A modern laboratory of the Hanoi University of Technology.

VietNamNet – Imported advanced training programmes the Ministry of Education and Training (MoEt) will offer at nine universities should have drawn interest, but are down student intake.

In the first school year applying the imported curricular, many universities are concerned over the low level of student interest. Students have little money, and those with the ready cash may not excel enough for placement on the programmes.

At present, most of the nine universities to begin the programmes are still translating documents, curricula, developing programmes, detailing enrolment plans, and recruiting lecturers. However, according to the guidance documents released by MoET, universities will have to recruit the first student intake for the advanced training programmes this year.

Accordingly, the Hanoi University for Natural Sciences will enrol 50 students and the Hanoi University of Technology will recruit around 80-100. Though these required intakes are not high volume, universities are concerned by a lack of students to place on the programmes.

Duong Duc Hong, Head of the Training Department of the Hanoi University of Technology said: “MoET has not released instructions on fees and expenditures for this programme, so we still don’t know how we are supposed to collect tuition fees.”

Each advanced training programme will be subsidized with just VND450mil (US$28,000) from MoET, which is only covers translation of documents, according to some universities. To implement the programme, universities will have to cover the extra spending themselves, which means upping fees in future.

However, as the courses are hitherto unknown commodities, it is difficult to convince students to pay higher fees to attend advanced programmes. Moreover, such programmes will admit only top notch students, specifically those with outstanding high school grades. However, these students are often strapped for cash and will be unable to afford to attend the programmes.

Such a paradox is common in Vietnam. Each year, thousands of students go abroad to study, paying a small fortune each month, but after a few months, many families have to bring their children back home because they can’t afford to continue programmes abroad.

The Hanoi University for Natural Sciences has suggested combining advanced programmes with bachelor programmes for laureates. Like other major universities, the Hanoi University for Natural Sciences has special training programmes for top scholars.

According to Bui Huy Cam, Director of the Hanoi University of Natural Sciences, the training programmes for talented students already soak up all the top scholars, leaving these new advanced training programmes with nobody to recruit. Moreover, with the university having to pay for the programme itself, operations are beyond affordability unless they are run in tandem with the bachelor programme.

However, for some other universities, combination of the two training programmes is unsuitable because the training fields of the two programmes are too dissimilar, as in the case of the Hanoi University of Technology.

A representative of a northern university approved to implement the advanced training programme said: “It will be a major problem if we can’t recruit students for this programme, because for a high-quality training programme, the attendants must be able to follow the course. However, the number of people registering for the programme is too small, there are not even enough to select. It is impossible for such a costly programme to train only 10 people”.

Imported programmes embattled

Most of the nine universities with the advanced training programme said that over the next two or three years, these programmes will not be taught in English because universities still don’t have lecturers capable of teaching in the language, and the institutes don’t have enough money to hire foreign lecturers.

Another reason is it is difficult to recruit students when for courses taught in English, due to a low level of listening abilities in the language.

To implement the programmes, universities must have lecture halls, labs, libraries, documents, and equipment that meet international standards, another costly factor to be considered.

(Source: TT & VH)