''The general picture of Vietnamese higher education is poor in terms of facilities''

Many university representatives attended the meeting directly at the bridge point of the Ministry of Education and Training headquarters.

The general picture of Vietnamese higher education, both public and private, is that it is poor in facilities, making it difficult to develop cutting-edge research.

This was the comment of Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son at a meeting with hundreds of officials and lecturers of universities and pedagogical colleges across the country on the afternoon of August 15, in both direct and online formats.

The bottleneck of higher education

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc An - Chairman of the Vietnam Education Trade Union said that there were more than 200 opinions sent to the Minister, of which 144 opinions were from lecturers, accounting for 62.0%; 51 opinions were from school staff, accounting for 22.2%, and the rest were from management staff.

According to Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son, opinions have pointed out bottlenecks in universities regarding institutions, facilities, and infrastructure.

The Minister assessed that the overall picture of the university system across the country, both public and private, is still quite poor in terms of facilities. The two national universities have received investment but are still unfinished. Hanoi Pedagogical University has recently received investment but it is not enough to compensate for the deterioration. According to the Minister, the current facilities do not meet the requirements of top-notch research. Therefore, it is necessary to continue investing in upgrading facilities and laboratories at universities.

Affirming that in order to develop, infrastructure must be modernized, however, the Minister said that this is facing another bottleneck: finance. Recently, the Government has decided to continue to temporarily suspend the increase in university tuition fees, schools share the difficulties of the people, but it is also a challenge for training units.

The Ministry of Education and Training is researching and recommending that the State provide financial compensation to schools to ensure quality of operations, but Minister Nguyen Kim Son also said that this is very difficult.

“There needs to be a national program on modern infrastructure for universities. In addition, teachers and scientists also need to promote their intelligence in scientific research and technology transfer,” said the Minister.

However, scientific research and technology transfer continue to be another bottleneck of higher education when the revenue from this field, according to the schools' announcements, is very low.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son listens to comments

Dr. Dinh Minh Hang, lecturer of the Faculty of Literature, Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Hanoi National University of Education, each lecturer of the school is invested from 10 - 15 million VND/year for scientific research - a rather modest number.

"I hope the Minister will let us know what solutions and policies the ministry will have in the coming time to create motivation and encourage scientific research and technology transfer in universities," said Ms. Dinh Minh Hang.

Affirming scientific research and the important issue of higher education, the Minister said that in 2022, the Ministry advised the Government to issue Decree 109 regulating scientific research activities in universities and colleges, including regulations on mechanisms to encourage lecturers to participate in scientific research, and policies to encourage the development of research groups and research fields.

According to the Minister, state spending on this issue is limited, schools need to focus on revenue from orders from businesses, localities, and commercialization of research products.

"Compared to 10 years ago, higher education has made great strides. However, compared to the country's requirements, the development speed has not met the requirements. If we do not work together to remove bottlenecks, it will be difficult for us to reach the peak of training quality," said the Minister.

Public-private school equity

Acknowledging that the Ministry of Education and Training has a policy to encourage scientific research such as rewarding lecturers whose articles are published in prestigious international journals, Dr. Lam Thanh Hien, Principal of Lac Hong University, said that this policy is not applied to private universities. Therefore, Mr. Hien expressed his hope that the Minister would pay more attention to encouraging the spirit of lecturers at private schools and at the same time have a mechanism for teachers at private schools to be recognized as main lecturers.

Sharing the “sadness” of private schools, Professor Pham Thanh Huy, Principal of Phenikaa University, said that the system of non-public schools still faces many difficulties, the biggest being investment in facilities. In terms of financial policies, sponsorship, emulation, commendation, and honoring teachers, they are somewhat disadvantaged compared to public schools.

Accordingly, Professor Pham Thanh Huy made recommendations to the Minister and hoped that agencies would adjust policies to pay more attention to non-public schools.

Sharing this issue, Minister Nguyen Kim Son affirmed that he always highly appreciated the system of non-public schools, and treated public and non-public schools fairly. With science and technology schools, established and invested by large enterprises, the Minister hopes that with good potential in terms of facilities, the schools will continue to develop sustainably in the future to soon become educational institutions with international influence.

The Minister also said that the Ministry of Education and Training is proposing a number of priority policies for the non-public sector, including preschool, general education and higher education; including an important policy of priority on land, premises and locations.

Competition and rewards are still carried out normally in the non-public sector. Regarding the mechanism for participation in scientific research and training activities, the Ministry currently has Project 89, providing doctoral training for higher education institutions, regardless of public or non-public institutions. “This also demonstrates the viewpoint and recognition of equality between these two groups of schools,” said the Minister.

According to Vietnam+