Vietnam - Schools fined for breaking rules

HCM CITY — The Ministry of Education and Training yesterday said it had fined three international training facilities in HCM City for illegally recruiting students for programmes that were not be permitted at their schools.

The schools are ERC Viet Nam, Raffles Viet Nam and ILA Viet Nam.

Nguyen Huy Bang, head of the Ministry of Education and Training's inspectorate said that besides fines, the ministry had asked the schools to cease all advertisements about recruitment and training - and return tuition fees to learners.

Ministry inspections found that ERC Viet Nam is a one-member limited liability company that operates in the vocational training sector.

Under state law, it is not allowed to offer educational programmes from kindergarten to post-university level in Viet Nam.

However, ERC Viet Nam had signed agreements with the Australian Institute of Business Administration, University of Greenwich, and University of Wolverhampton in the UK to offer bachelor's and master's of business administration degrees.

ERC Viet Nam was fined VND80 million (US$3,809).

Like ERC Viet Nam, Raffles Viet Nam is a foreign company that operates in the vocational training sector and is not allowed to train from the kindergarten to PhD level.

But it was illegally recruiting students for the Raffles College of Higher Education in Singapore and for the bachelor's programme offered by Raffles College of Design & Commerce in Australia. It was fined VND75 million ($3,600).

ILA Viet Nam is a foreign company that offers short-term vocational training, but it had signed with Australia's Martin College to offer training for the college's degree programmes. It was fined VND65 million ($3,095).

The Institute of Accounting and Business Management also was asked to stop advertisements for recruitment.

It was not fined because training had ended in November.

Under state law, the institute is only permitted to open short-term training courses on finance and accountancy.

However, it had signed an agreement with NSSDC Education Services in Malaysia and International American University as well as Adam International University in the US to offer training for bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in business administration.

VNA

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