Educational experts have criticised
the draft Tertiary Education Law for being virtually indistinguishable from
existing regulations.

Students participate in an IT class at the Ha Noi National University. (Photo: VNS)

Professor Nguyen Mau
Banh, vice chairman of the Viet Nam Association for Former Teachers, said the
draft law was incomplete and failed to address the needs of the university
admissions’ system.

Professor Le Du Phong,
from the National Economics University, said: “I am afraid that no improvement
would be made if the draft came into effect. It is too general and bears little
relation to reality.”

Meanwhile, Tran Thi
Tam Dan, former chairwoman of the National Assembly’s Committee for Culture,
Education and the Youth, said article 11 of the draft was not comprehensive
enough.

Former deputy prime
minister Tran Phuong said the university education law should meet international
standards.

He added that it was
necessary to differentiate between national universities and regional, private
and non-profit universities and academies.

Nguyen Cong Tan,
former deputy prime minister, said it was important the law boosted training
quality.

Tan, who represents a
private university, said the law should encourage educational establishments to
be more autonomous.

“The situation has
created an ask-and-give mechanism and paved a way for negatives to arise,” he
said.

Professor Phong said
the draft regulation had failed to address an educational establishment’s right
to self-control. He also said they should be permitted to decide for themselves
how many students they wished to enrol each year.

He added that
universities should be permitted to set their own training programmes.

Phuong also suggested
the draft law should set out how universities should be able to govern
themselves.

The Tertiary
Education Law must help to raise training standards in the country, participants
said.

The draft law has
nine chapters and 50 articles.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News