VietNamNet Bridge – More than 230 universities and colleges have been set up in the past three years. Professor Nguyen Minh Thuyet, vice chairman of the National Assembly Education Commission, spoke with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

To meet people’s study demands, the ministry should pay more attention to the regular education system, so that people can continue to study at tertiary level by many different ways and at any age.

But according to the MOET, the expansion is also meant to meet people’s demand for study. What is your opinion?

This doesn’t sound convincing enough either. To meet people’s study demands, the ministry should pay more attention to the regular education system, so that people can continue to study at tertiary level by many different ways and at any age.

The increasing number of private universities and colleges run contrary to the ministry’s mandate. Their plan should be this: when students graduate from secondary schools, a part of them will enter vocational training to join the market of labourers at secondary level; the rest will enter high school. But currently many provinces have established too many private high schools. Who will join vocational training schools then?

Next, those who continue into high school will be further divided after graduating: some of them entering universities and colleges; the rest start working. However, too many private universities and colleges are also being established and students who should enter vocational training schools or start working are entering university.

Another problem is that many universities and colleges are still allowed to be established even though they do not meet minimum standards for training. What do you think?

It’s undeniable that the mass establishment of universities and colleges is irrational. Currently, the average area for each student is only 1.4sq.m, while our set standard requires from 6 to 10sq.m. How can we supply enough educational equipment to serve this boom?

Meanwhile, teachers are frankly rather lacking and have not met the requirement for high quality training. Only 10.5 per cent of university lecturers have PhD degrees, most of whom work in well-known universities.

With the current training situation, many students will not acquire adequate education nor be accepted by the labour market. This means a big waste for the community.

However, it must be admitted that some private universities and colleges have paid proper attention to infrastructure investment as well as lecturers. But those are quite rare. Most private establishments are run for the purpose of making profit, setting high tuition fees, the majority of which goes to the investors. It is obviously irrational that tuition fees are high while students after graduation either can’t find work or can’t do their jobs properly. I don’t know why the ministry approves such a mode of doing business.

So what measures should be taken to assure teaching quality at these universities and colleges?

The NA’s Commission for Culture, Education, Youth and Children has proposed that the ministry suspend enrolment of new students in sub-standard schools. The Commission also proposed that the Government conduct regular inspections to ensure that newly-established schools meet the requirements of socio-economic development. We have proposed temporarily stopping the establishment of new universities and colleges.

In my opinion, what we should do now is to inspect existing schools. Those which do not meet the requirements should be ordered to stop enrolling students or even shut down. What’s most concerning is that many newly-established and sub-standard schools are allowed to enrol up to 800 students a year while long-established well-known schools enrol only 1,200 to 1,500. It’s too risky to let these schools keep on operating.

It is said that the procedures and requirements for establishing universities or colleges are not tight enough, and some criteria are even too low compared to the standard requirements of a university. Is it true?

Procedures and compulsory conditions for the establishment of universities and colleges have been there for long and it is not right to say the criteria are not tight enough. What needs to be addressed here is that how the ministry can deal with proposals to establish new schools more effectively. Inspection should be carried out to make clear why despite such tight criteria and procedures, many universities and colleges still do not meet common standards.

(Source: Viet Nam News)