Breakthrough in higher education

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quy Thanh, Principal of the University of Education (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), member of the National Council for Education and Human Resources Development, affirmed that Resolution 71 has helped university education “clear its path”. According to Prof. Quy Thanh, Resolution 71 opens up opportunities to legalize the way of budget allocation, turning autonomy into “guaranteed autonomy”.

Students complete admission procedures for 2025. Photo: NGHIEM HUE

In the past, the understanding of university autonomy has been problematic from the root, considering autonomy as swimming on one's own, with the more a school collects, the more autonomy it is given, turning autonomy into "self-care", leading to a roadmap of gradually cutting the budget - reducing 10% each year, until 2026, cutting it all. This pushes schools into a spiral of increasing tuition fees, opening more high-quality programs to balance revenue and expenditure.

The mechanism of “ordering” training - which is expected to be a way out - also faces many difficulties. Professor Thanh gave an example of Decree 116 on ordering teacher training, many provinces and cities did not sign the order because they were worried about the risk of liability when the “product” only appeared after four years while the budget needed was hundreds of billions of VND. As a result, training targets were low, there was a shortage of local teachers, and the pedagogical benchmark score was pushed up. Therefore, when autonomy became “guaranteed autonomy” according to Resolution 71, Professor Quy Thanh said that there were two positive impacts: stopping the increase in tuition fees, reducing social pressure and ensuring equal learning opportunities; at the same time, helping schools stabilize their development strategies, focusing on improving quality instead of having to chase enrollment scale to have more revenue.

The second bottleneck is finance, which is the “lifeblood” that determines the health of the entire system, but the budget for university education has been decreasing over the years. Resolution 71 affirms that the budget must not continue to be cut, but must be increased. Of which, spending on university education must reach 3% of the total budget.

The next bottleneck is the long-standing entanglement around the school board mechanism. Since the 2018 Law on Higher Education, the school board has been identified as the highest authority, expected to bring modern governance and reduce the concentration of power in the principal. But in reality, this mechanism is not in harmony with the leadership structure in public schools. The consequence is that the decision-making cycle is prolonged: the board of directors - the Party Committee - the school board - then back to the board of directors.

The solution proposed in Resolution 71 is to abolish the school council in public universities, not to return to the old model, but to upgrade: the Secretary is also the Principal with specifically established authority, some functions that used to belong to the school council are transferred to the Party Committee, transforming the leadership role from general policy to closely directing each decision.

Professor Thanh noted that changes in the governance structure are only the first step. To operate smoothly, there must be a compatible legal basis. Laws including the Law on Education, the Law on Higher Education and the Law on Vocational Education will all have to be adjusted. Regulations on school boards, the role of the Party Committee, the autonomy mechanism and budget allocation must be clearly updated so that the resolution can be implemented synchronously. According to him, this is a necessary step of "legalization", turning the spirit of the resolution into consistent action throughout the system.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/but-pha-giao-duc-dai-hoc-post1775523.tpo