State-owned universities have released 2020 enrollment plans, showing tuition with sharp increases compared with previous years.

The tuition set by the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy is described as ‘stunning’. Instead of VND13 million a year as applied for the last years, the school has decided to collect VND30-70 million a year.

The highest tuition level, VND70 million, is for an Odonto-Stomatology training major. The tuition would increase by 10 percent year after year.

Meanwhile, the Faculty of Medicine of the HCM City National University set tuition of VND88 million for Odonto-Stomatology training and VND55 million for pharmacy.

The HCM City Information Technology University, a member school of the HCM City National University, and HCM City University of Technology and Education and HCM City University of Technology have also raised tuition for the 2020 enrollment season.

Some educators have warned that the sharp rise in tuition set by state-owned schools will deprive poor but good students of opportunities to access higher education.

The schools now apply autonomous governance. As state-owned schools, they will not provide training with funding from the state budget, but will only spend money they can earn. Therefore, they have the right to determine the tuition.

Prof Dr Pham Pho, former Rector of the HCM City Technical and Economic College, a respected educator, commented that the tuition of nearly VND90 million is ‘sky high’, warning that it is ‘unacceptable’ and it is a ‘blunder’ to say ‘autonomy’ allows it to raise tuition to such level.

According to Pho, state-owned schools receive big preferences from the state. Infrastructure items are built with state’s money, and equipment that serves training is bought with the state’s money. Besides, the schools don’t have to pay tax.

Meanwhile, they can collect tuition from students and spend the money they can collect without having to pay for the use of infrastructure items and equipment to the state.

“There are big differences between state-owned and private schools,” he said.

“Despite the preferences, the tuition set by some state-owned schoolsis even higher than private schools. It is illogical,” he said.

Meanwhile, private schools have to spend their own money on infrastructure and equipment and have to pay tax.

An analyst, agreeing with Pho that the tuition set by some state-owned schools is overly high, has called on the state to intervene to force the tuition down.

“The State cannot make an intervention in private schools, but it has the right to do this with state-owned schools,” he said.

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