Is there 'disillusionment'?

In the current context in Vietnam, is investing in a master's degree effective?

TUITION FEES CAN BE MORE THAN 100 MILLION VND/YEAR

Tuition fees (HP) for master's programs are specifically regulated in Decree No. 97/2023 of the Government on the mechanism of collecting and managing HP for educational institutions in the national education system and policies on exemption, reduction of HP, support for study costs, and service prices in the field of education and training. Accordingly, the HP ceiling for master's training of public universities is determined by the HP ceiling for university training multiplied by a coefficient of 1.5 corresponding to each training sector of each academic year according to the level of autonomy. With the above regulations, HP for master's programs is one and a half times more expensive than that of university level.

Currently, master's tuition is one and a half times more expensive than university tuition.

Specifically, the minimum tuition fee for a master's program at a public university that does not cover its regular expenses in the 2023-2024 school year is 18 million VND/year and the maximum is over 36 million VND/year. For public universities that cover their regular expenses, the fee ranges from 36 to 73.5 million VND/year. In particular, for public universities that cover their regular expenses and investment expenses (complete autonomy), master's students must pay from 45 to nearly 92 million VND/year depending on the field of training.

Master's program tuition fees will continue to increase in the 2024-2025 school year. In particular, the highest tuition fee in the group of public schools with autonomy in both regular and investment expenses can be over 100 million VND/year.

Even within each school, the graduate tuition fee varies depending on the program. For example, the University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University) currently collects the full-time graduate tuition fee for the 2023-2024 school year at 33 million VND/year, the 2024-2025 school year is expected to collect 36 million VND/year and will continue to increase to 37.5 million VND/year in the 2026-2027 school year. The English program master's degree from the 2021 course to now is collected at 80 million VND/year (2 semesters). In some other schools, special master's programs have a full-time tuition fee of nearly 200 million VND. For example, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics announced the applied master's program tuition fee for the 2024 enrollment period at 180 million VND (including study materials and graduation thesis). Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City also enrolls students for the Master of Business Administration program in collaboration with the UK with a full-time tuition fee of 179 million VND... Notably, RMIT University Vietnam announced the highest tuition fee for the 2024 Master's program for all majors at nearly 870 million VND/program.

Thus, just counting HP alone, master's students in Vietnam currently have to spend tens to hundreds of millions of VND for each 2-year course on average.

RECRUITMENT WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION OF UNIVERSITY DEGREE AND POSTGRADUATE

In actual recruitment, there are units that do not differentiate between university and postgraduate graduates.

Mr. Quach Hong Ha, Head of Corporate Customer Department of Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam ( Vietcombank - Ky Dong branch), said that this unit mainly recruits people with university degrees and does not differentiate between candidates with university degrees and those with higher degrees. In particular, graduation certificates are only a small factor in the input filter consisting of many criteria. For new graduates, the unit also conducts recruitment steps through exams to direct interviews.

"A candidate with a university degree is just a highlight in the application, not a decisive factor in recruitment. Vietcombank, like other banks, has standardized job descriptions with specific income levels for each position. Therefore, income is not based on qualifications but depends on the effectiveness of each specific job," Mr. Ha emphasized.

For employees who are working, Mr. Quach Hong Ha said that the unit encourages and has a policy to support learning and self-development. However, adding a higher diploma does not help employees increase their income in the same job position but depends on the nature of each specific job.

RECRUITMENT OF LECTURERS: MASTER'S DEGREE STANDARD BUT PHD'S DEGREE IS PREFERRED

Education and training is a specific field of work that requires candidates to have high qualifications to meet job requirements. According to the law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education (2018), the minimum qualification for university lecturers is a master's degree. However, it is also stipulated in this law that higher education institutions give priority to recruiting people with doctoral degrees as lecturers.

Many universities now give priority to recruiting PhD graduates as lecturers.

Many universities currently only recruit PhD graduates as lecturers. Masters graduates are only recruited for specialist positions or lecturer positions in some fields where there is a shortage.

Associate Professor Dr. Bui Quang Hung, Vice Director of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, said that most of the school's majors currently only recruit lecturers with a doctorate degree or higher. Candidates with a master's degree are only recruited in a number of majors that require practical experience and application related to the training program (such as design, communication, etc.). These are new majors that need key human resources for training or some excellent candidates with a master's degree to build a long-term team. However, the school prioritizes recruiting masters who have previously studied at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City. According to the reference income level published on the website, this university is paying from 20 to 35 million VND/month for lecturers with a master's degree depending on the number of years of work (about 5 million VND lower than those with a doctorate degree, as doctors are paid the lowest 25 million VND/month and the highest 40 million VND/month depending on the number of years of work). With the same master's degree, the specialist's income is lower, from 15 to 24 million VND/month.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hoan, Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade, also said that the school is currently only recruiting masters for a number of new majors, majors that do not yet have doctoral training in Vietnam such as: financial technology, logistics and supply chain management...

"The school encourages workers without a master's degree to study to improve their qualifications. When they have a master's degree, the salary and allowance coefficient is about 1/4 times higher than that of university graduates. In addition to income, master's graduates receive an allowance based on their job position and degree of 2 million VND/month, while university graduates receive only 1 million VND/month," Mr. Hoan added.

Van Lang University is currently only recruiting lecturers with master's degrees for fields that are in short supply, such as communications, public relations, etc. However, Dr. Vo Van Tuan, Vice Principal of this school, said: "Masters must have teaching experience, preferably graduated from abroad, have good expertise, and be able to teach in English. A good scientific background is shown in the field of study, place of graduation, type of training, etc. The income of masters at the school is currently over 20 million VND/month."

With the recruitment reality and income level mentioned above, is studying for a master's degree "profitable" in the current period? Answering this question, Dr. Vo Van Tuan still affirmed: "Investing in studying for a master's degree is definitely profitable. The learning process will help students have better professional knowledge in the field they study than before."

In 2025, the recruitment demand in Ho Chi Minh City for university degrees or higher will account for 19%.

The Center for Human Resources Demand Forecasting and Labor Market Information of Ho Chi Minh City (Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City) has forecasted that the average annual human resource demand in Ho Chi Minh City will need about 310,000 - 330,000 jobs (including 135,000 - 140,000 new jobs) from 2021 - 2025 to 2030. Of which, by 2025, the demand for trained workers will account for 87% but those with university degrees or higher will only account for 19%.

Data from the first quarter 2024 report of this unit also raised concerns that Ho Chi Minh City is lacking unskilled workers and has a surplus of highly qualified workers, with university degrees or higher. Specifically, a survey of the human resource needs of 14,300 businesses with 82,600 jobs showed that the need to recruit people with university degrees or higher accounts for 21.3%.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/dau-tu-hoc-thac-si-lieu-co-vo-mong-185240701193036572.htm