'Red eyes' looking for university tuition under 20 million VND/year

Tuition fees are already high, and they continue to rise.

Many universities, which already had high tuition fees last academic year, continue to increase this year, for example, the Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy. According to the university's announcement, tuition fees for students admitted in 2024 range from 46 to 84.7 million VND per academic year. Compared to the 2023-2024 academic year's fees (42.8 to 77 million VND per academic year), tuition fees for all majors will increase next year. Dentistry has the highest tuition fee at 84.7 million VND per year (an increase of 7.7 million VND compared to 2023-2024). Next is Medicine at 82.2 million VND per year (an increase of 7.4 million VND); and Pharmacy at 60.5 million VND per year (an increase of 5.5 million VND). For the remaining sectors, the salary increase ranges from 46 to 50 million VND per year, with public health showing the lowest increase at 1 million VND.

Successful candidates must pay tuition fees. According to regulations from the Ministry of Education and Training, August 27th is the deadline for candidates to complete the enrollment procedures for the first phase.

PHOTO: DAO NGOC THACH

Besides the health sciences, law is also a field with high tuition fees. Notably, in universities with many types of training programs, tuition fees for specialized programs are many times higher than those for regular programs. For example, according to the announcement of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Law, the lowest tuition fee for the 2024-2025 academic year is over 35.2 million VND/year for law, international commercial law, and business administration. Tuition fees for high-quality regular training programs reach 70.5 - over 83 million VND/year. Particularly, the high-quality law program taught in English costs up to 165 million VND/year.

Similarly, universities within the Ho Chi Minh City National University system have also implemented an autonomous mechanism, resulting in tuition fees varying across different training programs. The University of Technology sets the tuition fee for standard programs at only 29 million VND/year. For transfer or Japanese-oriented programs, the fee reaches 60 million VND/year. Programs taught in English, advanced programs, transfer programs, and international joint programs have even higher fees, up to 80 million VND/year. The University of Science charges tuition fees for students admitted in 2024 ranging from 24.7 to 59.6 million VND/year depending on the major and training program. Except for the above majors, tuition fees for other majors at the university range from over 21 to 60 million VND/year depending on the major and training program for this academic year. Tuition fees are expected to increase by 10-15% in subsequent years. The University of Economics and Law projects tuition fees for Vietnamese-language programs at 27.5 million VND/year (2 semesters). English program costs 57.6 million VND/year…

Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry has announced tuition fees for full-time undergraduate students in 2024, with different rates depending on the field of study. Specifically, economics majors will cost over 32.8 million VND/year; technology and engineering majors 33.5 million VND/year; and pharmacy majors over 53.5 million VND/year. The tuition fee increase will be up to 10% per year. The university states that these fees comply with legal regulations on pricing and the Government 's regulations on the financial autonomy mechanism of public non-profit organizations as stipulated in Decree 97/2023.

According to the tuition fees for the 2024-2025 academic year recently announced by Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, students in the 2024 cohort and specialized majors will pay 29-32 million VND/year; programs taught in English and Vietnamese-Japanese will cost 49-58 million VND/year (2 semesters).

Tuition fees for standard programs at Ton Duc Thang University's Ho Chi Minh City campus average around 27-31.6 million VND/year (Vietnamese Studies costs 50.1 million VND/year and Pharmacy costs 60.7 million VND/year). Tuition fees at the Khanh Hoa branch range from 20.5-24 million VND/year. Meanwhile, high-quality programs cost 50-64 million VND/year, and English-taught undergraduate programs cost 76-83 million VND/year depending on the major... These tuition fees apply to students in the 2024 cohort for the 2024-2025 academic year and represent an increase of approximately 8-10% compared to the previous academic year.

University tuition fees range from under 20 million VND to under 200 million VND per year.

WHICH SCHOOL AND MAJOR HAS THE LOWEST TUITION FEES?

This is the question that students are most concerned about right now, given the annual increase in university tuition fees. The answer can be found in non-autonomous public universities, and in the less-recruited programs of autonomous universities.

For example, according to the announcement from the Ho Chi Minh City University of Natural Resources and Environment, tuition fees for business administration and real estate majors in the 2024-2025 academic year are expected to be from 14.1 million VND/year. Other majors will range from 15.2 to 16.4 million VND/year. The Ho Chi Minh City University of Culture expects an average tuition fee of approximately 15 million VND/year. At the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Arts, the current tuition fee is 12 million VND/year for all majors. The Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture's regular programs have tuition fees ranging from over 13 to over 18 million VND/year.

Similarly, tuition fees for regular programs at Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry are currently over 11.8 million VND/year. Advanced programs range from 34 to 40 million VND/year. Students in the standard program at Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport in the 2024-2025 academic year will only pay 12 million VND/year. According to the university's published training roadmap, regular students have two main semesters per year, with tuition fees of 6 million VND/semester (standard program); 14.7 million VND/semester (advanced program); and 21.6 million VND/semester (program taught entirely in English). The university will not increase tuition fees for the first three years, and any increase in the final year will not exceed 15%.

The Vietnam Youth Academy is also a university with currently low tuition fees. The academy projects tuition fees for regular law students to be over 1.4 million VND/month and for other majors 1.5 million VND/month. Corresponding to a 10-month academic year, students at the academy pay between 14 and 15 million VND/year. Tuition fees for the 2024-2025 academic year at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education also range from 14.1 to 16.4 million VND/year.

Furthermore, tuition fees for some majors that are difficult to recruit for at universities that have become autonomous are quite flexible. For example, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City) applies a fee of over 14 million VND/year for majors such as philosophy, religious studies, history, geography, information and library science, archival studies, and anthropology. Some language majors have fees of over 17 million VND/year, such as Italian and Spanish.

According to the tuition fee schedule published by the Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade, for the 2024-2025 academic year, the tuition fee for the 2024 intake of undergraduate students will be 863,000 VND/theoretical credit and 1.1 million VND/practical credit. Mr. Pham Thai Son, Director of the University's Admissions and Communications Center, stated that students admitted in the 2024 intake will pay an average tuition fee of 28-36 million VND per year, and this amount will not increase throughout their studies.

Private school: Some programs cost 20 million VND.
Some industries earn nearly 200 million VND per year.

While tuition fees for public schools are determined by the maximum tuition fee ceiling stipulated by the Government for each type of school and field of study, private schools have the autonomy to determine their own tuition fees.

At Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, tuition fees for most majors average around 18-19 million VND per semester (except for Pharmacy and Medical Laboratory Technology, which cost around 20-21 million VND per semester). The university offers three semesters per year, with tuition fees ranging from 54-63 million VND per year (except for majors with corporate scholarships, which average around 36-39 million VND per year).

The University of Economics and Finance Ho Chi Minh City offers four semesters per year, with an average tuition fee of approximately 20-22 million VND per semester (including six levels of English). Therefore, the average annual tuition fee ranges from 80-88 million VND.

Similar to public universities, tuition fees at private universities are particularly high in the health sciences sector. For example, Nguyen Tat Thanh University charges between 21 and 61 million VND for its programs, with medicine costing 152 million VND per year and dentistry reaching 183 million VND per year.

Hong Bang International University charges 180 million VND/year for both the medical and dental programs, while other programs charge between 35 and 80 million VND/year.

Cuu Long University in Hai Phong in 2024 will have tuition fees ranging from 8 to 18.75 million VND/semester (equivalent to 18 to 37.5 million VND/year for 2 semesters)...

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/do-mat-tim-hoc-phi-dai-hoc-duoi-20-trieu-dong-nam-185240824210017825.htm