Autonomous education but must ask for permission for everything

TP - Autonomy is considered to be the liberation of higher education, but in reality it only solves the bottlenecks in the Education Law and the University Education Law. Issues such as human resources, finance, and international cooperation (contents not regulated by the Ministry of Education and Training) are still in a "golden circle".

TP - Autonomy is considered to be the liberation of higher education, but in reality it only solves the bottlenecks in the Education Law and the University Education Law. Issues such as human resources, finance, and international cooperation (contents not regulated by the Ministry of Education and Training) are still in a "golden circle".

May reduce educational opportunities for poor students

The representative of the Board of Directors of Hanoi University shared that the first difficulty for the university when implementing autonomy until today is high-quality human resources (professors, associate professors, PhDs). The phenomenon of brain drain due to competition between private and public universities, both domestic and foreign, is increasing, causing public universities to lose a number of well-trained, experienced, and competent staff, lecturers, and specialists.

Universities have only recently been allowed to untie student recruitment and academic freedom. Photo: NGHIEM HUE

Although autonomous, schools still have to follow the regulations on salary payment according to rank and level (Law on Public Employees and Civil Servants), so there are many shortcomings, causing difficulties in recruiting and motivating employees to devote themselves. Schools are not autonomous in paying salaries to staff.

The Law on Civil Servants has some provisions that are not favorable for the recruitment and appointment of competent individuals who are working in the non-public sector and want to transfer to work at a public university. The dismissal of some civil servants who are no longer competent to work is also quite complicated.

“We hope to have a separate decree for autonomous universities, which includes provisions allowing universities to be fully autonomous in their investment and regular expenditures, maximizing their capacity and initiatives, and removing some procedural barriers.”

Representative of the Board of Directors of Hanoi University

“The 2019 Labor Code and Resolution No. 17/2022 of the National Assembly Standing Committee have constraints on overtime hours, not exceeding 300 hours/year, which is a difficulty for units under Hanoi University, which have few lecturers and difficulty in recruiting staff,” said a representative of the Board of Directors of Hanoi University.

The second difficulty is financial. Autonomous universities are not allocated funds for investment and regular expenditures, nor for capital construction investment. Therefore, schools only have enough funds for small and medium-sized repairs in the form of maintenance and upkeep of facilities; and purchase adequate equipment for teaching and other activities.

Tuition fees according to the framework prescribed in Decree No. 81 (2021) of the Government are expected to increase financial resources and the roadmap for calculating full costs according to the price mechanism. However, the decision on the actual tuition level of the school must ensure that it is suitable for the financial conditions of the learners and is competitive and attractive to learners; ensuring harmony and reasonableness in financial goals and other goals. Increasing high tuition fees to have more money to invest in basic construction and increase income for staff and lecturers can reduce the opportunity to study at university for students from difficult circumstances.

Long and complicated procedure

Another difficulty for the school is international cooperation. Hanoi University has a great strength with 54 training programs taught entirely in foreign languages. However, there are some documents that are not really favorable for these activities because administrative procedures are often complicated, lengthy and related to many ministries and units. For example, a university that wants to organize international seminars and conferences will need to ask for permission from the governing ministry, then the Department of Foreign Affairs of the province or city (Resolution 06 of 2020 of the Government stipulates). For a unit with many international conferences and seminars like the university, this is a time-consuming administrative procedure that does not affirm the academic autonomy and accountability of the schools.

The procedures for receiving aid and sponsorship from universities also require the participation of the governing ministry, the Ministry of Finance and a number of other relevant ministries; the approval time is about 3-4 months. After being allowed to receive aid, it is necessary to complete additional capital recording procedures and carry out financial management procedures as with the State budget. This capital recording process requires the participation of the governing ministry, the Ministry of Finance and takes about 3-4 more months.

“Thus, with foreign-funded projects that only take 1-2 years to implement, the time for procedures takes 6-8 months. If we do joint projects with foreign universities, Vietnamese universities will be behind schedule and lose prestige with the sponsors,” said a representative of the Board of Directors of Hanoi University.

Another problem is that Decree No. 80/2020/ND-CP does not stipulate decentralization of management to autonomous schools with different levels of aid, so whether receiving 5,000 USD or 1 million USD, the procedures are the same, causing some schools to not apply for grants that they consider small (about 20,000 USD). Meanwhile, there are quite a few projects like this for Vietnamese schools; effectively supporting medium-sized projects related to improving teaching methods, enhancing job search ability for students, starting a business, etc.

The leader of another university in Hanoi expressed his frustration that university autonomy is still very "secret". He gave an example of the school wanting to hire an outside unit to professionally manage the student parking lot (after bidding) with parking fees according to Hanoi City regulations. Because it is public property, and it is coordinated with an outside unit, it becomes a business story. The school wants to implement it and must ask for permission from the ministry and the governing body. "From this small example, we can see that autonomy is necessary but everything must be asked for permission from the competent authority", the leader said and said that it is very difficult for businesses outside the school to contribute capital to invest in labs and laboratories in universities that have been granted autonomy because of the mechanism.

Need to amend related laws synchronously

According to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hao, Vice President of the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges, the legal framework for autonomous university education is not only contained in the Law on University Education but also directly regulated in many other related laws (such as the Law on Civil Servants and Public Employees, the Law on Public Investment, the Law on Budget, the Law on Public Asset Management, etc.), leading to overlaps and difficulties for universities implementing autonomy.

Having many laws involved in management has affected the rights and autonomy of schools, especially in the financial sector. For example, joint ventures, using rented facilities, expanding public service provision, deciding on tuition fees, managing and keeping surplus funds, borrowing money, owning real estate, etc. These are shortcomings that need timely solutions.

In the article “University autonomy in Vietnam today: Current situation and solutions”, Dr. Vu Tien Dung, Faculty of Political Theory, Hanoi University of Civil Engineering, said that the authorities need to quickly issue a system of documents guiding the implementation of the Law on Higher Education. To avoid overlap, it is necessary to review and adjust to synchronize the regulations in related laws and switch from a direct management mechanism to a mechanism of regulation, support by macro tools and quality monitoring.

Along with that, it is necessary to build a legal corridor so that universities can confidently implement the construction of an autonomous mechanism according to the regulations and instructions of legal documents. Build a roadmap for autonomy for the entire university education system in relative correlation with the system in the world.

In addition, it is necessary to issue specific incentive mechanisms (conditional incentives) to encourage higher education institutions to accelerate the progress of building an autonomous mechanism. Supplement and perfect related institutions to differentiate and realize the role of school councils in universities.

The representative of the Board of Directors of Hanoi University proposed to allow autonomous universities to proactively develop salary payment plans according to job positions in accordance with the specific operations and financial conditions of the school; the plan is approved by the University Council.

According to representatives of the schools, the most important thing is that the laws, decrees, and regulations related to university autonomy in ministries and branches need to be revised synchronously. The current general situation is that university autonomy only removes the part of academic freedom and enrollment autonomy.

Self-control as incontinence

The Ministry of Education and Training has implemented a pilot program of university autonomy starting from the 2014-2017 period, with 4 affiliated public universities: National Economics University (now National Economics University), Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics (now Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics), Foreign Trade University, Hanoi University (formerly University of Foreign Languages) according to Resolution 77 of the Government.

In addition to the Resolution, the revised Law on Higher Education 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018 have clearly stipulated university autonomy. In particular, Decree 99 guiding the implementation of the Law on Higher Education 2018 almost completely "unties" university autonomy. However, other related laws are not adjusted synchronously, so when implemented, autonomy is like no autonomy.

NGHIEM HUE

Source: https://tienphong.vn/dot-pha-phan-cap-phan-quyen-tu-chu-giao-duc-nhung-lam-gi-cung-phai-xin-phep-post1702449.tpo