The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has recently sent a document to the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding the restructuring of public service units, which includes a plan to reorganize higher education, vocational education, and continuing education institutions.

According to MOET, the tasks assigned under the Politburo’s Resolution 71 on breakthrough development in education and training require the ministry to be responsible for developing a proposal to reorganize the higher education institution system and to transfer certain higher education institutions to local management. These two proposals will be submitted to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision in 2026.

Additionally, MOET has been tasked with leading and coordinating with relevant agencies and localities to develop a proposal to transfer multidisciplinary, multi-field higher education institutions to be put under MOET’s management.

MOET stated that it is finalizing the implementation plans for the assigned tasks to report to the government and the Prime Minister. The ministry plans to merge the content of the proposal on putting multidisciplinary, multi-field higher education institutions under MOET’s management into a general proposal on restructuring the higher education system, to ensure comprehensiveness and streamlining. 

Therefore, the restructuring of higher education and vocational education institutions under MOET’s management cannot yet be implemented.

Under the Central Steering Committee’s instructions, units must be re-arranged under the spirit of streamlining, reducing focal points and enhancing operational quality: merging vocational education centers and continuing education centers with vocational high schools equivalent to high school level under the Department of Education and Training to provide public services through inter-ward and inter-commune areas. Each province and city would have no more than three vocational schools to train skilled labor for socio-economic development, and attract investment in localities (excluding schools self-funded in regular expenses).

MOET, after checking, found difficulties in implementation. For instance, vocational high schools are a new type of institution proposed in the draft amended Law on Vocational Education, expected to be submitted to the National Assembly at its 10th session. There is currently no legal basis to implement the merger of vocational education centers and continuing education centers with vocational high schools equivalent to high-school level. 

As such, MOET only proposes reviewing, reorganizing, and streamlining centers by ward and commune. This means that the transformation and merger of these centers with vocational high schools (in areas without existing junior colleges (3-year training) or intermediate schools (2-year training), or their merger with such schools (if located in the same area) will be implemented later, after the model of vocational high schools is legalized in the amended law.

The second problem relates to the orientation that each province or city should have no more than three vocational schools (excluding institutions that are financially autonomous). According to MOET, the current Law on Education and Law on Vocational Education does not define the term "vocational school"; there is only the concept of "junior college" and "intermediate school".

While the streamlining and restructuring of public junior colleges and intermediate schools are necessary to consolidate resources, increase training scale, and improve quality, MOET suggests this orientation should be clarified as applying to public institutions. 

It also recommends that the Steering Committee consider the specific context of provinces and cities with large labor forces and a high number of public junior colleges and intermediate schools (Hanoi has 54 schools, HCMC 62, Hai Phong 19, Ninh Binh 28, and Phu Tho has 21).

MOET believes that restructuring should be implemented for both autonomous and non-autonomous institutions to improve the quality and efficiency of education institutions.

In the near future, at least 173 public higher education institutions will no longer have university councils. These institutions are also facing a major restructuring process, with a strong emphasis on reducing administrative units.

According to MOET, in the 2024-2025 period, reports from ministries, branches, and localities show that 173 public higher education institutions (excluding those under the Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Public Security) have established university councils.

Currently, all 41 higher education institutions directly managed by MOET have completed the formation of their university councils. For the 2024–2029 term, six institutions have already formed new-term councils. These institutions have complied with Resolution 19, which stipulates that the Party Committee Secretary concurrently serves as Chair of the University Council (except for Ho Chi Minh City Open University, which has not yet elected its council chair). For the 2025–2030 term, 21 institutions are scheduled to establish new-term councils in 2025.

However, MOET noted that in practice, the university council model in many public institutions cannot fulfill its intended role. In many cases, the council's activities are merely symbolic and overlap with the leadership roles of the Party Committee and the university's executive board, leading to a waste of resources and time.

Thanh Hung