Plan to add 3 national universities, "eliminate" 20 colleges

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Anh Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), assessed that the current university system is developing unevenly, with many small-scale higher education institutions, narrow training fields and ineffective operations.

According to statistics from the Ministry, the country currently has 244 higher education institutions including public and non-public schools; 20 pedagogical colleges.

Schools are concentrated in economically developed regions such as the Red River Delta (44.3%), the Southeast (18.4%), the lowest in the Central Highlands (1.6%); the Northern midlands and mountainous areas (5.7%), the North Central and Central coastal regions (18.4%), and the Mekong Delta (7.0%).

According to Mr. Dung, the current network of higher education institutions is quite complicated with many governance models; state management is fragmented when the number of higher education institutions under ministries and branches (not the Ministry of Education and Training) is high.

At the same time, the number of local universities is quite large (26 schools) while the training scale of these schools accounts for a very small proportion in the training structure of the whole country.

Faced with the shortcomings of the system as well as the demands from the reality of socio-economic development in the regions, after analysis and evaluation, the Ministry of Education and Training plans to build 30 key schools including 5 national universities, 5 regional universities and 18-20 key national higher education institutions.

Thus, by 2030, Vietnam will have 3 more national universities: Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Danang University, and Hue University in addition to the current 2 national universities.

The Ministry of Education and Training also determined to develop 4 more regional universities on the basis of Vinh University, Nha Trang University, Tay Nguyen University and Can Tho University, together with Thai Nguyen University to become prestigious universities in the region and the world.

About 100 other key higher education institutions are under ministries, branches, central and local agencies; at least 70 private schools. In addition, there will be only 50 universities training teachers. Thus, by 2030, the model of teacher training colleges will no longer exist.

When providing information related to network planning, especially the construction of key universities, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son admitted that it would be difficult to select higher education institutions to include in the list. This was clearly demonstrated at the discussion when school leaders all wanted their schools to be on the list.