Many private universities have announced an increase in tuition fees for 2010-11, citing rising costs of infrastructure and equipment.

Hanoi’s Dai Nam University will hike the fees from 800,000 VND (43.4 USD) to 980,000 VND (53.2 USD) a month for degree level and from 700,000 (38 USD) to 800,000 VND (43.4 VND) for college students.

A university spokesperson said electricity, water, and land costs rose last year.

FPT University, also based in Hanoi, one of the most expensive private universities with fees running into thousands of USD, said it would add a semester to its courses instead of increasing fees. A student will thus be paying total fees of 9,900 USD (193 million VND) over a course against 8,800 USD (171.6 million VND) this year.

Thang Long University said it would hike fees by 10 percent on average, with finance and banking students paying the lowest amount of 1.1 million VND (59.7 USD) and nursing students the highest of 12 million VND (652 USD).

Thanh Thuy, a spokesperson for Bac Ha International University, said the school would hike the annual fees for the economics stream to 18 million VND (980 USD) and for the technology stream to 20 million VND (1,086 USD).

The fee hike is essential to meet quality standards, she said.

However, some private universities charge moderate fees even after hikes. Tran Huu Nghi, principal of Hai Phong University, said this year his school would collect 7.9 million VND (429 USD).

It did not want to cause financial difficulties for students, he explained, adding they can borrow 8.4 million VND (456 USD) a year from the government’s credit support programme.

Thanh Tay University too collects a modest 7 million VND (380 USD) at the tertiary level and 5 million VND (271 USD) at the college level and does not plan to increase the fees./.