Educators and experts have called for reforms in the administration of local universities as a necessary step to improve the quality of education for the 2009-10 academic year.

They made the point at the opening on March 5 of a two-day workshop sponsored by the US-funded Fulbright Programme at Hong Duc University in the central province of Thanh Hoa .

The workshop compared educational management in Vietnam against the rest of the world, discussed models and management mechanisms at universities governed at the provincial and municipal levels, and how to revamp their administrative procedures.

Vietnam now boasts 18 local universities, which have been recently founded under a Government decision and put under provincial or municipal administration./.