Plan to amend and supplement some regulations on university autonomy

Candidates arrive to enroll at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HUTECH). Illustration photo: Thu Hoai/VNA

The development of the Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 99 aims to continue institutionalizing the Party's policies and guidelines in implementing decentralization of management, enhancing autonomy in university training; thoroughly resolving difficulties and problems from practice; ensuring consistency between legal regulations, promoting decentralization and delegation of power, and linking accountability.

According to the draft Decree, some main contents to be amended and supplemented include:

First, determine the “Authority competent to appoint and recognize” the Principals of public higher education institutions. Currently, according to the provisions of the law on civil servants, the authority competent to appoint and recognize administrative officials is the authority competent to evaluate and classify the quality of civil servants, resolve complaints and denunciations, and handle disciplinary actions against administrative officials. However, current legal provisions do not specifically stipulate whether the authority competent to appoint the Principal of a public higher education institution is the school board or the direct management agency.

Therefore, to remove the obstacles, the draft Decree amends and supplements as follows: The direct management agency performs the role of the competent authority to appoint and recognize the principal in implementing regulations on personnel work.

The direct management agency decides to assign the principal or assign the person in charge of the school in the following cases: For newly established universities, the direct management agency assigns the principal or assigns the person in charge of the school to participate in the provisional school council and perform the duties and powers of the principal until there is a decision to officially recognize the principal according to the proposal of the school council; For universities that have been without a principal for more than 6 months without submitting a request for recognition of the principal to the direct management agency.

The school board shall carry out or authorize the principal to carry out the procedures for evaluating, resolving complaints, denunciations, and disciplining the vice principal according to the provisions of law, and submit them to the school board for consideration and decision.

Second, to ensure compliance with Party regulations (Regulation No. 80-QD/TW dated August 18, 2022 of the Politburo) and legal regulations on civil servants (Decree No. 115/2020/ND-CP) on "Composition of collective leadership", taking into account the proposed opinions of higher education institutions, the draft Decree stipulates the composition of collective leadership in Article 7 of Decree No. 99, as follows: The composition of collective leadership stipulated in this Article includes: Standing Committee of the Party Committee or Party Committee (where there is no Standing Committee of the Party Committee); Chairman of the school council or acting Chairman of the school council, Vice Chairman of the school council (if any), Principal or acting Principal (if there is no Principal); Vice Principals and heads of the staff department on organization and personnel.
The leadership group is chaired by the Chairman of the school board or the Principal (in the absence of a Chairman of the school board); works on the principle of collective, decides by majority, in case the leadership group is an even number, with a 50/50 voting result, the decision will be based on the opinion of the side with the chair.

Third, the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education stipulates: Members outside the university account for at least 30% of the total number of members of the university council, including representatives of the direct management agency. Therefore, to ensure the promotion of the autonomy of higher education institutions and to absorb the opinions and proposals of higher education institutions; the draft Decree stipulates that the number of representatives appointed by the direct management agency shall not exceed 50% of the total number of members outside the university.

Fourthly, according to reports from higher education institutions, the regulation requiring the convening of more than 50% of the total number of officials and employees of the university to attend the conference of delegates to elect and replace a member of the university council is difficult and costly. Especially for National Universities, Regional Universities and higher education institutions with a large total number of officials and employees.

Fifth, to ensure consistency and synchronization with relevant legal provisions, the draft Decree has restructured the contents of Decree 99 on dismissal and removal of the chairman of the school board and other members of the school board. Accordingly, it clarifies the cases of dismissal and removal to ensure consistency with legal provisions.

Sixth, amend and supplement specific regulations on procedures for replacing school board members; especially for members who are representatives of direct management agencies, when they have resigned or transferred to other jobs, the direct management agency can replace them immediately without needing a written request from the school board as is currently the case.

Seventh, supplement specific regulations on procedures for establishing and recognizing university councils, university council presidents, and university directors of universities decided by the Prime Minister to be converted into universities.

In addition to the above contents, the draft Decree also specifically stipulates the conditions for establishing a school as a training unit under a higher education institution, the conditions for universities to associate into universities, the operating conditions as well as the responsibilities and powers of the higher education quality assessment organization.

Regarding autonomy and accountability, the draft Decree adds a requirement for higher education institutions to publicly disclose all sources of revenue and expenditure and the structure of revenue and expenditure; the structure of expenditure from tuition fees must be consistent with relevant regulations.

According to VNA