The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) will allow universities to set admission quotas and take into account the number of visiting lecturers they’ll have based on the number of admitted students, according to the ministry’s newly released draft circular on admissions practices in higher education institutions.

The circular stipulates that the number of visiting lecturers taken into account will be capped at 5 percent of the number of academic staff.

For example, if a university has 100 academic staff, then the number of visiting lecturers is five people at most. This percentage will apply to almost all majors, except in art-related fields where the figure will be 30 percent. Previously, the MoET set a specific quota for each university, regardless of how many lecturers they had.

According to the draft circular, two criteria will be used to establish an admissions quota: the number of full-time students per lecturer and the area for academic activities per full-time student. The draft circular also revokes the current rule that the maximum size of a university must not exceed 15,000 full-time students (medical schools could not exceed 8,000 students and art schools could not exceed 5,000).

Quality assessment will now play a role in determining admissions quotas. Schools which have not been assessed cannot raise the student recruitment numbers, except for within newly opened majors.

Le Chi Thong, head of the Department of Training under the HCM City University of Technology told the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the draft circular was reasonably developed.

“Setting quota for visiting lecturers is plausible as almost all universities invite visiting lecturers,” he said.

Nguyen Van Duong, deputy head of the Department of Training Management under University of Economics HCM City, said that regulations in the draft circular were based on opinions contributed by universities.

“It is not feasible for MoET to control the number of full-time students at universities, thus the regulations of maximum students allowed to be recruited should be removed. Also, the number of visiting lecturers should be taken into account in the process of setting admission quota,” he said.

Huynh Thanh Tung, vice dean of Agro-forestry University HCM City, agreed that inviting visiting lecturers is not due to a shortage of lecturers. Visiting lectureships are considered an opportunity for lecturers to share their knowledge and exchange academic skills with a new institution.

On the other hand, Lam Thanh Hien, vice dean of Lac Hong University in Dong Nai province, said it will be hard for MoET to control the number of visiting lecturers universities hire. While official academic staff members are protected by labour contracts or social insurances, visiting lecturers are not. Therefore, he recommended considering only visiting lecturers who bear long-term contracts in the process.

“Qualification verification will help to set a reasonable admission quota and prevent wrongdoings in student recruitment,” he said. - VNA