VietNamNet Bridge – Although the Prime Minister instructed relevant ministries to reconsider pay to professors and associate professors one year ago, little has changed and salaries have not risen.

A retired professor said in a local newspaper that his pension was lower than the pension of an experienced lecturer.

The youngest associate professor in 2014, Tu Trung Kien, a lecturer at Thai Nguyen University, when interviewed by VietNamNet, said his monthly pay was equal to 50 percent of the salary a new university graduate can receive. Therefore, Kien has to take many extra jobs to earn a living.

The “extra jobs” consume too much time and he has had to give up playing sports, a favorite pastime.

Ngo Van Minh, a National Assembly Deputy from Quang Nam province, said before the National Assembly that Vietnamese professors have not been rewarded well for their services rendered to the country.

Nguyen Van Khanh, President of the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said the Prime Minister released a decision on adjusting the salaries of professors and associate professors a year ago, under which the salary of an associate professor must be equal to the pay of a major lecturer, while the salary of a professor must be equal to the pay of a senior specialist.

However, the pay adjustment has not occurred because of a disagreement between the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Interior Affairs.

“Don’t we have money to implement the policy?” Khanh said, noting that there are only 400 professors and 4,000 associate professors in a country of 90 million people.

“I cannot find the reason why a Prime Minister’s decision cannot be implemented,” he said, adding that the adjustment would help raise their incomes by several hundred thousand dong or one million dong at maximum.

A lecturer at a prestigious university in Hanoi commented that the unreasonable pay mechanism would not help attract talents.

“The low pay explains why many good scientists have left the country, while many university lecturers receive bribes from their students,” he said.

Commenting about pay for Vietnamese PhDs and professors, Nguyen Lan Dung, a Professor, Doctor and People’s Teacher, said a researcher with a doctorate at the institute where he works is paid VND3.5 million a month, or $150, which is not enough to live on.

Dung, a renowned scientist, who takes many jobs at different institutions, said he receives a pension of VND7 million a month.

According to Dung, leading Vietnamese professors in their fields receive several hundred dollars for a salary every month.

Mai Chi