VietNamNet Bridge – The number of full time training students in the 2011-2012 academic year increased by 16 percent, while the teaching staff did not increase accordingly.

The number of students on the sharp rise

The annual training scale growth rates assigned to university education establishments have decreased in recent years. Since 2010, the growth rate has been hovering around 6-6.5 percent, while it always was 12-13 percent in 2009 and before. The proportion of full time training students has been increasing, while non-full time training students have been on the decrease.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, in the 2011-2012 academic year, there were 2,204,313 students, up by 2 percent over the previous year and down by 3.5 times in comparison with the training scale growth rates set up before the latest National Assembly’s on the university education development.

The number of full time students in the 2011-2012 academic year was 1,741,999, amounting to 79 percent of the total trained students, an increase of 16 percent in comparison with the 2007-2008. Meanwhile, the proportion of in-service students dropped rapidly from 36.4 percent in 2009-2010 to 32.4 percent in 2010-2011 and to 28.23 percent in 2011-2012.

Nevertheless, despite the decreases, the current training scale is still higher than the training capability, which has led to the limited training quality.

In the 2011-2012 academic year, the university education establishments nationwide trained 96,370 learners, including 6,441 postgraduates, or 7 percent, 93 percent of learners following the training courses for master degrees.

However, a report of the Ministry of Education and Training showed that of the 1,002 surveyed training majors, 161 majors were provided by the 50 training establishments which could meet the requirements stipulated by the ministry.

The requirements included the number of permanent lecturers with doctorate degree in the same majors, and the number of learners enrolled in the last three consecutive years.

Especially, some training establishments still enrolled learners for the master training programs, even though the training went beyond their capacity.

Vietnam seriously lacks high level lecturers

All the university education establishments promise to apply different measures to build up and developing their teaching staff by offering good salaries, working conditions and the job promotion opportunities.

However, the education ministry has admitted that Vietnam is still seriously lacking lecturers. In the 2011-2012 academic year, the permanent teaching staff nationwide was 84,109, an increase of 37.45 percent in comparison with 2008-2009. The number of lecturers with higher education levels were 45,512, up by 56.67 percent.

However, the increase in the number of lecturers proves to make nothing if compared with the increase in the number of students. Only 286 lecturers, or 0.5 percent of lecturers has the professorship title.  Meanwhile, 3.37 percent of lecturers are associate professors, 14.27 percent have doctorate and 47 percent have master degree.

Under the current regulations, the schools must have the permanent teaching staff sufficient enough to handle 70 percent of the training curriculums. However, in fact, many schools cannot meet the requirements. The Thanh Dong University, Dong A Technology, Rubber Industry Junior College have been found as having the number of permanent lecturers or the lecturers working under long term labor contracts less than 50.

Tien Phong