It's time to remove the "bottleneck" for higher education

Law No. 34/2018/QH14 dated November 19, 2018 of the National Assembly amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education (Law No. 34), effective from July 1, 2019, with the innovation and improvement of the effectiveness and efficiency of university autonomy, has been assessed by many higher education institutions as a correct policy, bringing about remarkable results, contributing to creating a new look for many higher education institutions implementing autonomy in recent times.

However, in the development trend of the country in the new era, Law No. 34 has appeared with problems and inadequacies and it is proposed to be completed soon to improve the effectiveness of implementing the Law on Higher Education in the coming time.

“It is time to issue a new Law on Higher Education”, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Vu Nam, Vice Principal of the University of Economics and Law, Ho Chi Minh City National University shared and said that it is necessary to implement it soon, but invest time to draft, collect opinions systematically, have specific and correct regulations, creating a new Law of quality.

Associate Professor, Dr. Le Vu Nam, Vice Principal of the University of Economics and Law, Ho Chi Minh City National University shared

Emphasizing that each Law is issued to solve specific practical problems, Associate Professor, Dr. Le Vu Nam said that Law No. 34 has fulfilled its mission of university autonomy, quality improvement, university stratification... In the next stage, we need a common law. Having too many versions makes it difficult for schools to implement. Therefore, there should be a new law, unified in the current versions. Along with that, the appearance of many shortcomings, obstacles, and overlaps in the implementation process has also come to a time when timely adjustments are needed.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Le Vu Nam, Law No. 34 has not recognized the role of the Department in the structure of the university and researchers. The spirit of Law 34 is autonomy, including academic and training autonomy, and the department is the place to realize this issue. Therefore, there needs to be specific regulations and recognition to further promote the role of the department as well as legalize the title of researcher.

Considering that the main tasks of universities, including lecturers, are scientific research, training, and community service, Associate Professor Dr. Le Vu Nam proposed that there should be regulations related to community service; it is necessary to be more specific about the concept, incentive mechanism, and motivation for community service...

Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Quang, Chairman of Thai Nguyen University Council

Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Quang, Chairman of the Thai Nguyen University Council, assessed that currently, educational institutions have uneven capacity in terms of high-quality human resources, so it is necessary to promulgate the Law in the context of implementing the role of leading the system, ensuring unified and fair output.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Huynh Quyet Thang, Director of Hanoi University of Science and Technology, in the 5-year period from 2019 to 2024, the Law on Higher Education has had a very positive impact, promoting the development of higher education institutions. However, the existing overlaps need to be resolved. Therefore, changing and amending Law 34 is very urgent and necessary for higher education institutions to operate more effectively.

“Most of the laws have now changed to follow the trend of the times, in accordance with reality, but is that really effective or do we need to build a new set of laws, in which we inherit what is still suitable and add new regulations”, Associate Professor, Dr. Huynh Quyet Thang shared.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quy Thanh, Principal of the University of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Affirming that the Law on Higher Education No. 08/2012/QH13 and then Law No. 34 have opened up a very good legal system for higher education, creating a basis for higher education institutions to perform better, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quy Thanh, Principal of the University of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, said that implementing the autonomy mechanism, university management and administration have had positive changes. The autonomy mechanism has created conditions for higher education institutions to promote democracy, be more proactive, flexible and creative in building and organizing training activities, scientific research, serving the community effectively, meeting the increasing learning needs of the people and improving the qualifications and professional skills of workers.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quy Thanh said that it is necessary to include colleges in higher education to ensure the systematic and stratified nature of higher education institutions in order to serve the planning of higher education network in accordance with the requirements of socio-economic development and to build investment and development plans, improve the training and scientific research capacity of higher education institutions; and implement state management.

Source: https://moet.gov.vn/tintuc/Pages/tin-tong-hop.aspx?ItemID=10171