Should medical students be exempt from tuition fees like teacher training students?

The proposal to support tuition and living expenses for medical students equivalent to those for education students is receiving public attention.

The Ministry of Health has just proposed that the Government study supporting tuition and living expenses for medical students equivalent to those in education.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Health recommends that medical and pharmaceutical students receive state support for tuition fees equal to the tuition fees charged by the training institution where they study.

Currently, tuition fees for medical and pharmaceutical training are always among the highest, ranging from about 15 to nearly 200 million VND/year, depending on the school.

Student of Hoa Binh University.

Some public universities that train in health sciences have the highest tuition fees today, such as: Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, with 2 medical training majors with tuition fees of over 80 million VND/year. Specifically, the Dentistry major charges 84.7 million VND/year and the Medicine major charges 82.2 million VND/year.

The University of Health Sciences (Ho Chi Minh City National University) has a tuition fee of 60 million VND/year for Medicine and 55.2 million VND/year for other medical training majors.

In the 2024-2025 school year, Hanoi Medical University's tuition fees for all majors are expected to range from 15 to 55.2 million VND/school year.

The majors with the highest tuition fees of 55.2 million VND/school year are: Medicine, Thanh Hoa Medical Branch, Traditional Medicine, Dentistry.

According to experts, the high tuition fees, combined with the long time it takes to study medicine. It takes about 8-9 years from entering school to being able to practice. This is a barrier for many students who want to pursue this field.

Speaking with reporters of Dai Doan Ket Newspaper, Associate Professor, Dr. Phan Tuy - former Vice President of Hanoi University of Pharmacy, Head of Pharmacy Department of Hoa Binh University, assessed that the proposal of the Ministry of Health is humane in order to attract students in the medical and pharmaceutical fields.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Phan Tuy, in countries around the world, tuition fees for medical and pharmaceutical training are also very high. Vietnamese students studying medicine abroad are also very rare. Many children from poor families who want to pursue a medical career cannot do so.

From the perspective of a trainer, Associate Professor Dr. Phan Tuy believes that training a doctor who works well and has solid expertise is very difficult and costly. If the medical industry or the pedagogical industry trains en masse without paying attention to quality, it is a potential danger. Therefore, Associate Professor Dr. Phan Tuy believes that investment in medical and pharmaceutical training is necessary to partly reduce the shortage of medical human resources.

The principal of a university said that the medical profession is unique, with a heavy workload and expensive training costs. Although the proposal to exempt tuition fees for medical students is aimed at attracting students in the context of a shortage of human resources in the medical sector, it will not be feasible because the investment budget for education is still limited. Instead of exempting tuition fees, it is necessary to consider a scholarship policy for students from difficult circumstances.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, the country has 214 health personnel training institutions, including 66 universities, 139 vocational training institutions, and 9 research institutes with doctoral training. The Ministry of Health manages 22 schools and institutes. The number of doctors graduating in 2023 is 11,297; the number of pharmacists graduating is 8,470 and the number of nurses graduating is 18,178.

The Ministry of Health also assessed that the quality of medical human resource training has not met actual needs, and has not yet strengthened and supplemented specific policies for medical human resource training.

According to current regulations, teacher training students are supported with tuition fees equal to the tuition fees charged by the teacher training institution where they study. At the same time, they are supported with 3.63 million VND/month to cover living expenses during their time studying at the school.

This funding comes from the budgets of localities, ministries, and sectors, through the form of orders. However, students must reimburse if they do not work in the industry for enough time (6-8 years), change to another industry, drop out, do not complete the program, or are forced to leave school.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/co-nen-mien-hoc-phi-cho-sinh-vien-nganh-y-nhu-sinh-vien-su-pham-10297469.html