VietNamNet Bridge – It is not a strange thing nowadays to see university students attending classes on Sunday, or late at night. Many have to adjust their study schedules in accordance with their lecturers’ timetables.

Lecturer and students in a practice lesson

Thien Huong, a third-year student at the university, said: “Teachers are busy running between teaching gigs, so the university and students are busy running after teachers.”

Students of Van Hien University complain that they have overly bizarre timetables. For example, students of the Business Administration Faculty take Monday and Tuesday off, but they have to go to class on Saturday and Sunday. Meanwhile, they have 12 periods (5 in the morning, five in the afternoon and 2 in the evening) on Friday.

Mai Hoang, a student of Van Hien University, related that her class has to go to class on Sunday because the lecturer can only give lessons on Sunday; he has classes at other universities on other days.

Van Son, a student at HCM City Open University, said that lecturers sometimes do not remember where in lessons they left off. “And you should not be surprised that lecturers often go to wrong classrooms,” Son said.

Lecturers ‘running between teaching gigs’ because they’re qualified

Not all lecturers have such hectic schedules. Only good and prestigious teachers are invited to teach at various universities. As there is a shortage of these, no wonder they are in demand.

One such lecturer is H.T.P, MA in HCM City. He lives in district 12 of the city, so he has to get up at 6 am to rush to teach. Every day, he has lessons at four universities, the Economics University, Van Hien University, the HCM City Open University, and Technical and Technology University. The lecturer has only one free evening, on Sunday.

Similarly, N.V.T, an English teacher, is also busy from 6 am until 10 pm every day. He is now teaching at three people-founded universities and two foreign language centres. He has only 15-20 minutes to take a nap after lunch, and he only has time to have a loaf of bread in the break time between the teaching hours at foreign language centres.

Thu Ha, a former student of a non-state university in HCM City, said that she had exhausted herself trying to contact her teacher for his guidance on her graduation thesis. Ha related that every time she called the teacher, he said he was in a class or out on business. “Finally, we had no other choice than talking via phone or meeting at lunch time, which last 30 minutes only,” Ha said.

Universities seriously lacking permanent lecturers

At Hong Bang University, when reporters asked about lecturers for five subjects, students said that the lecturers of four of the five subjects come from other universities. Meanwhile, the students didn’t know about the lecturer of the fifth subject as the lecturer had not talked about himself.

The problem now lies in the fact that non-state universities are seriously lacking permanent lecturers. At some universities, the number of permanent lecturers just accounts for 15% of total lecturers. This has led to the fact that non-state universities have been relying on lecturers from other universities, and they have to pay the lecturers a lot and adjust study timetables in accordance with the lecturers’ schedules.

Worries have been raised that if qualified teachers all spend time ‘running between teaching gigs’ to earn their living, they will not have time for scientific research.

Doan Truc