People founded universities have voiced the same concern that they would not be able to enroll enough students for the 2011-2012 academic year. The Association of Non-state Universities even has proposed MOET to loosen the conditions to pave the way for the schools to enroll students, or they will have to shut down because of the lack of students.
MOET’s Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga has replied that schools still cannot enroll enough students, partially because they remain not prestigious enough. However, Do Xuan Tung, Deputy President of the Thang Long people founded University said that it will take schools at least 10-15 years to obtain reputation.
Educators have complained that universities, especially non-state owned ones, have to operate in very bad conditions. At many schools, every lecturer has to undertake tens of teaching hours a week; therefore, he has no more time left for the scientific research work.
Regarding the conditions for opening schools, Tung said that it is necessary to promulgate the operation charters which serve the schools’ operation and agencies’ management.
“At present, educators open schools and manage schools themselves,” he said. “Who will “feed” the schools? Who will decide the education way to follow – the shareholders, who found the school, lecturers or MOET?” he questioned.
A question has been raised that how many universities and junior colleges Vietnam should have. Nguyen Duc Nghia, Deputy Director of the HCM City National University, has said that in terms of quantity, the number of schools needs to satisfy the demand of the modernization and industrialization period. Vietnam needs to have 450 students for every 10,000 people like in Singapore, South Korea or Taiwan.
However, this does not mean that Vietnam needs to increase the number of schools at any costs. Nghia said that the schools have to provide high quality training services, while university graduates have to satisfy the requirements. In order to assess the graduates, it is necessary to follow a professional accreditation process.
However, no progress has been made in the work, because MOET alone cannot cover all the activities of schools.
Universities, according to Nghia, nowadays have to operate like businesses in terms of governance, i.e they need to set up the standards for input students (students must get certain minimum marks from the entrance exams to be able to study at universities), and the standards for graduates.
Tran Hong Quan, former Minister of Education and Training, now Chair of the Association of Non-state Universities, has stressed that schools cannot enroll enough students not because of the lack of students. Statistics show that 90 percent of high school students pass the final exams every year, which could be a big source for universities.
However, the problem is that the students do not pass the university entrance exams to be able to continue studying at university level. “In foreign countries, students do not have to take any entrance exams to study at universities. Why do Vietnamese students still have to take the exams?” Quan raised a question.
Advocating the policy on opening more schools, but Quan said that Vietnam should not strive to open more schools without the care about the quality. He said that it is necessary to set up stricter requirements on opening up new schools.
In the last 5-6 years, 235 new universities have been opened, mostly local universities. Meanwhile, the majority of the schools have been operating in big difficulties because of the lack of lecturers. The problem is that while the number of students and number of schools increase sharply, the number of lecturers does not increase accordingly.
Under the university and junior college network development program, in 2006-2020, Vietnam strives to have 450 students for every 10,000 people by 2020, which double the current figure. According to Ga, in order to reach that goal, by 2020, Vietnam will need to have 264 universities (4-5 year training) and 316 junior colleges (3-year training), or 580 in total.
Tien Phong
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