All universities and colleges supposedly have to apply the credit-based scheme as of next year. However, the deadline proves to be unfeasible.

The Hanoi Law University, which started the process in 2006, has reported that the credit-based scheme has been applied to 19 subjects so far.

The Hung Yen Technical University of Education said that it is necessary to give universities more time to prepare for the application of the credit-based scheme, adding that one year proves to be a very short time for preparation, while universities have too many things to do.

The most visible difference with the credit-based scheme is that students have the right to choose suitable curriculums, with compulsory and optional study units. Moreover, students can choose times and classes for learning, and can design timetables to fit their schedules and demands.

However, it is clear that the poor material facilities at universities still cannot meet the requirements of credit-based education programmes.

Nguyen Minh Hung, Deputy President of the University of Civil Engineering, said that the university is lacking classrooms as the number of students has been increasing more rapidly than the number of classrooms.

In other countries, for theoretical lessons, several hundred students gather together in a big lecture hall to listen to the lectures of famous professors. However, there are 20-30 students only in a room in practical lessons. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, several hundred students still have to share the same room for both theoretical and practical lessons.

Lecturers do not want changes, students have few options

At the beginning of a semester, every student is given syllabuses for every subject which lets them know what they will learn and when, what issues will be discussed in class what they need to prepare before they go to class.

The thing proves to be unprecedented with the school year-based scheme, and has left many lecturers puzzled.

The Hanoi Law University had to ask experts from the Pedagogical Faculty of the Hanoi National University to help train its lecturers.

Every study session lasts 10 days only, but it takes six months to compile the syllabuses for every subject. Meanwhile, the syllabuses need to be amended and updated every year to fit the new circumstances.

Meanwhile, the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities draws up specimen syllabuses for some subjects. In order to have 1,400 syllabuses, lecturers and education managers have been working hard since November 2006.

Ten years after his university began applying the credit-based study scheme, Nguyen Minh Hung, Deputy President of the Hanoi University of Civil Engineering, admits that not many lecturers can teach new subjects, and that students do not have many optional subjects.

Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, Deputy President of the Hanoi Law University, also said that the biggest problem now is the way of thinking of lecturers: They all want their subjects to be put into the compulsory curriculums.

Lan Huong