VietNamNet Bridge – While the Prime Minister has decided tuition is 240,000 dong per month, the real figure is much higher.

According to Professor Pham Phu from the HCM City University of Technology, Vietnamese students need 160 credits during their four year university study, which means they have to take 40 credits per school year and the ‘price’ of every credit is 60,000 dong.

However, students of the HCM City Industry University have to pay 110,000 dong per credit for university training and 105,000 per credit for a 3-year training course, or 40-45,000 dong higher than the level provided by Phu.

Explaining the high tuition, an official of the HCM City Industry University said that the 110,000 dong includes 70,000 dong spent on teaching, 40,000 doing on electricity, water and facilities upgrading. The official said that it is impossible to train a student with just 70,000 dong per credit.

Besides tuitions, students of the university have to pay additional sums of money for certificates, uniforms and books.

The Open University Institute collects tuition per school year, but students of the university have to pay 320,000 dong a month instead of 240,000 dong. The university said that it is a ‘special state owned university’, i.e it does not get support from the state, therefore, it has to use students fees to cover expenses.

Students of the Hanoi Industry University also complain they have to pay too much. Besides the tuition of 2,625,000 dong for the first semester, they have to pay for student handbooks, learning materials, library and even an admission fee.

One student related that she has to pay 700,000 dong per semester for ‘Intensive English practice’. Meanwhile, she only learns two hours of English per week only.

While universities have “dodged” laws by collecting higher-than-allowed tuition, Professor Phu says that it is understandable.

He said that while it costs $7,000 a year to train a student in Taiwan, $12,000 in Europe and $22,000 in the US, it costs $500 only to train a Vietnamese student.

Phu said that the low tuition level has prompted universities to set up ‘additional fees’ to increase the sums of money they collect from students.

Phu says that tuition level has increased to 240,000 dong per month from the previous level of 180,000 dong, which means a modest increase of 60,000 dong after 10 years.

“It is unfeasible to require universities to ensure training quality with such a low tuition,” Phu said.

A representative from the Hanoi Civil Engineering University said that 50-60 percent of tuition is used to pay salaries to staff, which means only a small volume of money has been left for reinvestment.

“The basic monthly salary stipulated by the Government has increased from 180,000 dong to 650,000 dong after 10 years, while the tuition has just increased by 180,000 to 240,000 dong, which is really unreasonable,” he said

He has calculated that with the current conditions of Vietnam, it will cost some $1,200 a year to produce high quality labour force which can meet the requirements of the new development period.

VietNamNet/VnMedia