Christophe Lemiere, Human Development Programme Manager of the World Bank in Vietnam, speaks at the conference on November 27 (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Autonomy in higher education in Vietnam isfacing challenges, particularly accountability and finances, according toDeputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son.
Speaking at the annual event Vietnam Education Conference, Son said that since2014, 23 universities in Vietnam had joined a pilot programme on autonomy undera Government resolution.
Most of the participating universities have made breakthroughs in theirtraining and research, which helped improve the performance of national highereducation, he said.
For example, the universities had attracted more lecturers with PhD degrees,enrolled more students, launched more training programmes and the number oftheir studies published in international academic scientific journals increased10 times, accounting for 45 percent of the country’s totalinternationally-published studies.
Under the autonomy programme, the universities reported their revenue andspending increased 1.5 times compared with when they received more State-funding.The funding provided by the Government to them reduced 2.1 times in the lastsix years.
However, Son said during the pilot programme on university autonomy,shortcomings were revealed as the universities had unsustainable finances, withtuition fees still accounting for a high proportion of their revenue at about80 percent, while earnings from research activities were modest and fundingfrom Government had reduced sharply.
Christophe Lemiere, Human Development Programme Manager of the World Bank in Vietnam,said despite the fact that Vietnam’s higher education had been improving, itsquality was still lower than those of other ASEAN countries.
After graduating, many students in Vietnam still lacked skills in management ortechnology, failing to meet the requirements of employers.
Research in higher education in Vietnam was still modest, he said, adding thatthree ministries – Education and Training, Labour, Sciences and Technologies –were involved in higher education but they had not cooperated with each othereffectively.
In the pilot programme on autonomy in higher education, the connection betweenenterprises and universities was not clear, Lemiere said.
He suggested that when universities were given autonomy, they must beaccountable, particularly for ensuring training quality.
In addition, Vietnam should increase funding for higher education to about 0.8 percentof GDP instead of the current rate of 0.23 percent.
Vietnam spent up to 20 percent of GDP on education but higher educationreceived only 0.23 percent, he said, adding that the rate was too modest.
A big problem for Vietnam’s higher education was that its revenue heavilydepended on tuition fees, he said, calling for more scholarships fordisadvantaged students, more loans for students to attend universities and moreinvestment in higher education.
Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Tong Thi Phong said Vietnam had keptimproving its legal framework on higher education to help it develop.
“Many policies have been developed and implemented to enhance autonomy inhigher education,” she said, adding that gaps between policies and practiseremained.
“The gaps and challenges drive us to change and innovate higher education,” shesaid, adding that improving the effectiveness of autonomy aimed to make use ofuniversities’ strengths and then, increase training quality as well as humanresource quality./.
VNA
