Promoting quality and accessibility in Vietnamese higher education: a case for income-contingent student loans

This commentary examines whether income-contingent loans (ICLs) could help Viet Nam balance wider access to higher education with the need to sustain educational quality. As tuition fees rise and institutions rely more heavily on student payments, current loan arrangements appear increasingly limited by fixed repayment expectations and weak responsiveness to graduates’ earnings. The article argues that ICLs offer a promising alternative, but only if policy design addresses repayment risk, muted price signalling, fiscal sustainability, tax-based collection capacity, and system transparency. Rather than advocating immediate large-scale adoption, the commentary proposes a staged pilot of an income-contingent repayment model alongside the existing scheme. Under the right administrative and regulatory conditions, ICLs could support a more equitable and sustainable higher education financing system in Viet Nam.