University
lecturers spend most of their time on teaching and giving extra classes to earn
their living, which explains why they do not have time for research.

Besides
teaching students, big universities in other countries also act as the research
centers to boost innovation and transfer of technology. Meanwhile, Vietnamese
universities are still far from being considered scientific centers

Heavy in theories, light in
applications

Dr. Le Thi
Tuyet Hanh from the Education Management Institute says that many university
lecturers think that research is not an important part of their work. They have
a more important work to do: teaching as many hours as possible in order to get
money.

That
explains why the Hanoi National University, one of the biggest universities in
Vietnam, has to refund hundreds of million or billions dong a year, because it
did not spend all the money on research projects.

Every year,
the state budget allocates money to the universities nationwide to serve as
research fund. However, many universities do not use the money because they do
not have many research projects.

Scientists
and educators agree that the current mechanism of registering research projects
is too complicated and time-consuming. In fact, Vietnam does not lack talented
scientists, but they face complicated procedures of project registration and
disbursement

Phan Kim
Ngoc from the HCM City University of Natural Sciences relates that after
registering a research project, he received money. However, the sum was only
enough to buy an old screen with low quality. Ngoc decided to use his own money
to buy a bigger and better screen. However, then, he had to explain the reason
and had to change invoices to prove that he used the money for the right
purpose.

Ngoc also
says that the low salaries have forced many university lecturers to take extra
jobs. Some teach extra hours, while others have to take the jobs which in no
way related to their profession.

Ngoc now
earns only 4 million dong a month teaching at the university.

Dr. Tran
Hoang Hao and Huynh Duc Thien (MA), from the HCM City University for Social
Sciences and Humanity, also admitted that very few lecturers want to do
research. If they do, the research mostly focuses on theory, while they do not
have high application levels.

How much can university lecturers
earn?

According
to Le Minh Tien from the HCM City Open University, the main income source of
lecturers is teaching.

Nguyen Quoc
Vong, Lecturer of the Hanoi Agriculture University and RMIT in Hanoi, said that
most lecturers have to teach long hours, 200-300 percent more than required.

As the
ratio of lecturers per students in Vietnam is very high, 1/30, and lecturers
have to teach longer hours, they do not have time for research.

Under the
current regulations, every professor and associate professor has to teach 380
hours a year, every main lecturer 360 hours, and normal lecturer 280 hours.

State owned
schools are now facing the so called “brain-drain”. As Bui Van Mien from the
HCM City Agriculture and Forestry University says, non-state schools pay
lecturers better, and it would be “ foolish to refuse to teach at non-state
schools”.

His
university, for example, pays 25,000 dong per hour to regular lecturers, and
50,000 dong per hour to the lecturers with doctorate or professorship.
Meanwhile, non-state schools pay 80,000-120,000 dong per hour.

Source: Nguoi lao dong