Vietnam - Many universities lack well-qualified teachers

VietNamNet Bridge – Many universities lack well-qualified teachers to ensure the quality of higher education, according to the Ministry of Education and Training's latest inspection.

It has been revealed that 20 per cent of inspected universities failed to meet regulations on the number of teachers and their qualifications.

In particular, seven universities had less than 50 official teachers each. HCM City's Van Hien University and Information Technology College exhibited the most serious violations by staffing only one teacher for up to 90 students.

Meanwhile, the ministry's regulations state that each university needs to ensure one official teacher for 25 students.

Nguyen Huy Bang, the ministry's chief inspector said these universities were asked to stop recruiting new students until they are equipped with enough qualified teachers.

He said the relevant authorities would continue making regular inspections to eradicate the situation.

The universities' leaders said it was difficult for them to recruit enough well-qualified teachers.

Nguyen Manh Hung, headmaster of Nguyen Tat Thanh University said they had the goal of employing 150 more teachers with Ph.Ds and Master's degrees. However, this goal was hard to accomplish with so few human resources.

Nguyen Dung, headmaster of Van Lang University said the university is in the same situation; they lack 80 teachers. However, as it is impossible for them to employ only teachers with Master's degree, they recruit ones with Bachelor's degrees and request that they continue their studies.

These headmasters agree that with the large number of teachers holding bachelor's degrees only, the quality of education at universities is impossible to be ensured.

The statistics of the ministry show that 51 per cent of teachers at universities hold a Bachelor's degree, 35 per cent hold a Master's degree and 14 per cent with a Ph.D.

Professor Ngo Van Le of the ministry said a lack of teachers with Ph.Ds and Master's degrees has forced universities to employ people with Bachelor's degrees to teach their students who are pursuing the same degree. So, the quality of education is in question.

Moreover, teachers with Ph.Ds or Master's degree are in high demand, which lead them to take on extra lectures in many universities. This also affects the quality of teaching and studying.

To settle this, the ministry has worked out a strategic plan of human resource development toward 2020 in which they will focus on improving the quality of teachers so that 58,000 teachers with Masters' degrees and 29,000 others with Ph.Ds can be trained to meet the demand of universities and colleges nationwide.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News

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