Ministry of Education and Training new proposal on university arrangement

According to the draft resolution of the National Assembly, the Ministry of Education and Training will directly manage key universities and colleges, or those planned to be key national higher education institutions in engineering and technology.

A practical lesson of students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy - Photo: DUYEN PHAN

The Ministry of Education and Training is seeking opinions on a draft resolution of the National Assembly on a number of specific mechanisms and policies to make breakthroughs in education and training development.

The resolution aims to institutionalize Resolution 71 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in education and training development. The draft resolution is expected to be submitted to the National Assembly at its upcoming 10th session.

Which universities and colleges does the Ministry of Education and Training plan to directly manage?

Notably, the draft provides specific regulations on the organization of the system, human resources and management of educational institutions. This includes regulations on the arrangement and restructuring of the public educational institution system.

The draft clearly states the continued arrangement and restructuring of public universities, vocational education and continuing education institutions (except for educational institutions under the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of National Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Merge vocational education centers and continuing education centers into vocational high schools according to inter-ward and commune areas.

Implement in the direction of reducing focal points, linking professional management responsibilities with human resources and finance, eliminating intermediate levels, ensuring a streamlined, unified and effective management system.

Also according to the draft, the Ministry of Education and Training directly manages key universities and colleges or those planned as key national higher education institutions in engineering and technology, and is assigned to lead a network of excellent and talented training centers, colleges performing the functions of regional centers, and national centers for high-quality vocational training and practice.

The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism manage specialized higher education institutions.

Transfer the remaining educational institutions to local management, ensuring full and comprehensive autonomy for educational institutions regardless of the level of financial autonomy.

Research on merging research institutes with higher education institutions (except for special public scientific and technological organizations).

Currently, many ministries are managing universities such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade managing 9 affiliated universities such as Hanoi University of Industry, University of Electricity, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade; Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry...

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment manages 6 universities and academies such as the University of Water Resources, the University of Forestry, the Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment, the Vietnam Academy of Agriculture...

The Ministry of Construction has 8 universities and academies such as Hanoi Architecture, Ho Chi Minh City Architecture, Vietnam Maritime University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport... Vietnam General Confederation of Labor has Trade Union University...

Tuoi Tre newspaper reviews the university merger and arrangement in its September 23 issue.

Previously, in Resolution 281 promulgating the Government's action program to implement Resolution 71 and the Central Steering Committee's orientation on summarizing Resolution 18, it clearly stated the orientation to arrange and restructure the system of higher education institutions, merge and dissolve lower-standard higher education institutions.

Along with that, research should be conducted to merge research institutes with universities; regulate the organizational structure of universities to eliminate intermediate levels, ensuring streamlined, unified, and effective administration.

Research on transferring some universities to local management to improve management efficiency and better meet local human resource training requirements...

At the 2025 conference on higher education, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that higher education will soon enter a period of arrangement, merger and streamlining. Accordingly, the institutions may be assigned to merge, not selected by the units.

In addition to the public security and military schools decided by the two ministries and the private school group, the country currently has about 140 public universities that will be subject to merger and streamlining.

Central schools can merge with local schools, or many central schools can merge with each other, many local schools can merge with each other...

The Ministry of Education and Training's viewpoint is to overcome the fragmentation, smallness, and lack of development among schools, especially schools that are close to each other in terms of fields. The Ministry's Steering Committee has developed a plan, reported to the Prime Minister, and is waiting for instructions before implementing. The spirit is to arrange for schools to become stronger.

Proposal to regulate the transition period when abolishing the School Council

The draft also stipulates that the direct management agency appoints the Director, Deputy Director, Principal, and Vice Principal of public universities and vocational education institutions according to Party regulations and relevant laws.

For National Universities, the Ministry of Education and Training submits to the Prime Minister the decision to appoint the Director and Deputy Director.

During the transitional period when the School Council is abolished, the Minister of Education and Training decides on the standards, criteria, appointment terms and decides on the number of deputies of heads of public higher education and vocational education institutions.

The Director of the Department of Education and Training has the authority to recruit, receive, mobilize, transfer, and second teachers, educational managers, and staff in public preschool and general education institutions in the province.

The Minister of Education and Training shall promulgate regulations on standards and criteria for Directors and Deputy Directors of the Department of Education and Training, ensuring the selection and appointment of persons with professional qualifications, management capacity and experience appropriate to the requirements of leadership and management of the local education sector.

THANH CHUNG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bo-giao-duc-va-dao-tao-de-xuat-moi-ve-sap-xep-cac-truong-dai-hoc-20250926091453823.htm