The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has presented 4.65 million USD to Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) for a period of two years.

It earlier granted 7.2 million USD to the university for 2017-2020.

The US Government’s support to FUV through USAID and the US Department of State has helped the university with both administration and training.

The establishment of the FUV – Vietnam’s first independent and not-for-profit higher education institution – was announced in HCM City on May 25, 2016.

It is the next step in the existing Fulbright Economics Teaching Programme, a public policy master’s programme at the Ash Centre within the Kenney School of Government at Harvard, established in 1994 in cooperation with the HCM City-based University of Economics.

Founded under the Prime Minister’s Decision No 819/QD-TTg dated May 16, 2016, the university opened at the end of 2016 with the first courses offered by the department of public policy and management.

FUV aims to become the top choice for students in Vietnam and across Asia.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Ministry of Education and Training is to implement the Vietnam National Qualifications Framework (VQF).

This will stipulate the minimum learning outcomes for a tertiary level, meaning all majors at one level must meet the minimum output standards specified in the framework.

“The biggest social responsibility of a higher education institution is the production of people with professional skills and soft skills to effectively serve the development of society,” said Nguyen Thu Thuy, Acting Director of Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training.

“We are not only training human resources for the domestic market but also towards the regional and world markets.

“The objectives of the VQS is the equivalent recognition of Vietnamese diplomas, certificates and qualifications to those of regional and international diplomas, certificates, and degrees. Consequently, Vietnam can source our manpower to the world.”

According to her, to implement the Vietnam’s VQS, the Ministry of Education and Training has worked with educational section in other countries and participated in the ASEAN Qualifications Reference Framework (AQRF).

Meeting at least twice a year, the goal of a national AQRF committee is to have all countries refer to their national qualifications framework with the qualifications framework of the region, towards recognition and help human resources move across borders in Asian countries.

Thuy said this consists of many steps, in which the development and promulgation of Standards are very important.

She added: “Based on those standards, Vietnam’s universities can develop a new program or renew the existing program to meet the standards.

“In the process, the universities improve their capacity to attract students, create high outputs, and meet labour market requirements.

“Standard universities can continue to improve their capacity. Each school has the autonomy in issuing a higher-than-standard training program, with specific nuances, and has its own brand. Although Standard is the minimum requirement, it must be asymptotic to the world.

“To build the standard, we need to get the attention of many parties, not only educational institutions but also businesses, employers, professional associations, experts, researchers, and State management agencies to meet the requirements of the stakeholders.

“The process of developing the Standard was supported by international experts, including people from Australia, a country with a strong educational background, especially higher education. In particular, Australia’s VQS has many advantages for us learn. Australian experts accompanied us from the first drafts of the Standard and helped us to raise awareness, spread the goals and the need to promulgate standards and apply them in practice.

“I believe that with the co-operation of the stakeholders, we will accelerate the implementation of the Vietnam National Qualifications Framework”.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

A number of public universities in HCM City that have been granted financial autonomy are planning to increase tuition in the 2020-21 academic year.

Tuition at the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, for instance, will increase to 30 million-70 million VND (1,289-3,009 USD) in the 2020-2021 academic year for various majors. The current fee is 13 million VND (558.9 USD) per year.

Tuition for the dental and maxillofacial major at the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy will be the highest with 70 million VND (3,009 USD) per year, followed by the medical major with 68 million VND (2,923 USD).

The majors in nutrition and public health will be the lowest, at 30 million VND (1,289 USD) each.

The university will increase tuition by 10 percent per year for the following years.

The increased tuition will be applied to freshmen enrollees in the 2020-2021 academic year.

The university will provide 800 scholarships for outstanding freshmen and those with financial difficulties.

It will allocate 10 percent of collected tuition and the amount that the university plans to call on other sponsors to provide partial and full scholarships to students in their second to final years.

The School of Medicine and Pharmacy under Vietnam National University- Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) will increase fees for so-called high-quality training majors in the 2020-2021 school year.

The school’s high-quality dental and maxillofacial major fee will be VNĐ88 million per year, an increase of VNĐ8 million.

Tuition for high-quality medical majors will be 60 million VND per year, an increase of 4 million VND.

Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy will increase tuition to 24.6 million VND per year.

The fees at the University of Information Technology (under VNU-HCM) for high-quality majors will be 35 million VND per year and 20 million VND per year for normal majors.

The university also plans to increase tuition by 5 million-9.4 million VND in the 2020-2021 year compared to 2019-2020. It will increase the fee by 2 million VND each year in following years.

The tuition for the HCM City University of Technology and Education will increase by 1-2 million VND in the 2020-21 academic year compared to the 2019-20 year.

The HCM City University of Law tuition in the 2020-2021 year will increase by 500,000-5.75 million VND.

According to a representative of the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, the university will be granted financial autonomy in the 2020-21 year. The increased fees will help the university have enough capital to operate.

The university currently receives subsidies from the State budget since the current fee of only 13 million VND per year is not sufficient for it to operate.

However, the subsidy will be eliminated because of the university’s financial autonomy mechanism.

The highest fee, for the major of dental and maxillofacial, is due to the high training costs and the discontinued subsidy from the state. In addition, the university cannot increase the student enrollment quota for the major.

The Ministry of Education and Training has issued legal documents as the foundation for universities to carry out autonomy. The ministry has also managed the implementation of policies on tuition and financial autonomy of universities.

The HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy’s tuition will be verified by the Ministry of Health and accounted publicly.

According to the Planning and Finance Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, the ministry will issue detailed regulations on ceiling fees for universities.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

As many as 144 people, both children and adults, were granted with the first-ever “Learning never ends” scholarship by the Vietnam Association for Promoting Education (VAPE) in Hanoi on June 14.

Among the beneficiaries, the youngest is a first grader and the oldest 81 years old. They also include 11 from ethnic minority groups.

Of the 46 adults, there are 29 farmers, three industrial workers, and seven teachers and education management cadres, while the rest are communal-level civil servants and public employees. The remaining 98 are students from the first to the 12th grades, including 10 with disabilities.

All have strived to overcome difficulties and illnesses to pursue learning and reap good outcomes, according to the VAPE.

Addressing the presentation ceremony, Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh said the 144 scholarship recipients from 20 northern provinces and cities have made their own efforts to follow late President Ho Chi Minh’s teaching that “Learning never ends”.

Despite different backgrounds, they have actively learned from books, working, friends, colleagues and their communities so as to be the masters of their lives and contribute to the society, she noted.

The Vice President expressed her hope that the recipients will help the “Learning never ends” movement spread further, thereby enhancing the country’s traditional fondness for learning and encouraging others to contribute to the nation.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnam may order schools to shut down on days when the air quality is poor, according to the draft law revising the 2014 Law on Environment Protection.

There are also provisions being discussed to reduce the amount of traffic in urban areas and close factories on days when pollution levels are high.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) said the emergency declaration when air pollutants concentration rise to dangerous levels was included in the draft law.

The Prime Minister will be responsible to adopt national action plans, task municipal people’s committees and MoNRE to implement emergency measures in case air quality witnesses a drop on inter-provincial and inter-regional scale.

Le Hoai Nam, head of the ministry’s Environment Quality Management Department, said the declaration would be based on air quality monitoring indicators, environmental incidents or extreme weather events.

According to Nam, heads of provincial people’s committees will take responsibility to develop air environment protection plans.

“The plan includes the assessment of air quality and status quo in each locality, lists major emission contributors and presents potential solutions,” said Nam.

“The draft law does not specify the measures to be taken when declaring an emergency. Detailed measures will be adopted by local authorities based on their conditions.”

Meanwhile, the draft law offers possible solutions which may be used when air quality drops to unhealthy levels including suspension of factories, school closures or traffic bans in urban areas.

NghiemTrung Dung, former head of Institute of Environmental Science and Technology under Hanoi University of Science and Technology, said local authorities should consider evacuating people in case of air pollution emergency.

MoNRE blames the amount of motor vehicles for reducing air quality, especially in big cities. During the social distancing period, air quality was improved significantly compared to the same period last year.

The ministry proposes to task provincial authorities to classify vehicles based on types of fuel, emissions and age to reduce air pollution.

The Government is asked to offer incentives to encourage people switch to public transportation and green vehicles as well as develop a plan to eliminate vehicles using fossil fuel.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

UK educational organisationQuacquarelli Symonds (QS) announced its 2021 QS World University Rankings on June 10, with the Vietnam National University (VNU) – Hanoi and VNU – Ho Chi Minh City finding places in the 801-1,000 group.

The rankings feature 1,002 of the world’s most prestigious universities in 93 countries and territories, based on a methodology that assesses each institution on six metrics, including its reputation among academics and employers. There were 47 new entrants in this year’s top 1,000, while more than 5,500 universities were evaluated and considered for inclusion.

MIT in the US continued its record-breaking streak at the head of the rankings, leading the way for the ninth year in a row. The big story, however, is the impressive gains made by Asian universities, with a record 26 from the region now featuring in the top 100.

Singapore has two educational institutions in the top 15, while 20 Malaysian universities are in the top 1,000.

The US again boasts the most top universities, with four in the top 5.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

University enrolment regulations for the 2020 intake will be adjusted to improve limitations in the university entrance exam last year, the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) declared in a conference on May 8 in Hanoi.

The regulations will be applied for all university and college admission and this year, institutions will not enrol for the intermediate training level like before and will concentrate on the college and university training level only.

The regulations this year also added that students studying a foreign curriculum at high schools in Vietnam will be allowed to take the university and college entrance exam if the curriculum is recognised by their local country and at the same level as the curriculum in Vietnam.

Foreign candidates who wish to study at Vietnamese universities and colleges can apply and principals of the schools will consider their high school and Vietnamese language studying results.

All schools must publicise their plans for enrollment on their website 15 days before students start to register.

Also under the new regulations, if universities want a specific exam, they need a specific task force for the exam. The task force, including people making exam questions, marking exam papers and technicians, must have good qualifications and management ability.

As usual, the MoET will set the threshold to ensure quality of candidates using their high school graduation exam scores to join the university enrolment for the education and health care sector.

If candidates register for education, medicine, traditional medicine and pharmacy, their school report marks must be at least 8.0. If they register for nursing, preventive medicine, midwifery, or technicians, their school report marks must be at least 6.5.

Other majors will regulate their threshold and are responsible for reporting the threshold to management offices and candidates.

Source: Vietnam News Agency