Minister Phung Xuan Nha

The publicity will partially reflect the training quality of schools and help them restructure training majors and improve the quality.

Deputy director of Hanoi National University Le Quan, applauding the new policy, said that schools will both fulfill their tasks of making their operation transparent and advertise their training quality. 

Producing graduates who can find good jobs with high income is the mission and target of schools.

Quan said that all prestigious schools in the world make graduates’ employment rates public. In the UK, for example, 93 percent of the graduates from top 10 schools can find jobs. 

In France, state-owned schools must report the employment rate of every training major to the watchdog agency once every four years.

Quan noted that many schools do not pay enough attention to changing training majors and curricula, though they are given high autonomy. They keep subjects and curricula unchanged for many years despite big changes in social and work life and technology.

Under a more transparent scheme, schools will have to give answers to the question why graduates cannot find jobs and why they have to take jobs in fields outside their majors.

They will realize that they must provide training services the society wants, not services they like or have advantages.

Universities will also have to convince incoming students about job opportunities after they graduate. 

Meanwhile, students will have to think carefully about what to study.

“Instead of thinking about what schools to enroll with 23 exam score, students will have to think about what majors to follow to be able to find jobs after graduation,” Quan said.

“It is necessary to clarify why many university graduates cannot find jobs and who should take responsibility for this,” he said.

A high school teacher in Hanoi, while agreeing that it is necessary to ask schools to publicize the employment rate, warned that schools may provide inaccurate information.

He said some schools recently reported that nearly 100 percent of their graduates have found jobs. Meanwhile, they cannot show proof for the reports – questionnaires from students and employers.

Schools will be forced to stop enrolment if they are found reporting inaccurate information about the employment rate.

Ha Anh