Starting with the view that the Mekong Delta has become Vietnam’s next industrial hotspot, inclining the region to develop an “outward-looking education” which stresses practice-based vocational skills/professional skills and life-long learning purposes, the paper highlights a need for promoting STEM related fields of study at higher education level in the region. With the rising tide of public demand on a qualified and competitive education, the delta in recent years has witnessed the proliferation of private educational institutions and a rapid shift away from liberal-arts education toward lucrative career-oriented education, or “job-hunting first education,” which as a result significantly expands the number of STEM degrees. Since the country remains determined to move forward with ambitious plans to attract foreign investment, creating new industries, and strong economic growth continues, STEM-related jobs are expected to grow faster in the years to come in the Mekong Delta. This helps improve competitiveness in science and technology development and has implications for workforce development and resettlement policy in the region. However, it’s worth observing that while the number of STEM degrees is firmly increasing, the challenges in approach to developing STEM higher education basically remain unsettled. In this respect, the paper outlines three prominent issues, notably (i) the huge disconnection between classroom and the needs of the market, (ii) the lacks of autonomy, accountability and substaintial international connections in most of universities and (iii) the number of women and minorities who earned STEM degrees remains quite low. It concludes with a discussion on alternative approaches to deal with the current situation of STEM education in the delta: having both tried to do too much and achieved too little.