Pressure of autonomy causes many principals to resign

On the afternoon of November 5, the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education held a 2023 education conference on institutions and policies to improve the quality of higher education.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Le Quan, Director of Hanoi National University, said that the autonomy of universities is currently facing many difficulties.

Regarding investment in education, he analyzed that although the Party and State's policy is to prioritize investment in education, the budget for higher education in particular only accounts for 0.27% of GDP, much lower than the region and the world.

Mr. Le Quan, Director of Hanoi National University, spoke on the afternoon of November 5.

The planned cuts in regular expenditures have made it difficult for non-autonomous universities. Autonomous universities have to collect tuition fees from students to cover their operations. The revenue of domestic universities usually accounts for 60-90% while in other countries this source of revenue does not exceed 60%.

For example, in the US, public universities' tuition revenue accounts for 20% (the government supports 43%). In New Zealand, this figure is 28% (the government supports 42%). Or in the UK, tuition accounts for about 53% of university revenue (the government supports 14%). Thus, in developed countries, the government still has a policy of supporting university revenue in the form of funds.

Mr. Le Quan said that compared to 10 years ago, universities have made remarkable progress and achieved many successes, but are also facing many shortcomings in mechanisms and policies. "Especially with the two national universities currently having management and operating mechanisms that are no different from other small universities. The "institutional uniformity" is causing difficulties for the schools and preventing them from fully utilizing their capacity," he said.

Therefore, it is necessary to have mechanisms and investments for higher education institutions to implement a long-term vision, focusing on training and nurturing talents in important and essential fields of the country. The Director of Hanoi National University emphasized that the National Assembly has issued many specific mechanisms for sectors and localities, but there is no specific mechanism for education in general and higher education in particular.

He also mentioned the important role of the principal in implementing university autonomy. "For example, at Hanoi National University, it is very difficult to find a good principal. In the past 2-3 years, several comrades have resigned from the position of principal to move to other jobs. This shows that this is a job with a lot of pressure and challenges in terms of administration," the Director emphasized.

According to him, in order for schools to have sufficient investment resources, the State also needs to consider direct investment in universities through competitive bidding. The invested schools must carry out the tasks assigned by the State in both training and scientific research.

This form of support allows the state to invest effectively at competitive costs. Universities, on the other hand, will have large resources to invest in key research programs and training programs that require modern equipment.

The Director of Hanoi National University also raised the issue of low funding for science and technology at universities in Vietnam. The number of international publications, although achieving impressive results in recent times, is not commensurate with the requirements and potential. Scientists have mastered their expertise but it takes a lot of time to process disbursement procedures with too much paperwork.

He proposed the need to establish scholarship and preferential credit funds to prioritize basic science fields necessary for the country's development such as basic sciences (math, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, philosophy, history, culture), and basic engineering fields (mechanics, agriculture, environment)...

Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Tran Thanh Man, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly, assessed that in the 2013-2021 period, the number of higher education institutions increased from 207 to 237 schools; the scale of training at all levels of higher education in the period also increased. The proportion of lecturers with doctoral degrees increased from 14.38% (in 2013) to 31.28% in 2021.

However, higher education still shows many limitations and shortcomings in terms of scale, occupational structure and working skills. Institutions and policies on university autonomy are still contradictory and inconsistent in understanding, application and implementation guidance, especially in terms of implementing university autonomy.

Investment in higher education is still low. The policy of socializing education has not really attracted many social components to participate. The quantity, structure and quality of university lecturers have not met the increasing requirements, especially in terms of innovation capacity.

Ha Cuong

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