Graduate enrollment down, undergraduate enrollment up

On August 26, in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) held a conference to summarize the 2022-2023 school year and deploy key tasks for the 2023-2024 school year in the higher education sector. Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son chaired the conference.

Reporting on the results of the school year, Director of the Department of Higher Education Nguyen Thu Thuy said: The 2022-2023 school year is the next year in which university autonomy is strongly implemented, bringing positive results throughout the system.

school year 2023 2024 postgraduate enrollment decrease university enrollment positive image 1 — Director of the Department of Higher Education Nguyen Thu Thuy presented a report at the Conference (photo source: Ministry of Education and Training).

The Ministry of Education and Training has drafted a Directive on promoting university autonomy in Vietnam and submitted it to the Prime Minister for consideration and promulgation, thereby focusing on implementing a number of specific tasks to remove and overcome difficulties and obstacles in the process of implementing university autonomy.

Higher education institutions have proactively reviewed and consolidated their organizational structure and personnel in a streamlined and efficient manner; concretized and enhanced the role of the School Council in organizing and managing activities.

Up to now, nationwide, 170/174 public universities have established University Councils and come into operation (reaching a rate of 97.4%); of which, 36/36 units are under the Ministry of Education and Training, 58/60 private universities.

Admissions work has achieved many positive results and changes. The regular university admission rate reached 84.56%, the master's admission rate reached 55.86%, and the doctoral admission rate reached 41.86%.

In 2023, the number of candidates taking the high school graduation exam nationwide is 1,002,100; the number of candidates registering for admission to universities and colleges in preschool education is equal to 65.90% of the number of candidates taking the exam, with the number of registered wishes being nearly 3.4 million.

Although the number of candidates taking the high school graduation exam decreased, the number of candidates registering for university admission in 2023 increased by 4.56% compared to 2022. The number of candidates admitted in the first round on the system in 2023 also increased by 7.9% compared to 2022.

During the school year, the higher education sector has successfully completed its training tasks. Policy mechanisms and legal documents have created favorable conditions for training institutions to implement autonomy in enrollment and training.

Training quality is gradually improved and recognized. Training institutions clearly recognize the role of training quality in sustainable development.

However, the scale of master and doctoral training tends to decrease. There is still a big gap between sectors, some sectors continue to face difficulties in recruiting, some fields have demand but lack learners.

In the 2022-2023 school year, the number and quality of lecturers will increase. Implementing Project 89 on training lecturers and managers of higher education institutions, in 2022, 187 lecturers and staff will be trained domestically (24%), 80 will be trained abroad (32%);

In 2023, this number will be 118 domestic (reaching 37%) and 130 foreign (reaching 64%).

The number of accredited higher education institutions is increasing. As of August 2023, 261 training institutions have completed external assessment according to domestic standards;

194 training facilities are accredited according to domestic standards; 9 training facilities are accredited according to foreign standards.

Vietnamese higher education institutions continue to be highly ranked and move up in prestigious international rankings. There are 5 representatives named in the 2024 World University Rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS);

9 universities entered the Times Higher Education (THE) impact rankings, an increase of 2 universities compared to last year and the largest number ever; 6 universities entered the THE WUR 2023 rankings, an increase of 1 institution compared to 2022.

Regarding the ranking results of world scientists with outstanding achievements in scientific publications in 24 fields, Vietnam has 10 scientists named in the rankings in 6 fields.

This reflects the continuous progress, efforts and integration of Vietnamese scientists, the fields in which Vietnam is recognized on the world's scientific map.

Besides the achieved results, Director of the Department of Higher Education Nguyen Thu Thuy also mentioned the difficulties and limitations affecting the development of higher education.

That is: The legal system has not synchronized some related contents between the Law on Higher Education and some other legal documents, leading to difficulties and obstacles for universities in the process of promoting autonomy according to the Law on Higher Education, but still having to comply with and implement related Laws.

Resources for higher education are still very limited. In recent years, the budget for higher education has been just over 17,000 billion, accounting for 0.27% of GDP, but the actual expenditure has been less than 12,000 billion.

In terms of actual expenditure, it has not reached 0.78% of GDP, much lower than other countries in the region and the world. Vietnamese universities still rely mainly on tuition fees.

The implementation of legal documents and university autonomy still has limitations and some violations. The organizational structure and leadership of some training institutions have not been completed.

Admissions still show complicated admission methods and unreasonable allocation of quotas. There are still limitations in attracting resources for science and technology development, associated with postgraduate training, technology transfer, and commercialization of research results.

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