VietNamNet Bridge – The actual tuitions students have to pay are much higher than the tuitions advertised by universities on mass media or quoted on official documents.

Having passed the exams to the business administration faculty of the HCM City Industry University, but My Duyen is not sure if she would study at the school.

“It’s quite a surprise that the HCM City Industry University, a state owned school, requires such a high tuition, much higher than the tuition levels required by other state owned schools and higher than that set up by the State,” Duyen explained.

“If the school had quoted the tuition levels in the book “Things to know about the 2013 university enrolment season”, I would not have registered to attend the exams to the school,” she said.

According to Duyen, the school’s students have to pay VND3.8 million in the first semester for 20 learning credits, or VND190,000 for each credit. Meanwhile, the HCM City Economics University collects VND2.08 million only for 13 credits, or VND160,000 for each only. The HCM City Banking University collects VND4.85 million only for the entire academic year.

Duyen, like many other students, believes that state owned schools always set up “reasonable tuition levels” which is affordable to the majority of students. However, she might not be informed that the HCM City Industry University has been operating as a state owned school with self-control financial mechanism, which means that the school has the right to set up tuition levels itself to cover its training expenses.

“The school should have made public its tuition levels for our consideration,” Duyen complained. “I believe that a lot of students cannot afford the high tuitions.”

In fact, the VND3.8 million in tuition students have to pay now is just for the first semester. Meanwhile, it’s still unclear about the tuition levels of the next semesters. The school has the right to adjust the tuition levels and school fees to serve its training plan.

The Hoa Sen University, a private school, has informed that students have to pay VND18.5-24.5 million for the first semester. The students of the school have 6-8 learning subjects on average for every semester, which means that the tuition they have to pay for the entire academic year would be VND37-49 million.

The tuitions are VND10 million higher than the tuition levels of VND35-38 million informed before by the school in its 2013 enrolment notice.

The students of the Ton Duc Thang University have to pay VND6.664 million this semester in total, which includes VND5.8 million in tuition. The HCM City Open University collects VND9.6-11.8 million a year.

The Bach Viet Junior College in HCM City informed that students have to pay VND200,000 for a learning credit. But in its latest notice, students have been told to pay VND250,000. Similarly, the HCM City Information Technology Junior College informed two different levels VND275,000 and VND295,000.

Students not only have to pay for tuitions, but also for many other kinds of fees, including the admission fees, photography, student cards and personal documents. While the HCM City Information Technology University collects VND127,000, the Ton Duc Thang charges VND300,000, and the HCM City University of Technology VND500,000.

PL TPHCM