Students submit applications for university admission at the National Economics University (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - A new regulationconcerning recruitment quotas for public tertiary education institutions in Vietnamhas been at the centre of debate among educators and lawmakers.
The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET)recently decided to use the percentage of students that gained employment aftergraduation as the basis to determine whether a university should be allowed toincrease its recruitment quota for the next academic year.
The regulation applies to majors anduniversities that have not received official accreditation in educationquality.
It specifies that if an educational institutionhas 90 percent of graduates finding employment within one year of graduation,they can choose either to keep the recruitment quota from the previous schoolyear or raise it by no higher than 10 percent.
But if this percentage is achieved by forcingnon-performing students to leave school, they are only allowed to raise therecruitment quota by no higher than 25 percent of the number of students theyhad forced to leave over the previous four years.
Dr Nguyen Thi Kim Phung, head of MoET’sDepartment of Higher Education, said the regulation would help bridge the gapbetween labour supply and demand.
“There has been a drastic increase in the numberof universities and their educational scope as we are striving toward having450 students for every 10,000 people by 2020,” she said.
“But we have not been able to ensure teachingquality at these institutions, so a lot of students have been unable to findjobs after getting their Bachelor or Master’s degrees, or having to work asmanual labourers or in professions unrelated to their majors.
“The new regulation will require universities tolearn about the labour market’s demands before opening new academic programmesor deciding on their recruitment quotas.”
Dr Vu Thu Huong, a lecturer at the HanoiNational University of Education, said one year after graduation was not arealistic indicator of a student’s employability.
“Graduates often have a lot of choices afterthey finish studying, such as going to study abroad, getting another degree,pursuing advanced study or getting married. In some instances personalsituations prevent them from doing so. The number of students that find jobs inthat time is an important factor, but I think it should be based overall acrossfive consecutive years,” she said.
Professor Nguyen Van Minh, Principal of theHanoi National University of Education, said he was concerned about thetransparency of statistics provided by educational institutions.
He said: “Many universities have providedsimilar percentages [of students finding jobs within a year after graduation].This should be tackled as soon as possible otherwise there would be no point inmaking student data public.
“The education ministry should take measures tocontrol the transparency of statistics to make it fair for all universities.”
The accuracy and trustability of statistics hasalso raised concerns among educators.
Although statistics from the HCM City Universityof Education last year showed 100 percent of its French majors were employedafter graduation, only 15 of the 35 graduates responded to the school’s survey.
The statistics also showed 93.3 percent of theschool’s Japanese majors found employment, but that was taken from only 30 of104 graduates who responded to the survey, of which 27 landed jobs.
Similarly, only 600 out of 1,347 graduates fromthe University of Architecture HCM City responded to the school’s survey, 82percent of whom had found jobs within a year of graduation, but that made uponly 36 percent of the school’s total number of graduates.-VNS/VNA
The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET)recently decided to use the percentage of students that gained employment aftergraduation as the basis to determine whether a university should be allowed toincrease its recruitment quota for the next academic year.
The regulation applies to majors anduniversities that have not received official accreditation in educationquality.
It specifies that if an educational institutionhas 90 percent of graduates finding employment within one year of graduation,they can choose either to keep the recruitment quota from the previous schoolyear or raise it by no higher than 10 percent.
But if this percentage is achieved by forcingnon-performing students to leave school, they are only allowed to raise therecruitment quota by no higher than 25 percent of the number of students theyhad forced to leave over the previous four years.
Dr Nguyen Thi Kim Phung, head of MoET’sDepartment of Higher Education, said the regulation would help bridge the gapbetween labour supply and demand.
“There has been a drastic increase in the numberof universities and their educational scope as we are striving toward having450 students for every 10,000 people by 2020,” she said.
“But we have not been able to ensure teachingquality at these institutions, so a lot of students have been unable to findjobs after getting their Bachelor or Master’s degrees, or having to work asmanual labourers or in professions unrelated to their majors.
“The new regulation will require universities tolearn about the labour market’s demands before opening new academic programmesor deciding on their recruitment quotas.”
Dr Vu Thu Huong, a lecturer at the HanoiNational University of Education, said one year after graduation was not arealistic indicator of a student’s employability.
“Graduates often have a lot of choices afterthey finish studying, such as going to study abroad, getting another degree,pursuing advanced study or getting married. In some instances personalsituations prevent them from doing so. The number of students that find jobs inthat time is an important factor, but I think it should be based overall acrossfive consecutive years,” she said.
Professor Nguyen Van Minh, Principal of theHanoi National University of Education, said he was concerned about thetransparency of statistics provided by educational institutions.
He said: “Many universities have providedsimilar percentages [of students finding jobs within a year after graduation].This should be tackled as soon as possible otherwise there would be no point inmaking student data public.
“The education ministry should take measures tocontrol the transparency of statistics to make it fair for all universities.”
The accuracy and trustability of statistics hasalso raised concerns among educators.
Although statistics from the HCM City Universityof Education last year showed 100 percent of its French majors were employedafter graduation, only 15 of the 35 graduates responded to the school’s survey.
The statistics also showed 93.3 percent of theschool’s Japanese majors found employment, but that was taken from only 30 of104 graduates who responded to the survey, of which 27 landed jobs.
Similarly, only 600 out of 1,347 graduates fromthe University of Architecture HCM City responded to the school’s survey, 82percent of whom had found jobs within a year of graduation, but that made uponly 36 percent of the school’s total number of graduates.-VNS/VNA
VNA
