VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) has issued a decision on allocating annual work hours for university lecturers.

A teacher at the Ha Noi University of Technology delivers a lecture to her students. Under the Ministry of Education and Training’s new decision, lecturers have to spend 900 hours a year in classes.

According to the decision, university lecturers will work 40 hours a week, 1,760 in an academic year, 900 of which will be spent on delivering lectures.

The regulation will be applied to university lecturers, associate professors, senior lecturers, and professors at both State-run and non-State universities.

University lecturers’ workloads can include preparing and delivering lectures, scientific research, overseeing training, managing scientific and technological experimentation.

Besides 900 hours of lecturing, university teachers will spend 500 hours on research and 360 hours on professional work and other activities.

An associate professor will have 600 hours for research, and 260 hours for other activities.

A professor or senior lecturer will have 700 hours for scientific research, and 160 hours for other activities.

More time

“With these new work hours, university teachers will have more time to spend on delivering lectures and further studies. It is essential if we are to improve the quality of education in our nation,” said Tran Ba Giao, deputy chief inspector of MoET.

MoET has also worked out regulations on hours of formal scheduled teaching. Teachers who have higher salaries will have more formal scheduled teaching hours, at no more than 400 hours a year. Those with lower salaries will have less formal scheduled teaching hours at no less than 260 hours. Some, however, are not happy with the decision.

“At present with more than 30 work hours a week, we do not have enough time to prepare lectures or do research. Forty hours of work a week is too much for us. It will affect the quality of our lecturing and scientific research,” said Nguyen Hong Mai, a lecturer of the Ha Noi National University of Education.

In Britain, each university sets conditions for its lecturers. These may vary from institution to institution. In universities created after 1992, lecturers on national contracts spend no more than 18 hours a week on formal scheduled teaching, according to website www.ca.courses-careers.com.

(Source: VNS)