After three years of implementing autonomous management, the higher education sector has witnessed several positive changes. However, obstacles remain which need to be addressed before the mechanism can be applied more widely.

Before shifting to a policy of autonomous universities, Vietnam had contributed zero names to the list of the 1000 best universities worldwide.

However, two local universities have now made it onto the world list, while many others are now on the list of the 300 best universities in Asia. Some Vietnamese universities are even able to compete equally with world-class institutions in certain fields.

“The greatest achievements are that we have improved people’s access to higher education, as well as the fact that more students are now more satisfied by the labour market demand,“ Assoc. Prof., Dr. Bui Anh Tuan, Rector of Foreign Trade University.

Apart from positive changes, shortcomings still remain. Specifically, regulations and definitions regarding university autonomy are still inadequate. Moreover, this mechanism’s approach is currently only limited to self-financing, while management capacity and human resources should also be taken into account.

Nguyen Van Phuc, Deputy Minister of Education and Training, said in order to ensure the success of the mechanism, it is needed to change from baseline aspects, including teachers and school managers, toward creating an encouraging learning environment and also improving their competitive edge.

Experts also suggested that clearer regulations and guidelines should be provided in order to ensure equality among higher education institution.-VNA