LookAtVietnam – Universities have been requested to build up graduation standards to ensure the quality of university degrees and graduates.

One Head of the Training Division of a university who asked to remain anonymous, stated: “The Ministry of Education and Training requested universities to announce their standards, but no one explained the concept of standards to us.”

A president at a private university remarked that if universities set low standards for graduates, they will not get sympathy from the public. In contrast, if they set high standards, they will have to work hard to attain them.

Dr Nguyen Tien Dung, Head of the Training Division of HCM City University of Technical Education, revealed that some universities have copied his set of standards from the website. Some even forgot to replace his university’s name of with their own.

Other universities have issued “ideal” standards. Danang University’s graduates, for instance, will be able to give presentations and read fluently in foreign languages. Graduates will know two foreign languages, including English.

Dr Hoang Vinh Long, Deputy Dean of the Economics-Law Faculty under the HCM City National University, said that building up standards for English skills is really a problem.

After debate, TOEIC 450 scores have been set as the standard, even though this is considered a low score. English test scores have generally been low, so the university is unable to set up higher standards for graduates.

Dung thinks that standards are the expectations of universities about the qualifications and capabilities of their graduates. Many people believe standards are equivalent to the quality of the labor force they provide. Still, this is just the expectation and it will take more time to become reality.

VietNamNet/TT