Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha, during a visit to Van Hien University in HCM City, encourages all universities to enhance their brand name by improving quality.(Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) - The Association of Vietnam Universities and Collegesshould become a link to connect private universities with each other and withpublic universities to help improve training quality.
Speakingat a conference on private universities’ existing problems, policies needing tobe amended and co-operation chances held recently in Ho Chi Minh City, Prof. Dr.Tran Trung, Vice Rector of Hanoi-based Hoa Binh University, said privateuniversities should cooperate with each other to improve their quality.
“There iscurrently no cooperation between universities, whether private or public. They,for instance, could cooperate in training programmes,” he said.
Theyshould define their strengths and weaknesses and identify where to cooperatewith each other, he added.
Dr. TruongQuang Mui, chairman of the board of directors of Sai Gon Technology University,said: “Cooperation is vital in current times to help develop a high-qualitysystem of private universities. They should cooperate for a win-win situation.”
They couldcooperate to help transfer their students between each other, he said.
Dr. PhanNgoc Son, Rector of the Dong Nai Technology University, told Vietnam News:“Universities share their good professors with each other, meaning professorsof one university are able to teach at another. It is wasteful for them toteach at only one university. A common target of the cooperation is to trainstudents to meet enterprises’ requirements after graduating.”
Manyuniversities have tied up with counterparts in other countries to exchangetraining programmes and lecturers while there is no such cooperation within thecountry, according to Son.
Onlineteaching makes such cooperation more convenient.
Hoang VanCuong, director of the International Student Exchange Centre at FPT University,said universities, including private ones, should cooperate with those in othercountries for student exchanges like his university.
Thenumber of international students coming to the university had increased to 819this year from 460 in 2016, he said.
"Publicuniversities have strength in basic sciences and research and so they shouldfocus on enrolment to these streams," they said.
They alsocalled for enacting a law regulating private universities.
Accordingto Associate Prof. Dr. Tran Quang Quy, Vice Chairman of the Association of VietnamUniversities and Colleges, 30 years after the first private university was opened,the country now has 60 of them, or a quarter of the country’s totalnumber.
They havetrained nearly 300,000 students, accounting for 15.7 percent of the totalnumber.
The rateis expected to increase to 40 percent by 2020.-VNS/VNA
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