swells with national pride as Vietnamese students bring home medals. Yet, behind the spotlight and the accolades lies a pressing concern: many of these medalists pursue higher education abroad and rarely return.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, Việt Nam produced 220 medal winners at regional and international Olympiads between 2016 and 2024. Of these, 146 students—or 66%—chose to study overseas, with the majority deciding to remain abroad for work. These figures were presented by Huỳnh Văn Chương, Director General of the Quality Management Agency, at a conference on Nov. 7. [1]

Chương attributed this phenomenon to three core factors: 

1. A lack of specialized post-Olympiad training and development
2. Inadequate recruitment policies, incentives, and working environments
3. The absence of networks to engage these students in domestic innovation

While some argue that this “loss” stems from a preference for foreign environments or higher salaries. However, this explanation is insufficient and Việt Nam is not short of talented individuals. Rather, the country lacks a transparent, autonomous, and competitive knowledge ecosystem that allows these individuals to grow.

Ultimately, “brain drain” is a symptom of a stagnant educational and managerial system, not a flaw inherent in the students themselves.

Brain Drain or Loss of Faith?

For high-achieving students, the decision to remain overseas is rarely driven by income differences alone. As the saying goes, “birds settle where the land is good.” These students seek environments where they can thrive—places where effort is measured by results and where career advancement is based on merit rather than seniority or the bureaucratic “ask–give” mechanism.

The Ministry of Education and Training has acknowledged this gap, noting that the “second stage” of education—specialized training and the utilization of talent—remains largely undeveloped. Consequently, recruitment policies and working environments are often inadequate. [2]

Việt Nam clearly possesses strong intellectual potential. The country excels in “input,” boasting a substantial pool of gifted students, and demonstrates the capacity for “output” through knowledge commercialization and participation in global technology value chains.

However, the “middle stage”—which includes postgraduate training, competitive research programs, and clear career pathways—remains critically weak. Without this bridge, talented individuals seeking further development naturally “flow” toward nations with more established knowledge ecosystems.

Incentives Cannot Fix an Inert System

For over twenty years, Việt Nam has issued various policies to “attract talent,” from doctoral training schemes to research funds. The Politburo’s Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW (Dec. 22, 2024) reaffirmed the goal of  “developing and valuing high-quality human resources and talent to meet the demands of science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation.” [3]

Yet, subsidies cannot compensate for systemic dysfunction. Talented individuals do not just need money; they need streamlined administration, genuine autonomy, and transparent salary mechanisms. As the OECD’s Economic Survey suggests, sustainable growth requires investment in higher education, R&D, and vocational training, and connecting direct foreign investment with domestic ecosystems. [4]

Income is merely one piece of the puzzle. As long as the “rules of the game” are rooted in the “ask–give” mechanism—where research topics and positions are granted as favors—talent will not stay. Instead of academic freedom and meritocracy, they face a cynical reality often summarized by the modern proverb: “First connections, second money, third lineage, fourth intellect…and the rest…who cares?”

This sentiment is reinforced by statements such as the 2015 declaration by Nguyễn Thị Quyết Tâm, Deputy Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee: “It is the happiness of the nation when the children of leaders become leaders.” [5] When lineage outranks intellect, talent cannot be expected to return.

Mathematician Ngô Bảo Châu warned against this in 2012, criticizing the bureaucratization that reduces young scientists to doing “errand work.” [6] Years later, that warning remains relevant as the country watches generation after generation of its best minds leave, never to return.

Stagnation Erodes the Next Generation

When Olympia champions and Olympiad medalists—symbols of Việt Nam’s intellectual youth—leave one after another, the damage goes beyond the loss of a few individuals. It causes the erosion of confidence in the next generation. Young Vietnamese look ahead and see no viable path for their abilities within a country where innovation is constrained by an administrative mindset.

In 2023, Việt Nam’s Human Development Index (HDI) reached 0.766, ranking 93rd out of 193 countries. [7] However, after adjusting for inequality in health, education, and income, the HDI drops by 16.3% to 0.641. This significant decrease indicates that development opportunities in Việt Nam are not distributed equally.

A BBC reader summarized the situation on Facebook: “Everyone understands. Why overthink it? Talented people will always choose places where they can enjoy creative freedom and good incentives.”

This serves as a direct answer to the question posed by Chương: “Beyond medals and certificates, these students have a 40-year career ahead of them—so how do we encourage them to return to the country?” [8]

Unless there is a systemic change in mindset, wave after wave of talented individuals will continue to leave. They choose to remain overseas not due to a lack of patriotism, but because they see no clear pathway to develop at home. In an era of open academia and remote work, “contributing to the homeland” does not necessarily require returning physically.

If Việt Nam wishes to retain its Olympiad talents, the state must stop asking how much money these students require and start asking what the system actually provides.

Authorities must reflect and seriously address the fundamental questions that every talented individual considers: Are opportunities equitable? Is advancement based on merit, or is it determined by wealth and connections? How can one compete fairly against peers who benefit from nepotism?

The ongoing exodus of talent exposes a failure in policy that has become impossible to ignore: the state is losing on its own home field because it lacks the capacity to utilize its best minds.

The solution is not found in scholarships or superficial awards. It requires rebuilding the knowledge ecosystem to be transparent, autonomous, and competitive. If the state dismantles administrative barriers and ensures fair compensation for intellectual labor, there will be no need to plead for talent to return.

However, a difficult question remains: Is it possible to hope for meaningful reform from a system that has been stagnant for so long?

Lê Ngọc Hà wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on Dec. 3, 2025. Đàm Vĩnh Hằng translated it into English for The Vietnamese Magazine.