Dormitories being built at the Phan Thiet University, in the news recently for inadequate facilities and poor quality training

The recent exposure of a university without proper infrastructure and qualified teachers has prompted fresh calls for the education ministry to tighten control over the establishment of new higher education institutions.

On October 14-15 the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that the Phan Thiet University, licensed to be set up the central province of Binh Thuan in March, had made a fake list of lecturers in its proposal to the education ministry.

While its infrastructure, including classrooms, is yet to be complete, the school has managed to admit 750 students for its first academic year, according to the paper.

Very soon other local newspapers got on board, urging the Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan to order an investigation into the case.

A preliminary inspection later showed that the school, which is located in a village in the resort town of Phan Thiet, satisfied requirements for providing training to 750 students for the school year of 2009-10.

While the ministerial inspectorate’s conclusion on the case has sparked further objections, experts have expressed concerns over the soaring number of new higher education schools in recent years, saying very few of them can provide proper training to students with adequate lecturers and infrastructure.

“Phan Thiet University is not the only one,” said Nguyen Minh Thuyet, deputy chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, on the sidelines of a conference on the revised 2005 Education Law last Saturday.

Nearly a year ago his organization’s report on the quality of local universities and colleges had said there was considerable laxity in the licensing of new schools.

According the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), Vietnam now has 376 universities and colleges, including 40 universities established or upgraded from colleges in 2006 and 2007 alone.

Yet, many of them, especially private-owned ones, have dismayed and angered students by the lack of quality in training and facilities, and press reports on these scandals have prompted related agencies to intervene.

Ho Chi Minh City-based Hong Bang University, for example, last month was severely criticized for its unreasonable fees and failing to provide students with the facilities and “international quality” training it claimed to offer.

The private school has, in fact, faced similar complaints for several years.

This situation has arisen because authorities do not bother to check and assess applications and capabilities seriously, and because related regulations are not very clear, Dao Trong Thi, chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, told the press on the sidelines of the NA’s sixth meeting that opened on Tuesday.

“As the managing and assessing agency, the Ministry of Education and Training has to be responsible for this,” Thi said.

“The overwhelming number of bad universities will heighten current concerns over the quality of education in Vietnam.”

Thuyet, deputy chairman of the committee, had told Thanh Nien in a recent interview: “It’s very easy to open a school and very easy for a school to name itself as an ‘international’ school.”

According to Thuyet, in recent years many colleges have been approved for upgrading themselves to universities, and vocational schools have been given easy permission to become colleges.

Sometimes it takes a vocational school only a couple of years to become a university, Thuyet said, adding “training at colleges is very different from that at universities. I don’t believe the upgrading of a college into a university can increase its quality accordingly.”

“I suggested the ministry checks recently established and upgraded universities and deal with violations, if any,” he said.

Schools failing to meet requirements for running training programs should be halted or have their admission quotas cut down, according to the official.

At a press conference held by MoET on Wednesday, Tran Thi Ha, head of the Higher Education Department, said they will take action against schools failing to meet requirements within three years of their opening.

Although the Politburo has ordered that substandard schools are dissolved, they need at least two months to complete a specific plan and regulations for this process, Ha said.

The approver

One of the amendments to the 2005 Education Law contained in the government’s proposal set to be submitted to the National Assembly is that the MoET minister decides on the establishment of universities, except in certain cases.

However, the proposal has not found the approval of experts.

“The establishment of a university is not only the purview of the MoET; many other ministries are also involved,” said Professor Vu Minh Giang, deputy director of Hanoi Vietnam National University, suggesting that the Prime Minister keeps the authority.

Thi of the National Assembly Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, said his committee doesn’t agree with the proposal either.

According to Thi, they will propose that the National Assembly supervises the establishment of universities from next year.

“The supervision cover the school’s establishment, its infrastructure, investment plans and academic program,” he said. “It will not be limited to local universities but target foreign-invested ones as well.”

PV (Copy TN, Agencies)