The education budget will be 2.9 percent higher this year at 5 trillion VND (256 million USD), according to the Ministry of Education and Training.

Nguyen Van Ngu, head of the Ministry's Finance and Planning Department, said it would fund 100 percent of normal expenses by high schools and pre-university training schools for ethnic minorities, which are free.

This includes 2.8 billion VND (143,600 USD) for scholarships and allowances for the students, according to Ngu.

While public universities and colleges offering economics and finance streams will be provided funds for all their normal as well as one-off expenses, those offering other streams will be subsidised in part.

The amount earmarked for regular expenses is around 4.2 trillion VND, an increase of 11.9 percent over 2010.

The amount to be spent on training a student will increase by at least 17 percent at the university and college levels and 52 percent at the doctoral level.

More than 99 billion VND will be earmarked for the Ministry's advanced programmes.

The HCM City and Hanoi Open Universities, National Economics University , Hanoi University, Foreign Trade University, and the HCM City University of Economics will get a total of 38 billion VND (1.9 million USD) for buying equipment and building facilities.

Viet-Duc University and the University of Sciences and Technology in Hanoi will get 28 billion VND.

"Universities and colleges are in better financial shape now after tuition and enrollment fees were raised in 2010," Ngu added./.