VietNamNet Bridge – The Government Inspectorate found violations at five universities during an inspection of their administrations and finances.

The inspectorate concluded in its reports that the universities - Vietnam University of Agriculture, HCM City Law University, HCM City Economics University, Hue and Vinh Universities – failed to manage their own administrative systems and develop college monitoring boards as required by law.

The State controlled public universities across Viet Nam until it issued Decree 43 in 2006, paving the way for universities to manage their own administrations, personnel and finances.

The inspectorate found that the universities were collecting higher tuitions and fees than regulated and admitting more students than they should.

The Agriculture University of Hue University (HU) recruited 110 students in 2011 without asking the Ministry of Education and Training to give them an enrollment quota, as required by law. Also, the HU University of Language opened a double-degree faculty without consent from HU's director.

Several students admitted to a joint programme run by foreign universities and the Viet Nam University of Agriculture (VNUA), the HCM City University of Law and the HCM City University of Economics (HUE), failed to meet the law's language requirements.

The Bachelor of Business programme organised by HUE and the Australia-based Victoria University committed one of the biggest violations. Thirty-four out of 52 students took the course without proper language certificates.

Inspections of more than 17 university infrastructure projects resulted in fines of as much as VND6.8 billion (US$323,800). In the HUE case, authorities doled out fines worth nearly VND1.6 billion ($76,100).

Meanwhile, Hue University and VNUA together owed more than VND2 billion ($95,200) in tax debt.

VNS