Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam emphasised that Vietnam will continue to give autonomy to public universities after the pilot project on the autonomy of universities is completed in the next two months.

Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam talks with delegates at the conference

He noted that autonomy is the nature of universities in the world and Vietnam has no other choice but to adopt autonomy for universities despite many difficulties.

He made the statement at a conference held by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) on October 20 to review the pilot project on the autonomy of public universities in the 2014-2017 period.

The Deputy PM stated that this requires the issuance of legal documents in order to continue the implementation of autonomy for universities in the future.

According to the MoET, Vietnam has 23 public universities having autonomy in the areas of training, science research, apparatus organisation, personnel and finance. Of which, 12 universities have been autonomous for over two years and 11 others have been autonomous under that time.

Rector of Ho Chi Minh City Economics University Nguyen Dong Phong affirmed that autonomy has brought about innovations that he has yet to have witnessed during 42 years working at his university, but he pointed out the biggest shortcomings of this model, which is the lack of legal framework and the conflict in guidance documents.

Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha admitted the inadequacies, noting that the ministry will revise some related laws to create a more complete legal framework for the effective implementation of the autonomy model.

Deputy PM Dam said that university autonomy must be understood properly and financial autonomy is only part of the concept. Under the autonomy model, public universities still receive a budget from the Government, but the amount of budget is based on its missions and quality of education.

Nhan Dan