Consider refunding students 37 billion VND wrongly collected at Thu Dau Mot University

Every year, about 4,000 bachelors and engineers graduate from Thu Dau Mot University, Binh Duong province - Photo: TL

On October 19, speaking with Tuoi Tre Online , the leader of Binh Duong Provincial People's Committee said that he had received information and had given instructions to Thu Dau Mot University (a public school under the Provincial People's Committee) regarding the case of "incorrectly collecting 37 billion VND in tuition fees but not paying students".

According to the leader of Binh Duong Provincial People's Committee, the review will be careful because it is related to the budget and audit conclusions, but will be in the direction of ensuring the legitimate rights of students.

After the press reported and the authorities directed, Thu Dau Mot University is considering a plan to refund the overcharged tuition fees to students. However, this will await the official resolution of the school board.

Thu Dau Mot University added that when the State Audit concluded at the end of 2022 requiring the school to implement the conclusion to ensure progress before March 31, 2023, the school paid 37 billion VND to the budget.

The school said that refunding excess tuition fees to students at that time was "difficult to implement" and "not on schedule according to the audit conclusion".

In addition, there are other reasons such as some students have graduated, the school has multidisciplinary training, each training program, each subject has a different ratio of theory and practice, so calculating the refund amount for each student is very difficult.

But until now, the refund of tuition fees for students will be reconsidered by Thu Dau Mot University.

"The school conducts a review, seeks guidance from professional agencies and auditing agencies. And seeks guidance from competent authorities to implement harmoniously, in accordance with regulations, and to ensure the rights of students" - a leader of Thu Dau Mot University said.

Thu Dau Mot University is the largest public university in Binh Duong province, with about 20,000 students. Each course has about 4,000 people.

From 2022, the school will begin to be financially autonomous in regular spending. Revenue for the 2022-2023 school year is nearly 400 billion VND, mostly from tuition fees.

Thu Dau Mot University "misunderstands" how to calculate practice credits

According to the audit conclusion, the amount of 37 billion VND is the excess tuition fee collected for the two school years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 for practical credits. At that time, Thu Dau Mot University multiplied the practical credits by a coefficient of 1.5 compared to the theoretical credits.

However, the State Audit concluded that at that time the school was not financially autonomous, and the budget still covered tuition fees, so the calculation of tuition fees with practice credits was incorrect.

According to the explanation of Thu Dau Mot University, one theoretical credit is equivalent to 15 teaching hours, while one practical credit is equivalent to 30 teaching hours. That means the cost of teaching and facilities for practical teaching is twice that of theoretical teaching.

For practice credits, practice materials are consumed, while tuition fees according to Decree 86 of 2015 (applied when schools are not financially autonomous) are only general regulations.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/xem-xet-hoan-tra-sinh-vien-37-ti-thu-sai-tai-truong-dai-hoc-thu-dau-mot-20241019094751396.htm