Should college be brought back to university?

This proposal received many comments from education experts and leaders of universities and colleges.

PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE LAW ON HIGHER EDUCATION

The official dispatch signed by Dr. Vu Ngoc Hoang, Chairman of the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges, on behalf of the association's Executive Board on May 15, pointed out the shortcomings of the 2014 Law on Vocational Education when this law abolished four university levels including college, university, master's and doctorate.

The document stated: "University level includes 4 levels: College, University, Master, Doctorate which are consistently shown in Decree No. 90 of 1993 of the Government, Education Law No. 11 of 1998, Education Law No. 38 of 2005 and University Education Law No. 8 of 2012. Unfortunately, in 2014, the Draft Law on Vocational Education was passed with a low number of votes (55.13% of delegates in favor). In Articles 76 and 77 of the 2014 Law on Vocational Education, all regulations related to College level of university level in previous laws were abolished. This is leaving many consequences."

The consequences that the representative of this association mentioned include: first, lowering the standards of professional college degrees, causing a shortage of university training; second, limiting the issue of articulation; third, eliminating the strengths of application-oriented university education institutions, especially local universities.

The unification of professional colleges and vocational colleges into a single college system and separation from university education is supported by universities.

From there, the association recommends that the Prime Minister consider and direct the development of a project to amend the Law on Higher Education to submit to the National Assembly for inclusion in the law amendment program as soon as possible. While waiting for the amendment of the Law on Higher Education, the association recommends that the Prime Minister consider and allow the restoration of the task of training professional college degrees at higher education institutions. At the same time, consider and allow professional college institutions (units that previously operated under the direction and state management of the Ministry of Education and Training) to self-register and choose the next direction, either following the vocational training model or returning to the professional college model.

NEWLY UNIFIED INTO ONE COLLEGE SYSTEM FOR MORE THAN 6 YEARS

It should be further clarified that in the 2005 Education Law, university education includes college, university, master and doctoral degrees, vocational education includes intermediate vocational and vocational training. The 2012 University Education Law also states that the college level belongs to university education and university education institutions in the national education system include colleges. However, in parallel, the 2006 Vocational Training Law stipulates intermediate vocational schools and colleges.

Thus, for many years, Vietnamese education has had two systems of colleges and intermediate schools, one side being intermediate professional colleges managed by the Ministry of Education and Training and the other side being intermediate vocational colleges managed by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

For consistency, in 2014, the Law on Vocational Education was issued by the National Assembly, stipulating that vocational education institutions include vocational education centers, intermediate schools and colleges. Unified, there are only colleges and intermediate schools, not colleges, professional intermediate schools and colleges and vocational intermediate schools as before. University education only trains at the university, master's and doctoral levels.

In Resolution 76 of the regular Government meeting in August 2016, the Government agreed to assign the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs as the state management agency for vocational education and the Ministry of Education and Training as the state management agency for pedagogical schools.

Then, in October 2016, the Government issued a decision approving a national qualification framework consisting of 8 levels. This decision clearly stated that the Ministry of Education and Training is in charge of managing and implementing the Vietnamese national qualification framework for university education levels (bachelor, master, doctorate) and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs is in charge of managing and implementing the Vietnamese national qualification framework for vocational education levels (college, intermediate, primary).

CONTRARY TO CURRENT LAW

According to the principal of a college on the executive board of the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges, the proposal that universities be allowed to train college students is contrary to current laws, while some of these laws are not even 5 years old.

Currently, there is only one college system in vocational education and it is transferred to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs for management.

"Unifying the Union into a single state management agency is essential to concentrate resources and avoid fragmentation. Up to now, everything has gradually stabilized. This proposal goes back to having two Union programs, each program managed and granted by a ministry, which is a return to the confusion and lack of unity as before 2017. This proposal also goes against Directive 21 of the Central Executive Committee's Secretariat recently, when this directive emphasized the priority of the state budget for vocational education, and at the same time required the National Assembly Party Delegation to lead the amendment, supplementation, and completion of the legal system on vocational education, creating a unified and synchronous legal basis for implementing and supervising the implementation of the directive," this person analyzed.

Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Vocational Education Association, said that maintaining stability in terms of the system and state management is very important to help learners feel secure. "Since universities no longer train colleges and there is only one college system under vocational education and it has been transferred to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs for management, both the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs are doing very well in their management functions and tasks and everything is going smoothly. For learners as well as employers, which ministry is in charge is not important, but what is important is the quality of training, whether it meets the requirements of the labor market or not, whether there are jobs and good income or not".

According to Mr. Tuan, the government's policy is clear, now we should not worry about who is in charge and whether colleges should belong to university education or vocational education, but should focus on solving the problem of linking from intermediate and college to university. "Everything is going well, only the coordination between the two ministries is not good. The Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs need to sit down to unify and solve this problem," Mr. Tuan stated his opinion.

Transfer the General Department of Vocational Education to the Ministry of Education and Training

In my opinion, universities should only focus on undergraduate and postgraduate training to concentrate resources. However, if vocational education is under the management of the Ministry of Education and Training, it will be easier to divide the stream, recruit students, and have unified state management. The degrees of students will also be granted by the Ministry of Education and Training.

I think that if possible, the General Department of Vocational Education of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs should be transferred to the Ministry of Education and Training to manage colleges and below. There should be no more intermediate schools, but only intermediate levels within colleges. Intermediate schools should be merged into colleges. Universities should still only focus on undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Dr. N GUYEN T RUNG N HAN (Head of Training Department, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry)

Should keep it stable as it is

I think we should keep things as they are now, and not restore the task of training colleges for universities, because currently college programs are mainly skills-oriented, while universities have more academic knowledge. Colleges that cannot recruit students or provide poor quality training should be dissolved, and only those that can recruit and train students that meet the requirements of businesses should be retained. Allowing colleges to choose the vocational or professional college model is a return to the old inadequacies and will be even more confusing for learners.

Master P HAM T HAI S ON (Director of Admissions and Communications Center, Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry)

There should be a single ministry responsible for training human resources for the country.

In the US, college is more practical, but the training program can be transferred to university because they have general education courses. In the world, they also train a wide range of colleges so that students have many opportunities to continue their studies at a higher level. If they only train a certain skill or specialty, it will be very difficult.

I also think that the General Department of Vocational Education should be transferred to the Ministry of Education and Training to manage the vocational education system. The unification of the national education system under one management unit will have the advantage of unifying planning programs, making it easier to connect, and resources will not be shared.

Dr. HOANG N NGOC VINH (former Director of the Department of Vocational Education, Ministry of Education and Training)

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/co-nen-dua-cao-dang-tro-lai-truong-dai-hoc-185230518135114479.htm