VIETNAM

Government seeks to expand university autonomy

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam has urged the Ministry of Education and Training to tailor its policies on autonomy for public universities to the needs of each institution. At a workshop on tertiary education held in Ho Chi Minh City, he said that autonomy was necessary to ensure that universities planned their use of resources wisely, according to their purposes and goals, reports VietNamNet Bridge.

Dam assured education officials that universities with autonomy would still receive money from the state, but would retain the right to decide how the money is spent. Universities with autonomy, for example, have the right to use tuition as well as funds from enterprises and the government without asking permission from the Ministry of Education and Training. The universities also have the right to make decisions on human resources and organisational structure.

In the 2014-15 academic year, 11 public universities and institutes took part in a pilot programme on autonomy in training, research and international co-operation. They were allowed to collect higher tuition than tertiary education institutions without autonomy. Dam said the autonomy model would be expanded to more public universities.
Full report on the VietNamNet Bridge site