Local educators need to go back to the drawing board and chalk-up a more innovative approach.

Vietnam’s tertiary education has provided strong evidence that more is not always necessarily the merrier. The situation was brought to light last week as National Assembly deputies put a draft amendment of the Education Law under scrutiny during their sixth session of the nation’s top lawmaking body’s 12th Legislature. The amended Education Law is slated for the National Assembly ratification this month.

A Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) report circulated at the session unveiled that the number of universities and colleges rose 3.7 times in the last two decades, from 107 in 1987 to 376 in 2009. However, the institutions’ enrollment have even soared faster, 13 times. The two years of 2006-2007 witnessed a massive establishment of new universities and colleges, with 40 setups given the greenlight.

The more the merrier?

The reported number of universities and colleges established as of this year has almost hit the targets set by the government for the end of this decade, which has stated that to respond to the country’s socio-economic development, there should be 386 institutions by 2010. The numbers aimed for 2015 and 2020 are respectively 480 and 600.

Accordingly, tertiary enrollment is expected to reach 1.8 million students next year, three million in 2015 and 4.5 million by 2020. In other words, the country should have 200 students per 10,000 people in 2010, 300 in 2015 and 450 in 2020.

While the figures appear to point to a steady development, a burning question has emerged: is the growth in quantity accurately mirrored the correspondingly better quality?

Nguyen Duc Tiep, vice dean of Hanoi-based University of Industry’s International Cooperation and Training Faculty has possibly found the answer. “Vietnam’s university education is problematic,” he claimed.

“The public is being stirred-up by its low quality, especially the quality of newly established universities,” Tiep added.

According to MoET statistics, the existing 376 universities and colleges nationwide are home to just 330 professors and associate professors. On average, each university has less than one professor and associate professor.

Professor Vu Duong Ninh from Hanoi National University said there were great risks if new universities were allowed to be established without adequate supervision. “This trend can lead to universities becoming diploma factories and a generation of low-quality students who can be a burden for the society,” he said.

Ninh cited several cases where university managers had falsely claimed to be professors to add prestige to their universities. In other cases, names of famous professors, who were not related to the institutions, were used for advertising. “Many [of the professors] do not even know about the universities,” Ninh said.

Former MoET Minister Pham Minh Hac said many of the universities were vanity projects as localities wanted to have such institutions to polish their images. “The massive establishment of such universities is quite wasteful,” said Hac.

According to the National Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Education, Youth and Children (CCEYC), a dearth of qualified teaching staff and materials had stopped many universities from coming operational despite having been granted a licence.

“It is very precarious for localities to massively open universities and colleges. We need to review the planning and establishment of the Vietnamese university and college network,” said CCEYC vice chairman Nguyen Minh Thuyet. The National Assembly’s Finance and Budget Committee chairman Phung Quoc Hien spelt out a few home truths.

“Universities are teaching what they have, not what enterprises and the society need. Many subjects are impractical and inapplicable,” Hien said. Many National Assembly delegates attending the session agreed that the draft amended Education Law did not point out how to improve the quality of universities and colleges.

“Most students cannot meet enterprises’ requirements because they are mostly trained theoretically. To be able to work, they must be re-trained,” said Le Van Cuong, a National Assembly delegate from Thanh Hoa province.

University of Industry’s Nguyen Duc Tiep cited software engineering companies which said 80-90 per cent of their recruited university graduates needed to be re-trained and taught foreign languages before being able to work.

“Like many other sectors, Vietnam’s hi-tech sector is also witnessing a grave dearth in skilled and English-using workers as most documents and software are in English,” Tiep said. Truong Gia Binh, chairman of FPT Group, the leading Vietnamese information technology firm underscored the problem by admitting many graduates lacked practical skills.

Some National Assembly deputies also pointed out that while many regional countries like Malaysia were actively cultivating skilled graduates and a knowledge-based economy, Vietnam was moving in the opposite direction.

“While many countries strictly manage their education outputs and require their graduates to meet enterprises’ demands after graduation, Vietnam’s universities are worried about their inputs, not outputs,” remarked Dang Nhu Loi, vice chairman of the National Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee.

Identifying a responsible hand

With more tertiary institutions to be set up following the government’s targets and amid strong criticisms on high-education quality, another burning question arises, who should be responsible for permitting the establishment of the new entities?

Under the current Education Law, only the prime minister has the rights to approve the establishment of state-owned and private universities. The draft amendment of the law, however, proposes a transferral of such rights to the MoET, which argued that the authorisation was suitable to the Education Law’s Clause 14 on education management decentralisation and Clause 100 on state education management competence.

The MoET also said that the move would help clear the decks and allow it to take a firm grip on driving local education into the future. Pham Do Nhat Tien, an expert at the MoET, said many countries with highly respected education systems like France required governments to approve a new university. The ministries of education manage schools and the governments look after universities.

However, he cited South Korea’s university education law which stipulated that any non-state unit wanting to establish a university must seek approval from the country’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. The proposed amendment has sparked concerns among the National Assembly’s Standing Committee members.

They argued that the transferral of the rights would resulted in the worsened university education quality. “A university is managed by not only the MoET, but also many other ministries and government’s line agencies. So who will be responsible for the mistakes when they are committed?” asked Hanoi National University’s vice director Vu Minh Giang.

“Only the prime minister can approve the establishment of new universities,” he contended. TheNational Assembly’s Finance and Budget Committee chairman Phung Quoc Hien said the prime minister should continue to reserve th rights to approve the establishment of new universities and keep an eye on quality control. Meanwhile, the MoET minister should be responsible for issuing operating licences.

Hanoi National University’s Professor Vu Minh Giang said there were two sides to the establishment of a university. “On one hand, learners’ demand will be met. On the other hand, how to increase the number of universities remains a problem. Thus we have to learn more from international experiences, especially from countries having developed education and stipulated strict conditions,” Giang said.

According to the CCEYC, universities also need to be given more autonomy in their operations including training, scientific research, finance, planning, recruitment of staff and international cooperation.

It also suggested that besides the transfer of responsibility to universities, the amended law needed to include more strict regulations on examination, management and supervision for state management bodies towards universities.

According to the draft amendment, heads of universities could have the right to design curricula instead of using MoET curricula being commonly applied in universities. Professor Tran Dinh Long, from the Hanoi University of Technology, said the MoET also needed to issue detailed conditions that must be met by new universities.

“Only when they meet these conditions, such as ensuring enough qualified lecturers, land and financial capacity should they be allowed to operate,” Long said. The draft also requires the MoET to examine newly established universities each year and report to the prime minister.

It states that the establishment of universities would be appraised by not only the MoET, but also the ministries of Planning and Investment, Home Affairs, Finance and people’s committees.

VietNamNet/VIR