Merger or conversion?

Quang Nam Medical College owes six months' salary to 114 employees, totaling over 5.7 billion VND. The college has also been late in paying social insurance contributions for several months. Similarly, over the past period, 136 officials and employees of Quang Binh University have not received their salaries for between two and seven and five months.

A lecturer working at Quang Nam Medical College said they hope there will be a long-term solution to prevent such salary arrears so that staff and lecturers can work with peace of mind.

CREATE YOUR OWN INCOME SOURCE, REORGANIZE THE TEAM

According to the leaders of Quang Binh University, the root cause of the salary arrears stems from the student recruitment process. The current large number of lecturers and staff was recruited when the university was still able to enroll a large number of students (at one point, 10,000 students). However, currently, the university only has just over 1,000 students, more than half of whom are education students… resulting in a decrease in revenue. Currently, Quang Binh University has a large infrastructure, including many buildings serving various purposes, but most of them are either underutilized or not used to their full capacity.

Currently, student recruitment at Quang Binh University is very difficult, leading to a lack of revenue to pay salaries for teachers and staff.

Regarding this issue, the Quang Binh Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee have held numerous meetings and issued many documents to resolve it. However, to date, the best solution has yet to be found.

Initially, the leaders of the Quang Binh Provincial People's Committee requested Quang Binh University to temporarily freeze the outstanding salary debt of at least 7.5 billion VND owed to lecturers and staff for the past nearly 8 months; at the same time, they directed relevant departments to prepare an advance of approximately 2.5 billion VND for the university to use for teacher training in general education in 2024 to temporarily pay employees before the Lunar New Year 2024.

In addition, the authorities are facilitating the school's implementation of 10 provincial-level scientific research projects this year to generate a certain amount of revenue. At the same time, the school is reviewing its facilities to rent them out for community sports and arts activities, both to prevent deterioration and to create revenue for the school.

Quang Binh province also requested that Quang Binh University promote a dynamic and creative spirit in carrying out its tasks of training, fostering, and researching scientific topics to generate revenue to ensure its operation. Importantly, the university's leadership needs to urgently review, develop, and finalize a plan to reorganize the staff and lecturers in a streamlined and efficient manner, gradually implementing the roadmap for financial autonomy as stipulated.

Meanwhile, school leaders said they will suspend contracts with lecturers who do not have enough teaching hours or no teaching hours at all. Approximately 39 faculty members and staff are expected to be on this list, with the suspension period tentatively scheduled from February to August 2024, after which further action will be considered.

Many lecturers at the university also proposed "self-help" solutions. "We could develop computer and foreign language centers; establish a cultural and sports center, and offer after-hours training. Because right now, the university has an excess of both human resources and facilities," one lecturer stated. Some boldly suggested that Quang Binh University should open a multi-level secondary school… However, these ideas remain only proposals and have not yet been approved by the relevant authorities.

The People's Committee of Quang Nam province believes that Quang Nam College of Health plays a crucial role in training medical personnel.

RAISING SCHOOL STANDARDS?

Mr. Tran Anh Tuan, Vice Chairman of the Quang Nam Provincial People's Committee, stated that the province is deeply concerned about the issue of unpaid wages for its employees and that the Provincial People's Committee will address it. "This school plays a crucial role in training medical personnel, so it cannot cease operations; it must continue to exist. The province's goal is to develop this school into a model institution in the region," Mr. Tuan affirmed.

Mr. Tuan also stated that the province will continue to review and propose amendments to Resolution 36/2021/NQ-HĐND (regulating the decentralization of revenue sources, expenditure tasks, and allocation norms for recurrent expenditure budgets at all levels of the local budget), in a way that is most beneficial to the College of Health Sciences to address existing shortcomings and problems. Along with that, the school is required to reorganize its structure to be streamlined and appropriate, yet capable of meeting the school's development needs in the future.

ESTABLISHING A HIGH SCHOOL WITHIN A COLLEGE

Quang Tri Teacher Training College also faced a difficult situation: despite having a large facility and high-quality teachers, it lacked students. However, the college "saved itself" by proposing and receiving permission from the Quang Tri Provincial People's Committee to establish the Quang Tri Teacher Training College's integrated high school within the college. With an investment of 3.9 billion VND from the province, this school, with a history of over 60 years, has rapidly renovated and upgraded its facilities to meet the requirements of an integrated high school system. From the 2020-2021 academic year to the present, the school has enrolled hundreds of students across all grades each year.

Students of Quang Tri College of Education (a multi-level school)

Nghe An province has three schools: Nghe An College of Pedagogy, Nghe An College of Culture and Arts, and Nghe An University of Economics, all managed by the province and established decades ago. In 2014, Nghe An College of Economics was upgraded to Nghe An University of Economics. However, the school has struggled with student recruitment, at times only managing to enroll 150 students per year.

Similarly, the other two colleges have also faced difficulties in student recruitment over the years, despite having excellent facilities. To ensure their survival, since 2020, the Nghe An Department of Education and Training has allowed these schools to open a teacher training practice school, enrolling students at the primary and secondary levels. For the past three years, the school has enrolled 240 students in grades 1 and 6 each year for training.

Salaries for faculty and staff will be paid before the Lunar New Year.

The People's Committee of Quang Nam province has agreed on the principle of writing off the debt for training expenses that did not meet targets at Quang Nam College of Health Sciences from 2020 and earlier, amounting to over 15.5 billion VND. The reduction in the college's budget for the years 2023-2025 (1.9 billion VND each year) will be temporarily suspended to allow funds to pay salaries to staff, lecturers, and employees. In addition, the deduction of over 1.3 billion VND from the 2023 budget, which Quang Nam College of Health Sciences advanced to its general hospital in 2021, will be temporarily suspended; and funds will be temporarily allocated to pay salaries and benefits to staff and employees before the Lunar New Year 2024.

Manh Cuong

Merging into a university, will it be "old wine in new bottles"?

According to statistics, Quang Tri province has a branch campus of Hue University, 3 colleges, and 3 vocational schools with a total of 1,510 students currently enrolled. Most schools are facing difficulties in student recruitment. Therefore, during a meeting with Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son in July, the leaders of the Quang Tri Provincial People's Committee proposed that the province cooperate with Hue University to develop a plan to submit to the Ministry of Education and Training for consideration of establishing Quang Tri University under Hue University, based on the merger of Quang Tri Teacher Training College with the Hue University branch campus in Quang Tri.

On January 2nd, the Standing Committee of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee unanimously agreed on the principle of merging three schools: Nghe An College of Pedagogy, Nghe An College of Culture and Arts, and Nghe An University of Economics into Nghe An University.

However, many are concerned about whether the merger will help these universities become better institutions or whether they will fall into the same trap as some universities in other provinces. Nghe An currently has Vinh University, which has offered multi-disciplinary programs for many years and is considered a university with a good tradition and quality. However, in recent years, this university has struggled with student recruitment, not to mention that Nghe An also has other universities with extensive experience in training. A leader of the university about to be merged shared that the merger is a way to help these universities overcome difficulties, but if there is no good plan to improve the quality of the university, it will be "new wine in old bottles," and the difficulties will remain, despite bearing the label of a university.

Khanh Hoan - Nguyen Phuc

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