Officially supplementing regulations on conditions, authority, and procedures for recognizing regional universities and national universities

The Government has just issued Decree No. 125/2024/ND-CP dated October 5, 2024, regulating conditions for investment and operation in theeducation sector, effective from November 20, 2024. Decree 125/2024/ND-CP replaces Decree No. 46/2017/ND-CP dated April 21, 2024 of the Government regulating conditions for investment and operation in the education and training sector (amended and supplemented by Decree No. 135/2018/ND-CP dated October 4, 2018).

Decree No. 125/2024/ND-CP contains a number of new contents, fundamentally changing compared to Decree No. 46/2017/ND-CP and Decree No. 135/2018/ND-CP.

Reduce and simplify regulations related to business activities under the state management scope of the Ministry of Education and Training.

In order to implement the Prime Minister's Plan on reducing and simplifying regulations related to business activities under the state management of the Ministry of Education and Training , the new Decree has promptly amended, supplemented, replaced or abolished unnecessary, unreasonable, illegal regulations that are barriers and cause difficulties for individuals and organizations. In particular, focusing on amending, supplementing, replacing or abolishing regulations on business conditions for 08 business lines; clearly defining the implementation procedures for 06 administrative procedures that are still facing difficulties in actual implementation; supplementing forms in the dossiers of 68/198 administrative procedures under the state management of the Ministry of Education and Training (reaching 34.3%) and supplementing regulations on the form of online application submission to promptly implement the entire online public service, creating favorable conditions and reducing costs for individuals and organizations; reduce harassment of officials, civil servants and competent administrative agencies when handling administrative procedures.

Recognition of regional and national universities

The new Decree has added regulations on conditions, competence, and procedures for recognizing regional universities and national universities. Specifically, Article 104 of Decree No. 125/2024/ND-CP stipulates 03 groups of conditions for recognizing regional universities and national universities, including: i) Universities and member universities (if any) meet all standards and criteria of the Higher Education Institution Standards for doctoral training institutions and are recognized as meeting educational quality standards according to regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training; ii) Training to the doctoral level in all fields: Natural Sciences , Mathematics and Statistics, Engineering, Computers and Information Technology, Social Sciences and Behavior, Humanities, Business and Management; iii) Having a project to develop into a regional university or national university that has been approved by the Prime Minister and implemented in accordance with the planning of the network of higher education and pedagogical institutions and regional planning. The project content must clearly state: the necessity of developing into a regional university or national university; the goals of developing into a regional university or national university; the targets that need to be achieved so that the university has the capacity to perform the role and mission of a regional university or national university; the tasks, solutions, resources and roadmap for implementing the project to achieve the set goals and targets.

At the same time, the Decree also stipulates the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Training to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Home Affairs and relevant agencies and units to organize comments and appraisals before submitting to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision.

About educational quality assessment organization

In the new Decree, the conditions for establishment and permission for establishment of domestic inspection organizations have been amended and supplemented in accordance with the provisions of the two Laws in the direction of clearly and specifically stipulating the conditions, ensuring feasibility and conformity with the public and private organization models as prescribed by Vietnamese law. Accordingly, it will remove difficulties due to the lack of consensus in society's understanding of "independence" for public inspection organizations, and avoid creating complicated situations when having to build a special mechanism for public organizations. Public inspection organizations operate according to the model of independent, autonomous public service units at level 1 according to general regulations.

In addition to the provisions on conditions for domestic inspection organizations, the conditions for foreign inspection organizations to operate in Vietnam are amended in a more specific and stricter direction to ensure fairness between domestic and foreign inspection organizations, with clear and transparent provisions on conditions contributing to reducing the time for explaining documents due to cultural and language differences for a foreign organization wishing to operate in Vietnam.

The procedures for permitting inspection activities are also clearly regulated, reducing the time for carrying out procedures and providing specific instructions on the order of administrative procedures. In addition, the new Decree has removed some inappropriate provisions on the dissolution of inspection organizations; most related procedures have been "modeled" and supplemented with the form of submitting documents via the online public service portal. These changes are consistent with the Government's policy of promoting public services and simplifying administrative procedures.

The newly issued Decree also changes and supplements regulations for preschool education institutions, general education institutions, continuing education institutions, pedagogical colleges; higher education institutions and study abroad consulting services.

Source: https://toquoc.vn/chinh-thuc-bo-sung-quy-dinh-ve-dieu-kien-tham-quyen-thu-tuc-cong-nhan-dai-hoc-vung-dai-hoc-quoc-gia-20241009181357596.htm