10 universities with trillion-dollar revenue

At the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, most universities will publish the "Three Public" reports as required by the Ministry of Education and Training, including financial data for 2023.

The 6 public schools with revenue of thousands of billions are Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, National Economics University, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology - National University.

Of which, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic are two new names compared to the time of public announcement last year. Can Tho University is out of the list, revenue decreased from nearly 1,120 billion VND to more than 950 billion.

Private schools with revenues of over a trillion VND are FPT University, Nguyen Tat Thanh University and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (Hutech). Van Lang University has not yet disclosed its total revenue for 2023 but reached VND1,758 billion by the end of 2022. Tuition fees and student numbers at this school have remained almost unchanged over the past year.

Leading in total revenue is FPT University - nearly 2,920 billion VND, an increase of 125% compared to 2021. Next is Hanoi University of Science and Technology with about 2,140 billion VND, doubled.

The remaining schools have lower increases, such as National Economics from 1,060 billion (2022) to 1,410 billion, Ho Chi Minh City Economics from more than 1,440 billion to nearly 1,680 billion...

Revenue of universities comes from 4 sources: budget; tuition and fees; scientific research and technology transfer; other sources such as sponsorship from businesses, philanthropists, publishers, affiliated businesses...

Tuition fees contribute the largest proportion. Of the 5 schools that have publicly disclosed their revenue sources, 4 schools earn more than a thousand billion VND from tuition fees alone. The proportion of tuition fees in total revenue of schools such as Nguyen Tat Thanh and Ho Chi Minh City Technology is up to more than 98%.

However, some schools recorded an increase in revenue from other sources. For example, Hanoi University of Science and Technology saw revenue from scientific research and other sources increase from VND97.4 billion in 2022 to VND506 billion.

Some experts say that high university revenue is a good thing. This helps schools develop their staff, infrastructure and facilities, increase lecturers' income and invest in students, and improve the quality of training and research.

However, revenue still depends too much on tuition fees, while tuition fees are increasing, putting pressure on people.

Last school year, the Government decided to increase the ceiling on university tuition fees, after many years of keeping them unchanged due to the impact of Covid-19. Non-autonomous public schools were allowed to collect 12-24.5 million VND per year, an increase from the previous level (9.8-14.3 million). If they were autonomous, the collection could be 2.5 times higher. With accredited programs, universities are allowed to determine their own tuition fees.

In fact, tuition fees for new students this year range from 10.6 to 250 million VND, commonly 20-40 million. Schools are expected to increase by 8-15% each year.

"This is an issue that needs to be adjusted and regulated," said Associate Professor Dr. Tran Xuan Nhi, Vice President of the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges.

According to Mr. Nhi, training high-quality human resources for the country requires investment and cooperation from many sources. In the context of diversifying revenue sources being difficult and requiring a long time, investment from the state budget for higher education needs to increase to reduce the burden of tuition fees for learners.

He said that in many countries with developed education systems such as the US and New Zealand, the state budget accounts for the majority of revenue, not tuition fees.

Currently, more than 140 out of 232 schools nationwide are eligible for autonomy under the provisions of the Law on Higher Education. Depending on the level of autonomy, schools have their budgets partially or completely cut, causing tuition fees to account for 50-90% of total revenue.

In 2020, the budget for higher education was about 0.27% of GDP. Meanwhile, the average rate of 38 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries is 0.93%. In Southeast Asia, Malaysia and Singapore spend over 1%, Thailand 0.64%.