Ministry of Education explains about centralized and non-centralized degrees?

After conferences to provide comments on the Draft Amendments and Supplements to the Law on Higher Education, the Ministry of Education and Training has received and revised the draft and submitted it to the Government for the third time, including content on training forms.

The report specifically states as follows:

View 1, the training form in higher education needs to be regulated according to international practice as centralized training (full time) and non-centralized training (part time or distance learning) according to international practice.

The Law on Education also stipulates that “The national education system includes formal education and continuing education”, meaning that formal education and continuing education are two pillars of the national education system (as shown in the framework of the national education system); they are not forms of training.

University education for degree awarding must be carried out in two forms: centralized and decentralized.

In which, the form of centralized training organization (full-time) means that learners must spend all their time studying to complete 01 course (according to the practice of many countries in the world, learners must study at least 9 to 12 credits for each semester at the training facility or practice and internship place);

The form of decentralized training organization means that learners only spend a certain part of their time focusing on studying to complete a course (according to the practice of many countries in the world, learners only need to study less than 9 credits per semester at the training facility or practice and internship place).

To implement this viewpoint, centralized training and decentralized training will have to follow the same curriculum, quality standards, output standards, etc. and follow the same regulations for organizing credit-based training.

If the learner meets the time requirement, he/she will register for concentrated study. If the learner does not meet the time requirement, he/she will register for part-time training.

Higher education institutions that ensure the conditions prescribed for each form are allowed to organize training according to that form.

Prescribing training organization forms according to international practices like this also helps higher education institutions adapt to technological changes when applying technology in training organization.

Both training institutions and learners can combine different forms of training organization to serve the diverse, lifelong learning needs of all learners.

View 2: It is necessary to maintain two forms of formal education and continuing education to stabilize according to current Law.

However, to decide which viewpoint to choose, the Ministry of Education and Training is waiting for the Government's opinion. According to the viewpoint of the Drafting Committee, the Ministry of Education and Training, Viewpoint 1 is consistent with international practice and current trends.