Vietnam - Tuition hike makes university students see stars

VietNamNet Bridge – Students of non-state universities are moaning about the high tuitions they have to pay, which are much higher than the tuition levels announced by the schools before.
Tuitions up


“T”, a student of the Van Hien University, said that one of the reasons that made her decide to register to study at the school was the announced reasonable tuition of 3.3-3.7 million dong per semester, affordable for her family. The information about the tuitions can be seen in the book “things to know about the universities’ enrolment for the 2011-2012 academic year”, published by the Ministry of Education and Training which came out in March 2011.

However, T said, when starting school, the Van Hien University unexpectedly announced the new tuitions of 5 million dong per semester for the training in information technology, electronic techniques and communication majors, and 4.5 million dong per semester for other majors.

As for the junior college level training (3-year training), the tuitions are 4.4-4.8 million dong per semester instead of 3.2-3.4 million dong as previously announced. As such, the tuitions for university (4-year training) and junior college (3-year training) both have increased by 30-40 percent.

At the Hung Vuong University, the tuition of 9000 dong per period applied for the 2010 academic year has increased by 1000-2000 dong. Especially, the students who study in the classrooms with air-conditioners, have to pay 1000 dong per period additionally.

The Lac Hong University has also announced the 10 percent tuition increase in comparison with the previous year. Students have to pay 7.7 million dong per year for the 2011-2012 school year, while the tuition is expected to increase to 8.5 million dong in 2012-2013. 

Explaining the plan to increase tuitions, the representative of the school said that tuitions need to be raised in accordance with the consumer price index (CPI) increase, the higher lecturers’ pay. Meanwhile, the school needs more money to build more lecture halls.

School fees also up

A lot of non-state schools announce package tuitions, but in fact, they collect tuitions based on credits. The HCM City Technique and Technology University, for example, collects 385,000 dong per credit for university training and 365,000 dong per credit for junior college training. The Hoa Sen University announces the monthly tuition of 3 million dong, but in fact, collects 300,000 dong per credit. Therefore, the tuitions of some majors, in fact, are higher than 18 million dong per semester.

Students not only have to pay tuitions, but pay many other kinds of school fees as well. At the Hung Vuong University, for example, besides the sum of 5 million dong students have to pay at the beginning of the school year, students still have to pay 20,000 dong for foreign language skill tests, 90,000 dong for sports uniforms, 125,000 dong for shirts.

The students of the HCM City Economics & Finance University, except the sum of 6.9 million dong a month, still have to pay fee for learning English, about 40-65 million dong per annum, the healthcare insurance premium, admission fee, sportswear fee, and laptop fee. The Van Lang University’s students have to pay 150,000 dong in admission fee.

An educator comments that the tuition increases prove to be inevitable in the context of the high inflation. However, schools need to make public about the tuition increases before they enroll students, because tuition is always an important factor students will consider when deciding to enroll in schools. 

A recent survey conducted by the Van Lang University on the subsistence allowance of students shows that a student in HCM City has to pay 500,000 dong for meals at least and 2.5 million dong at the highest, 300,000-1.25 million dong for room rent, 30,000-1 million dong for travel, 140,000-1.15 million dong for personnel expenses. As such, the average expense of a student who lives in rent room is 2.4 million dong a month, while a student living in dormitories is lower at 1.7 million dong a month.

Source: NLD


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