VietNamNet Bridge - Under a pilot scheme, some state-owned universities are allowed to make their own decisions on investment, procurement and finance, but they have to ask the management body for approval for anything they intend to do.

Universities complain about restrictions in autonomy policy

In 2015, the HCMC Open University received ‘autonomy’ status. It committed to self-financing its investment projects and entire regular expenditures without financial support from the State. 

The maximum tuition for full-time training was set at VND11 million, VND13 million and VND15 million, respectively, for 2014-2015, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years. For existing students, the school committed not to raise tuition by more than 30 percent compared with the year before.

In July 2017, the HCMC University of Polytechnic Education also was granted autonomy. Until that time, the school had collected VND8.5-9 million a year for tuition. 

With autonomy status, the school can no longer expect financial support from the State. It decided to raise tuition to VND13.5 million for economics and English  majors, while technology majors have to pay VND15.5 million a year.

As for HCMC Economics University, the new tuition applied for full-time students in the 2014-2015 academic year was a maximum of VND13 million, VND14.5 million in 2015-2016 and VND16.5 million in 2016-2017.

According to Nguyen Huu Huy Nhat, deputy rector of the school, the expenditures for training previously came from two sources – student tuition and support from the state budget. But now, the school’s operation relies on tuition. 

Schools with autonomy say that it is not ‘easier’ to enroll students and lower their admission requirements, because it is more difficult to attract students with high tuition.

A representative of a school said the school now can set the required exam scores higher than before to improve training quality. 

He also said the new tuition levels are higher than those applied by other state-owned schools, but still lower than that set by private schools.

Meanwhile, the rector of the HCMC University of Polytechnic Education commented that his school now enjoys only ‘partial autonomy’, and if the school did not ‘dodge the laws’, it would not be able to gain such impressive achievements.

“The current autonomy is just partial. We have to ask for permission for anything we intend to do,” he complained.

“The biggest success of the current autonomy scheme is the self-determination in discipline, while big problems still exist in other areas,” he said.

Nguyen Xuan Hoan, deputy rector of the HCMC University of Food Industry, said with higher tuition, students have the right to enjoy better material conditions and study in air conditioned rooms. However, the school still cannot satisfy the requirements, though it has money.

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