Under the current regulation, all schools must publicize qualitative and quantitative standards for their graduates. However, since there are no common standards for each major, schools have just set the standards themselves.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), which checked the standards committed by some schools, came to the conclusion that the standards were impractical and insignificant.

However, the ministry cannot punish the schools because there is no regulation about punishment and there is no common standard for schools.

MOET’s Minister Phung Xuan Nha admitted that there is no ruler that ‘measures’ the capability of students and what they must obtain after finishing one education level.

The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education stipulates that all training programs of schools need to be reviewed, adjusted and updated to conform to the standard program.

Under the current regulation, all schools must publicize qualitative and quantitative standards for their graduates. However, since there are no common standards for each major, schools have just set the standards themselves.

According to the Vietnam National Qualifications Framework (VQF), training program output standards must be set in the program’s standards. Therefore, the development of learning outcomes for training disciplines must also be placed in the curricula for those disciplines.

However, schools still disagree about the setting of common standards for all schools. Since the quality of input students differs, it is difficult to set up common standards for graduates. Some economics schools only enroll good students with 23-24 exam score, while other schools accept students with just 15-16 exam score.

According to Pham Tat Dong, member of the Vietnam National Manpower Council, the standards of every major must be seen as the minimum capability standards that university graduates must have.

The standards are set by relevant parties, including associations, higher education establishments, experts, scientists and businesses.

Once the minimum capability standards are set, whatever the input quality is, schools will only recognize those who can meet the minimum standards.

In the 4.0 era, the demand for trained workers will be high. Besides long-term training, there should be short-term training courses.

Dong stressed that setting the minimum capability standards for every major is necessary because this relates to the qualification of human resources.

The amended Higher Education Law gives higher autonomy to training establishments, including opening new training majors, building curricula, enrolling students, organizing training, assessing students and granting degrees.

Thanh Lich 

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