According to Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga, universities will be classified based on six criteria, including the land area, material facilities & teaching equipment; teaching & research staff; training curricula; research activities, international cooperation, finance situation, accreditation; and student and employer satisfaction levels.

The percentage of school graduates who can find jobs soon after they finish school is considered an important index that measures the training quality of schools. 

One requirement for national standards is that at least 70 percent of graduates can find jobs suitable with their majors within one year after graduation. 

Schools need to have 80 percent of final-year students satisfied with the training curriculums and learning environments as well.

A series of other requirements have also been set: 80 percent of students who finished school in the past three years are satisfied about the practicability of the training curricula and the capability of being adapted to the working environment. 70 percent of employers are satisfied about the quality of the graduates of the schools.

Regarding the qualification of the teaching staff, schools must have their permanent teaching staff handling at least 80 percent of the teaching program. At least 40 percent of permanent lecturers at research-oriented schools must have doctorates. The figures are 25 percent for application-oriented and 10 percent for practice-oriented schools.

Commenting about the new standards, schools said the standards are too tough.

Le Huu Lap from the Post and Telecommunication Institute of Technology (PTIT) noted that the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) seems to impose foreign standards on Vietnamese schools. Meanwhile, the conditions in Vietnam are far behind that in developed countries.

“The standards prove to be unattainable. I think they are just what schools strive to,” Lap commented.

Lap cited a report about the labor market as saying that 280,000 workers with bachelor's’ and master’s degrees were reported unemployed in the first seven months of 2015. The figures show that it would be impossible to have 70 percent of graduates able to find jobs within one year.

The other requirements on employer satisfaction about graduates also prove to be unreachable.

President of the Hanoi University of Technology Hoang Minh Son is more optimistic about the required proportion of graduates who can find jobs within one year. However, he admitted that it would be difficult to have 80 percent of final-year students satisfied with the training curriculum and learning environment.

He noted that poor material facilities, small campuses and the lack of laboratories are the problems of most schools in Vietnam.

Kim Chi