Proposal for State to support tuition fees for medical students

Participating in the discussion on the socio-economic situation on the morning of May 29 at the National Assembly, delegate Tran Khanh Thu (Vice President of the Thai Binh Provincial Youth Union) expressed concern about the current quality of people's health. The child mortality rate and malnutrition among regions have not improved; the average life expectancy of Vietnamese people is 73.6 years, but the number of healthy years is only 65 years, nearly 10 years of living with the burden of disease.

"All of this puts great pressure on the healthcare and social security systems, but there are no effective solutions to cope with it," she said.

According to the delegate, in addition to investing in basic healthcare infrastructure, equipment, and improving service quality, the fundamental solution is to ensure sufficient resources for healthcare for the people. However, the issue of training medical human resources still has many difficulties. According to survey data at universities in 2024-2025, the medical and pharmaceutical sectors always have the most expensive tuition fees.

For public schools, tuition is 82.2 million VND per year, while for non-public schools, tuition is up to 180 million VND per year. The training period lasts about 6 years, making it difficult for medical schools to attract high-quality human resources.

Therefore, the delegates proposed that the Government develop a policy to support tuition fees for medical and pharmaceutical students with a commitment that after graduation they will work under the assignment of the State. This policy helps students from difficult circumstances achieve their desire to become doctors, while also solving the problem of human resources for health care in remote areas and grassroots health care.

Delegate Nguyen Huu Thong (Deputy Head of Binh Thuan Delegation) said that the overload situation at upper-level hospitals has not been resolved; lack of medicine and medical equipment still occurs in some localities. He requested the Government to soon take measures to solve this problem, especially to overcome difficulties and support vulnerable people.

Decree 96/2023 stipulates policies on support and scholarship for students majoring in health. Accordingly, postgraduate students with master's, doctoral, level I specialist, level II specialist, resident physician specializing in psychiatry, pathology, forensic medicine, forensic psychiatry, infectious diseases and emergency resuscitation at educational institutions in the health sector are supported by the State with tuition fees and living expenses.

Students at educational institutions in the State health sector with good or better academic and training results and not disciplined at the level of reprimand or higher during the scholarship consideration period will be granted State scholarships to encourage study.

Students are people working at medical examination and treatment facilities in areas with difficult and especially difficult socio-economic conditions who are granted policy scholarships by the State.

Students at private health education institutions must pay the difference between the actual tuition fees of the educational institution and the State support level.