Training establishments confirm that they have discovered five to seven fake bachelor’s degrees a week. All types of degrees can be counterfeited, from driving licenses to foreign language certificates.

VietNamNet Bridge - Educators agree that Vietnam’s universities need to be accredited, but they have not reached a consensus on how it should be done. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Students who work as thesis ghostwriters are making several million dong per thesis. 

A third grader in Hai Phong was forced to drink water wrung from a board-cleaning cloth. Other students have been told to eat chilis or drink soapy water. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam’s level of academic research is not only modest in quantity but also in quality. 

VietNamNet Bridge - More young Vietnamese people have grabbed opportunities to work for huge companies like Facebook. 

Ngo Quy Nham, a lecturer at the Hanoi University of Foreign Trade, says that plagiarism has reached a ‘terrible’ level, and in most cases, plagiarists are not punished. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Only a small percentage of university students and postgraduates in Vietnam are able to write essays that meet ethical academic standards, educators say. 

Having Vietnam universities listed among the world’s top 200 universities by 2020 was a target set by the government in Decisions 121 and 37 in 2007 when it adjusted the 2006-2020 programming for the university and junior college network.

Experts all agree that the Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and Devices of Hanoi National University is the best international journal in physics in Vietnam, with a powerful editorial board composed of mostly prestigious foreign scientists.

Times Higher Education (THE) has released the ranking of the leading universities in Asia, which includes 350 schools from 25 countries and territories. Vietnam was not on the list. 

VietNamNet Bridge - Under a draft law on higher education, the kind of training undertaken by a student would not be shown on bachelor degrees. 

VietNamnet Bridge - Vietnam is the 57th among 163 surveyed nations in the recent Nature Publishing ranking in scientific research. 

VietNamNet Bridge - The government four years ago set a goal to have at least one Vietnamese university listed among the world’s top 200 by 2020.

VietNamNet Bridge - The Ministry of Education and Industry has decided that Vietnam needs to have an additional 20,000 PhDs by 2020. 

VietNamNet Bridge - According to the Department of Teachers and Educational Managers, the number of university lecturers has increased but the quality has not improved. 

The HCMC National University earns VND180-200 billion a year from technology transfer deals. However, in most cases, the transfer is conducted in unofficial way; thus, the revenue is not commensurate with the real value.

VietNamNet Bridge - A survey of lecturers’ incomes has found that 70 out of 984 lecturers at the HCMC University of Social Sciences and Humanities are paid less than VND4 million a month.

VietNamNet Bridge - The most reputable economics schools ranked below average on a list of 49 schools surveyed by a group of six specialists from Vietnamese and foreign institutions.

VietNamNet Bridge - Many universities are still short of students for the upcoming academic year, with some training majors in danger of closing.