Universities spend billions on lucky money for students

Near Lunar New Year, about 42,000 students ofUniversityEconomics (Hanoi National University), Mining-Geology, Foreign Tradelucky money, each student gets 100,000 VND. This amount is transferred by the school to the student's account.

Associate Professor, Dr. Le Xuan Thanh, Head of the Department of Political and Student Affairs, University of Mining and Geology, said that this is an annual activity every Tet holiday, with the meaning of encouraging the spirit of students. With about 16,000 students, the total amount of money the school spent on lucky money and Tet care was up to more than 1.6 billion VND.

This figure at Foreign Trade University and University of Economics is about 2 billion VND.

For students who do not return home for Tet but stay in Hanoi, Mr. Thanh said the school will make a list to support food and expenses. It is expected that each student will receive a pair of banh chung, a gift basket and about 0.5-1 million VND.

The University of Economics also supports 500,000 VND for each student staying in the dormitory during Tet or those from poor or near-poor households. On New Year's Day, the school gives each class 200,000 VND as lucky money. These amounts are taken from the school's Student Support Fund.

On this occasion, 189 disadvantaged students with good academic achievements from the Foreign Trade University were also awarded encouragement scholarships, worth about more than 2 million VND each.

In the private sector, schools often give gifts in kind. In the past two years, on the occasion of Lunar New Year,THoa Sen Universitygave Tet gifts to more than 10,000 students. This year's gifts were thermos bottles and Tet greeting cards written by teachers. Explaining the gift of thermos bottles, the school representative said that these are daily necessities for students.

Hong Bang International Universitygave Tet gifts to all 15,000 students, each with a tea set. Ms. Tran Thuy Tram Quyen, Vice Principal, said that this shows the bond between the school, students and their families because the tea set is often present when the whole family gathers and chats together.

100 disadvantaged students who cannot return home for Tet were awarded scholarships worth 3 million VND each by the school.

Both schools said the total amount spent on gift giving activities amounted to billions of dong.

As a new student, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, English 8 class, Standard Foreign Economics program, Foreign Trade University, received "lucky money" from the school for the first time on Tet holiday. Since the end of December 2023, when she received the notice, Thao was excited. The female student received lucky money in early January, saying that she would use this money to buy a bus ticket back to her hometown in Thai Binh.

"Although the amount is not large, this shows the school's concern for us. I feel encouraged by this small gift," Thao said.

Tran Chi Nguyen, a digital arts student at Hoa Sen University, was also excited to receive Tet gifts from the school. He and his friends in the group took pictures of the gifts and showed them off to their families.

The vice principal of a university in Ho Chi Minh City assessed that giving lucky money and Tet gifts to students is a way to increase the connection between the school and students, but few places have the conditions to do this. Instead, some schools cooperate with sponsors to organize bus trips or give free bus tickets for students to return home, which is also a practical activity to support students.