LookAtVietnam – Universities have been assessing lecturers as requested by the Ministry of Education and Training – however don’t expect the results to be made available.

Thang said he himself thinks results should not be made public, simply because not all the assessments by students are true and it is necessary to analyse comments

Thang believes it would be better to share results of the assessment only among lecturers and leaders of university. This would help protect the reputations of lecturers who work for the university.

However, Thang said it is necessary to carry out the assessment more regularly, so lecturers know their shortcomings and can fix problems.

Agreeing with Thang, deputy president of Hanoi Law University, Nguyen Duc Hoa, said assessment is a method that primarily allows students to give feedback about the teaching methods and curriculum. Students’ comments on lecturers is just a channel to assess qualifications and morality of teachers. Therefore, it is not necessary to make public students’ comments.

Nguyen Canh Luong, deputy president of Hanoi University of Technology, also said the most important goal of assessment is to show teachers shortcomings that need to be fixed. Therefore, only university leaders and lecturers should be provided this information.

When releasing the decision on requiring universities to carry out assessment, deputy minister of Education and Training Tran Quang Quy stressed this is a must in order to improve the quality of higher education.

From May 2010, university lecturers will assess university leaders, while universities will assess the management of the ministry of education and training as well as local authorities.

VietNamNet/Dan tri