Worried about university tuition fees next year being higher than last year

In the 2024-2025 school year, tuition fees at many universities will continue to increase. Many majors will cost from 60 to over 80 million VND/school year, with some majors even costing hundreds of millions of VND.

Students of Bien Hoa High School for the Gifted ( Ha Nam ) experience a day as students of Hanoi University of Science and Technology. Photo: NTCC.

Specifically, the school with the highest tuition fee is Hong Bang International University - 250 million VND/academic year for Medicine and Dentistry, taught in English. The lowest tuition fee is at Thai Nguyen University branch in Lao Cai with 10.6 million VND/year.

Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy announced that for students enrolling in 2020 and later, tuition fees range from 46 - 84.7 million VND/school year. Of which, Dentistry is the major with the highest tuition fee, followed by Medicine at 82.2 million VND. For students enrolling in 2019 and earlier, tuition fees range from only 20 - 27.6 million VND/school year. Ho Chi Minh City University of Law has tuition fees ranging from 35.25 million VND/year to 181 million VND for high-quality programs taught 100% in English.

There is also a clear difference in the high-quality programs and special training programs of the Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City, which charge 20.2 million VND/semester out of the regular university tuition of about 10.5 million VND. This is the fee in the second year of financial autonomy. Compared to many schools that are not yet autonomous or those with difficult-to-recruit majors that are autonomous, this is a high tuition fee, possibly equal to, or nearly equal to, the tuition fee for the entire school year at other schools such as the University of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City, the University of Agriculture and Forestry of Ho Chi Minh City, etc.

In general, in addition to the characteristics of the training sector affecting different tuition fees, whether students register for a high-quality system, a joint system or a mass system also greatly affects tuition fees throughout the study period. This is also an issue that many experts warn about when students consider choosing a suitable university. The school also transparently informs that the following school year may charge higher tuition fees than the previous school year in accordance with the provisions of Decree 97. However, this still makes students worried, especially families with difficult circumstances will find it difficult to choose a school that is suitable for tuition conditions, capacity, development opportunities, etc.

According to Ms. Huynh Thi Anh Suong - Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly , not only is there a clear difference in tuition fees between training systems, but students are also always in a state of anxiety when tuition fees continue to escalate, each year is 10-30% higher than the previous year. This is a barrier for children from poor families who will find it difficult to attend university for 4-5 years, especially for majors with high tuition fees, even though they have good academic ability. Although the State currently has policies for poor households, excellent students also have scholarship policies, but this number is very small.

Faced with the financial difficulties of a large number of families with children in university, many opinions have proposed increasing the current credit limit for student loans. From 2022, the loan limit for each student will be increased to 4 million VND per month, in which each year students can borrow capital for 10 months and divided into 2 installments equivalent to 2 semesters. However, due to the annual increase in tuition fees of schools along with the trend of university autonomy, the tuition fees of many schools are relatively high, the loan limit is sometimes only enough to pay tuition fees.

Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong - Vice President of the National Economics University, believes that it is not necessary to think that only the poor borrow money, but that students who need to borrow money for their studies need to be given more favorable conditions. This is a normal investment and it is necessary to overcome the fear of accessing tuition support programs from students. In addition to increasing the loan amount and expanding the loan target, Prof. Cuong also emphasized that the state's own resources are difficult to meet. He suggested that policy banks need to cooperate with businesses and universities to offer more credit packages suitable for different situations.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phan Thanh Binh - former Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children, said that according to the Law on University Education, university autonomy does not mean taking care of finances but rather allowing schools to increase conditions to ensure quality. Autonomous universities do not mean cutting all funding, but the State still has to invest in development and ensure training quality... Therefore, training costs cannot be fully included in tuition fees. The state budget still invests in university education, tuition fees are just an additional contribution from society. This will ensure that tuition fees are calculated correctly and fully, but not put all the burden on learners. Schools need to be accountable to relevant parties about the contents of their activities, including tuition fees and the use of tuition fees. This needs to be monitored by authorities, people and society, ensuring that tuition increases go hand in hand with increased quality.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/ban-khoan-hoc-phi-dai-hoc-nam-sau-cao-hon-nam-truoc-10294599.html