CHAPTER III: SOLUTIONS

I. The social concept

1. How to recognize the non-public colleges in the whole education system of
Vietnam:
The intention of socializing education of the Party and State of Vietnam is a practical intention
which brings increasingly great effectiveness. Until the school year 2009 – 2010, there are 76 non-
public universities and colleges nationwide with about 14.43% students over the total students
enrolling in these universities and college. As a result, there are thousands of graduates each year for
the demand of the society with various sectors. This is a great contribution to the society in general and
the branch of education and training in particular. According to the statistics recorded, in school year
2009 – 2010, there are 1,935,739 college and university students nationwide. If it wasn’t for the 76
non-public universities and colleges but only 300 state universities and colleges operating, each
university and college would averagely have to add about 931 more students into its list of students
which would really pose a challenge to these universities and colleges.
The point 2, clause 2, decision number 39/2001/QĐ-BGD&ĐT promulgated on August 28th,
2001 by the Minister of Ministry of Education and Training about the operating regulations of non-
public colleges points out that non-public colleges are equal to public colleges on the duties and
powers of their teachers, lecturers, staff and students in achieving the objectives set, the content,
curriculum, the method of education and training and the regulations related to enrollment, teaching
and studying, examination, tests for graduation, diploma and certificate granting.
Until now, the society should take non-public colleges closer and more friendly. This is an
inevitable fact in any field in the integration and development trend of Vietnam. With an easier
mechanism compared to public colleges, if the non-public colleges invest properly in all aspects, the
training quality will certainly get better, even better than that of the public colleges.
2. The issues should be paid attention to in the intention of socializing education:
Besides the outstanding achievements that contribute to the career of education and training,
the intention of socializing education, in fact, still exist some problems that need reviewing and
considering:
Firstly, the Party’s view on the intention of socializing education is to mobilize all the social
resources for the development of education. Therefore, the State needs to support the non-public
colleges by allocating land for these colleges to build the infrastructure. The point 3, clause 4, decree
69/2008/NĐ-CP enforced on May 30th, 2008 by the Prime Minister about socialization encouraging
policy for activities in fields of education, vocational training, health care, culture, sports,
environment points out that the State is responsible for land allocation and lease with land clearance
completed to the schooling centers that are implementing socialization in accordance with plans and
land using plans. The State also needs to have a policy of providing the invested projects in
socialization field which self compensated and clear land since the implementation of the Decree with
compensation for land clearance. However, in fact, almost all non-public colleges meet difficulties in
building infrastructure on the cleared land received from the State.This leads to the state that many
colleges have to find and lease places for teaching and studying and have to pay a lot of money for this
lease. This is one of the reasons why most colleges do not meet the requirement of the minimum area
(55m2/student) specified in the decision number 1466/QĐ-TTg declared by the Prime Minister on
October 10th, 2008 about detailed list of type, size criteria, standards of colleges implementing the
socialization of education and training field, vocational training, health care, culture, sports,
environment. In Clause 6, decision number 39/2001/QĐ-BGD&ĐT promulgated by the Minister of
Ministry of Education and Training on August 8 th, 2001 about the operating regulations of the non-
public colleges which specify that the college establishment application includes application for
college establishment, besides the documents specified in the corresponding college charter, there are
also: Draft project of organization and operation of the college and the commitment to build a college

1
corresponding to its scale and planned training sectors over the next five years; documents
confirmed by the competent authorities about the financial capacity, the material and technical
facilities of organizations and individuals committed to full contribution to build the school in due
course; the file certifying the use of land or a written agreement of the competent authorities on
the land allocation for construction of the school...
The points 4, 5, 6, clause 10, Circular 14/2009/TT-BGDĐT promulgated on May 28th, 2009 by
the Minister of Ministry of Education and Training on charter for colleges which replaces the Decision
56/2003/QĐ-BGD&ĐT declared on December 10th, 2003 specifying the conditions for the
establishment of colleges clearly stated that the college must have teachers and administrators in
sufficient quantity and synchronous structure, high qualified in qualifications and training ability to
ensure the achievement of objectives set, educational programs with an average of no more than 30
students/1 lecturer; the total land area for school building if not less than 5 hectares, the average
area is at least 25m2/1 at the time the college has the biggest scale of training in the training plan with
the period of the first 10 years after the establishment; with facilities and equipments meeting the
operational requirements of the college. The construction venue must ensure the educational
environment, the safety for staff, employees and students enrolling in that college. The charter
capital for school building is not less than 35 billion VND which is contributed by legal capital
flows, excluding land value.
However, there are rare colleges that fully implement the provisions mentioned above in
reality.
Secondly, each non-public college have its own Management Board. The Management Board
is an organization representing the ownership of the college which has the responsibility and autonomy
to decide important issues on planning, plans of development, organization, personnel and the finance
as well as the assets of the college. This means that the Management Board is "the boss" of the college.
However, in fact, many issues of disagreement between the Board and the Principal has been raised.
This is the source for conflicts because the Management Board operate the college through the
Principal, the Principal is the account holder, is the one who directly operates all the activities of the
college. If the Principal does not comply with the resolutions of the Management Board, there will
surely exists internal conflicts between the college governors. This also means that the college’s
situation will get worst. Recently, the press has reflected many cases of conflict between the Principals
and the Management Boards about the status of some non-public colleges which lack teachers,
facilities, library with highly increasing tuition but poor service quality. This causes bad rumors about
these colleges, especially the view without sympathy of parents, students toward non-public schools.
From this fact, the Ministry of Education and Training, the governing body of the colleges and
universities need to have a flexible and right point of view, necessary intervention at the right time to
improve the situations of these colleges and universities. Especially, it needs to pay utmost respect to
the resolutions of the colleges and universities’ Management Board.
Thirdly, the decision 146/2006/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister declared on June 22 nd, 2006 on
transfering the types of semi-public Universities and Colleges to private ones: This is a proper
intention, however, there are some issues that need to be considered such as: While the decision was
not promulgated, a number of semi-public colleges had been doing the ODA projects on holding loans
by machinery equipments for practising for these colleges which includes the partial support of the
State. However, after the promulgation of the decision, the State stopped supporting this part. This
action of the State leads to a regretful waste of college governors’ efforts and the cost paid in many
years with the hope of achieving these projects. With the fact that the intention of socializing education
has come to life and is thriving, the State should create equal opportunities in incentives. According to
the author, if the non-public schools implement ODA projects, the State must provide maximum
support by capital contributions or loans with low interest rates in the term of 5 years or 10 years to
repay. It is this very action that really shows the coorperation of the State and its people.
3. Proposals:
2
 From the above analysis, the author propose some solutions as below:
Firstly, the decision to establish the non-public colleges must comply with the provisions of
the regulations for non-public colleges specified in decision 39/2001/QĐ-BGD&ĐT declared on
August 8th, 2001 and the Circular 14/2009/TT-BGDĐT declared on May 28th, 2009 by the Minister of
Ministry of Education and Training college on the charter for colleges which replaces the decision
number 56/2003/QĐ-BGD&ĐT promulgated on December 10th, 2003 from July 10th, 2009.
Secondly, when a decision on guidelines for the establishment of colleges is promulgated, the
state needs to quickly support the allocation of land clearance for the construction of schools. It needs
to commit the time to hand the land, and when this is done, the colleges must also commit the time to
complete the construction. If the colleges do not complete the construction on time, the state will
retrieve the land.
Thirdly, based on the actual faculty of teachers, scale, facilities, classrooms, practising rooms,
labs, etc. of the colleges in accordance with the regulations, the Ministry of Education and Training
will decide to allow different colleges to train corresponding sectors to ensure the required quality.
This is to avoid allowing widespread training without good quality.
Fourthly, a policy of equality of remuneration for non-public colleges and their officials and
teachers is required.
Fifthly, there are needs for annual inspection and examination to assess the training capacity of
the colleges. If they cannot guarantee these aspects, they will have to receive proper treatment.
II. For high schools and students:
1. The basis for proposing solutionss:
In view of students’ opinions on the selection of the level of entrance exam:
A survey of 390 students in grade 12 about the selection of the level of entrance exam in 2011
at four schools including public, people-founded and continuing education in the city and in the
provinces namely: Nguyen Cong Tru Public high school - Go Vap District (100 votes), Pham Ngu Lao
private high school - Go Vap District (100 votes), the Center for Continuing Education of Go Vap
District (90 votes), Giao Thuy A high school (100 votes). The result shows that most students have the
desire to take the entrance exam for university from the first year. The colleges receive only about a
half of exam registration as compared to that of universities. There are students who sign up for both
universities and colleges; there are also students signing up for either universities or colleges. Even
students enrolling in people-founded schools desire the same thing. In fact, students are put under
pressure in the process of choosing college or university exam by a number of reasons: to be equal to
friends, it’s ok if they do not pass the exam; to make parents proud; to understand the process, etc. or
studying at universities is the only way to find jobs with high salaries, even if you want to be promoted
in the society, you definitely need to have a university degree, etc. The survey results are represented
in the figure below:
Figure 4: Entrance exam registration in 2011
In view of students’ awareness of choosing the major to sign up for in 2011:
The author's survey showed that most students are interested in economics group of majors, the
technology group of majors only receive limited registration. Among four majors that the author
mentioned in the study, only the information technology major achieved the highest vote with 82/390
votes which accounts for 21%, construction and electric only achieved 44/390 votes which makes up
11.28%, the mechanical and electrical technology major achieved 12 and 32 votes over 390 votes
which accounting for a very small amount. Chemical plastic major got only 5/390 votes which equals
to 1.3%.
Table 23: The survey of students’ selection of major to sign up for
NO MAJOR THE NUMBER OF
3
 VOTES
1 Electronic Technology 32
2 Electrical Engineering Technology 12
3 Chemical Plastic Technology 5
4 Mechanical Technology 30
5 Information Technology 82
6 Construction Technology 44
7 Foreign languages 26
8 Economics 187
9 Others 146
The result is presented by the figure below:
Figure 5: The survey result of students’ selection of major to sign up for
1.3. The issues that students consider when choosing a major, a university or college to
sign up for:
Figure 6: The issues that students consider when choosing a major, a university or college to
sign up for
The figure shows that the students care mostly about jobs after graduation when choosing a
major. Then they pay attention to the tuition fee of each university or college. This fact confirms the
reasons why public universities and colleges always receive more exam registration than the non-
public universities and colleges in all majors. Because the tuition fee of the public schools is always
lower than non-public schools. Notably, the increase in tuition fee in each semester of non-public
schools is a huge burden for students’ family.
After choosing the major of study, students will select universities or colleges to take the
entrance exam for. In the process of selecting a school, students are interested in the opportunity for
higher education in that major, then come to the faculty and facility conditions. The problem of staying
in the dormitory or in the hostels is not the intractable problem for students.
2. Solutions:
From the basis of the above analysis, the author proposed some solutions such as: high schools
should focus on practical knowledge and enhance career orientation. Students should be educated
about consciousness, working style, learning discipline, sense of maintaining health, consciousness of
saving and creating jobs for themselves and others, sense of community. In particular, it is highly
recommended that these schools classify students in the time of teaching and studying, socially
orientate the students’ job choosing. It is not necessary that all the students take the entrance exam for
universities only. There can be a large part of students signing up for colleges, professional schools
and vocational schools.
There are measures for high schools to coordinate with universities and colleges to do the
enrollment consultancy for students from the beginning of grade 12. To put vocational programs into
the main curriculum is still a question to consider. High schools should recommend the Department of
Education and Training and compile documents of job orientation in collaboration with universities
and colleges. They also should organizing reality tours for students to universities and colleges to learn
more about the majors of study available there. If possible, these schools should propose the
establishment of a career orientation board.
They can also invite professional advisors from different majors to do vocational counseling for
the students each week. This also means that the universities and colleges need to have a number of
4
professional advisors who have broad knowledge of the majors of their universities or colleges. The
Ministry of Education and Training also needs to open more training courses of vocational counseling
for these staff.
III. For non-public colleges:
The International Conference on Education for the 21st Century held by UNESCO in Paris in
1998 brought out four principles of education, that is: Learning to know, learning to do, learning to
live together and learning to behave. From the aspect of state management of education and training,
there are needs to perform some of the following measures: clearly identifying the sectors that are
currently lacking of the laborforce in the society, standardize the training institutions and the colleges
must head towards international standardization in training, encourage training as ordered and selected.
There needs to have a strategy for education and training at all levels from elementary school,
secondary school, high school, vocational high school, college and university, etc. The training
strategy must be linked to the development of the market economy both in the short and long term,
adapting to future developing sectors. The final measure is to expand the network of education and
training in different forms: regular, in-service, special training and vocational training 1.
There are the demand for the policy to promote the socialization oriented training, diversify the
training forms to be flexible and practical. The preferential policies for training and supporting
stimulus loans for training purposes are also needed. There are also the needs for learning program
reforming so that the curriculum is in accordance with the actual conditions of the society in the period
of integration.
These colleges should do survey and update the labor demand of corporates operating and
ongoing projects to build plans to provide human resources in time for the corporates. Improving the
quality of education, especially improving the quality and structure of training according to the
market’s requirements and coordinating with corporates to set up training programs that link closely to
the technology and manufacturing equipments according to the orders of the corporates are necessary
actions to carry out. In addition, these colleges should regularly update innovative teaching methods
and suitable equipments in accordance with the trend of technology transferring, investment structure
trades with a high density of technical workers. They also need to expand international cooperation in
the field of professional training for administrators and teachers. On this basis, the author proposed
some solutions as below:
1. In view of the training Curriculum:
They should build their curriculum in the direction of inter-program so that after graduating from
colleges, students can easily continues higher education in universities. It is recommended that these
colleges cooperate with a number of universities that have the same majors as taught in the colleges so
that it is more convenient for students to study at the level of university in their colleges. Every year,
universities and colleges coordinate to help students prepare to graduate and sign up for the inter-
programs with the tuition fee paid as specified and send the list and the fee to the universities. There is
a policy to encourage the direct transition for graduates with Fair learning ability to learn at
universities without taking the transition exam. For students who cannot graduate from college with an
acceptable mark, the university still let them join the examination. If they pass the exam, they are
received into universities as usual but they have to commit to give the university they enroll in their
college diploma after the specified time. By doing this, the colleges express their high responsibility
toward students and commit to ensure the major they enroll in is an inter-program with universities.

1
Academician, Doctor Nguyen Chon Trung, the Deputy Professor and Doctor Truong Long Giang – Developing the
processing zones in the process of industrialization and modernization – The national political publisher, Hanoi, 2004, p.
296.

5
The universities are active in managing the number of inter-program student resource. Students are
assured not to worry too much about choosing a university with inter-program.
Based on the framework program of the Ministry of Education and Training, the schools need to
do survey on the practical demand combining with consulting the ideas of corporates to build the
programs suitable for the actual demand so that students after graduation can immediately access to
manufacturing technology. They also need to increase practising time in training curriculum, increase
students’ practice time at the corporates. Through the survey, students proposed to increase practice
time at the corporates from one month to three months. After each course, the school needs to review
the curriculum through corporates and former students to adjust the curriculum to be more suitable.
In addition to the matter of profession in the training curriculum, the colleges should organize
short-term courses from 1 to 2 days or 1 week according to module on teamwork skills, awareness,
workers’ consciousness, etc. It is possible to introduce these programs to different corporates for
comments or invite lecturers who are working at these corporates to come over.