Ministry of Education proposed to refund budget more than 53 billion VND

The State Audit has just completed a thematic audit report on the management and use of state budget funds for the project.Training lecturers with doctoral degrees for universities and colleges in the period 2010-2020(abbreviated as Project 911).

The project was approved by the Government in 2010 with the goal of training 23,000 doctoral lecturers, with a total budget of 14,000 billion VND (94% from the state budget).

During the audit period (2012-2016), the total training target was 12,800 graduate students. However, the report from the audit agency showed that by the end of 2016, the total number of graduate students admitted and enrolled was 4,024, reaching 31.4%. The number of graduate students who graduated and were awarded degrees was 787, reaching 6%.

In all three forms of domestic training, completely abroad and joint training between Vietnamese universities and foreign schools, the Ministry failed to achieve the set goals.

On the quality of doctoral trainingAccording to the State Audit, the doctoral students successfully defended and were recognized as graduates under Project 911 in the domestic training form "not much different from mass doctoral training".

The number of 238 PhD students who have graduated and returned to teach at training institutions has not changed the structure of lecturers or had a big impact on the general teaching work of the schools. The number of 542 PhD students who graduated from abroad and returned to teach at schools has not changed the structure of lecturers much.

About the costThe State Audit believes that the allocation over the years of the project is not suitable for the spending tasks, the budget must be canceled or transferred to the next year, while the budget for education and training is still limited.

"With the above surplus funding, if borrowing at an interest rate of 5%, we will have to pay capital costs equivalent to 66,950 million VND. The tuition fees collected from graduate students have not been used for many years, and the budget has not returned a relatively large amount of 38,850 million VND, which somewhat reduces the efficiency of using the funding source," the report said.

The fact that graduate students drop out of school or do not return to the institution that sent them to study but have not reimbursed the state budget, and the high rate of graduate students who graduate late (accounting for 61%) also reduces the effectiveness of the 911 project's investment.In particular, some of the nine doctoral training centers established and funded according to the approved project operated ineffectively, did not function properly, and caused waste of the state budget.

With the results not achieving the above objectives of Project 911, the State Audit recommended financial settlement for the Ministry of Education with a total amount of more than 53 billion VND. Of which, more than 50 billion VND should be recovered and paid to the State budget from the following items: incorrect expenditures, expenses for graduate students who dropped out of school, and mainly tuition fees for graduate students at the Department of International Cooperation whose spending tasks had ended by July 30, 2017..

The Ministry of Education also had to cancel the project's budget estimate of more than VND2.8 billion, reducing the 2016 final budget by more than VND48 million. "Recommend that the Ministry of Education rectify the management of state budget, money and assets," the State Audit report emphasized.

The ministries and branches that inspected and compared were also recommended by this unit to handle the finances of more than 6.3 billion VND related to the 911 project.

In November 2017, the Ministry of Education sought comments on the draft project.Improving the capacity of lecturers and managers of universities and pedagogical colleges to meet the requirements of comprehensive fundamental innovation in education and training in the 2018-2025 period, with a vision to 2030.This project replaces project 911, which the Ministry assessed as "if it continues to be extended and limitations are overcome, it will still not be able to achieve its goals".

The goal of the new project is to train lecturers with doctoral degrees to reach 35% of the total number of lecturers in higher education institutions, equivalent to 9,000 people. Of these, 5,000 lecturers will be trained at prestigious universities around the world. About 500 lecturers will be trained for doctoral degrees in the form of coordination and cooperation between Vietnamese universities and foreign universities. 2,000 lecturers will be trained for doctoral degrees at accredited universities in Vietnam.

The project also aims to attract about 1,500 PhDs working abroad or outside of higher education institutions to work at Vietnamese universities.