At a ceremony to grant doctoral degree at the Nong Lam University.

Many universities send lecturers to study abroad for master's and doctoral degrees but then they didn’t return to Vietnam to work for their schools as commitment and schools couldn’t contact them after graduation.

Worse, although there are many binding commitments and regulations between schools and lecturers, schools are unable to impose any punishments on these lecturers who have breached the contracts.

From 2000 to the present, the Government has had 5 projects to train and improve the qualifications of scientific and technical staff, lecturers studying for doctorates, masters, and universities at training and research establishments or coordinate with foreign countries to provide training to meet the requirements of implementing the country’s innovation process.

Specifically, in 2000, the Government approved the Project 322 during the period from 2000 to 2005. The government allocated VND100 billion (US$4,039,858) for the project in 2000 while the government allocated VND260 billion each year for implementing the Project 356 carried out between 2006 and 2010 to send 400 lecturers to study abroad each year.

While the Project 356 has not ended, the government continued to allocate VND14,000 billion to embark on the Project 911 ‘Training lecturers with doctoral degrees for universities and colleges in the period 2010-2020’ with the goal of training about 10,000 lecturers with doctorates degrees in prestigious universities in the world.

Some 2,050 domestic graduate students, 2,900 foreign graduate students, and 27 joint training graduate students enrolled in the Project 911 by 2016. however, by 2017, the Project 911 stopped enrolling students. While the Project 911 has not ended, the government also set up the Project 599 ‘Training officials abroad with the state budget for the period 2013-2020’ with a budget of VND2,070 billion to train 1,800 doctorates and masters, bachelor's degree. By 2019, the Government again approved the Project 89 which was implemented from 2019 to 2030.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training’s project implementation plan, in 10 years, approximately 7,300 PhDs were trained domestically and internationally and over 300 lecturers in the fields of culture, arts, physical education and sports have master's degrees.

According to the evaluation of universities, a highlight in the implementation plan of the Ministry of Education and Training’s Project 89 is that lecturers who are sent for training must reimburse scholarships and training costs according to current regulations if they drop out of schools without good reason; do not complete the training program and do not receive a diploma. The regulation also states that lecturers must repay training costs if they completed and received a diploma but did not return to work at the sending institutions or unilaterally terminated the working contract without working enough time as a commitment.

Acting Principal of Ho Chi Minh City Nong Lam University (Agriculture and Forestry University) Associate Professor Huynh Thanh Hung said: The Government's projects are a very good policy of the State to improve the capacity of lecturers for higher education institutions. However, there are some hiccups in the implementation process and they are insolvable.

He cited that previously, the Nong Lam University also had lecturers sent to study under the Project 322 and the Project 911. However, many people when studying for a doctorate abroad sought to apply for an extension to do post-doctoral research or try to stay and not return while others returned to work after graduating, but because their salary was too low, they always wanted to leave for other schools with higher salaries and income. The school had no punishment for those trying to stay abroad after graduation.

According to Associate Professor Huynh Thanh Hung, only when the government should have an approach to impose penalties on those who tried to stay in foreign countries after graduation, the projects are effective.

Regarding the processing of compensation and recovery of training costs, recently, Can Tho University was asked to issue a list of schools that must have financial reimbursements according to regulations for a number of research studies. Can Tho University currently has 12 officials studying doctoral degrees abroad. From January 2022 to March 2023, the school compensated for training costs with four lecturers including one person studying abroad under the Project 599 and 3 others under the Project 911.

Of these, one lecturer did not require compensation due to transfer to another public training facility. Can Tho University has notified the remaining three lecturers about compensation for training costs, but as of June 2023, all three people have not yet repaid the costs.

According to the school representative, the school is bumping into difficulties in recovering training funds as it is not able to directly contact these three lecturers though the school sent text messages many times but got no response. Lecturers have health problems or financial difficulties and are unlikely to be able to repay. The school has requested the Vietnamese embassy in the host country to assist in resolving the issue but received no reply.

Source: SGGP