Why some universities deliberately do not make tuition fees transparent

Each school has its own style.

Tuition fees are a "sensitive" issue because they directly affect tens of millions of families. In higher education, some educational institutions comply with the regulations of the Government and the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) on publicly and clearly announcing tuition fees and the roadmap for increase.

According to the enrollment plan, the tuition fee for the 2023-2024 school year of Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy for full-time students ranges from 4.18 - 7.7 million VND/month. In addition, the school also announced that according to the roadmap, it is expected to increase tuition fees by a maximum of 10% each year.

Specifically, the tuition fees applied for 2023 for 14 majors at the school are expected to be as follows:

Tuition fees for the 2023-2024 academic year at Foreign Trade University are expected to be 25 million VND/student/year for the general program. Tuition fees for the high-quality program are expected to be 45 million VND/year and tuition fees for the advanced program are expected to be 70 million VND/year. The Hotel Management, Digital Marketing, Digital Business, and Integrated Marketing Communications programs remain at 60 million VND/year...

The school said that tuition fees for the programs are expected to be adjusted annually by no more than 10% per year.

However, some units only announce cautiously, or even deliberately do not make it public. For example, Hanoi University of Architecture announced tuition fees very generally and vaguely: expected for full-time students; the roadmap for increasing maximum tuition fees for each year (if any) is implemented according to Decree No. 81/2021/ND-CP.

Or with the University of Transport, in the summary of the 2023 enrollment plan, it only states: "Expected tuition fees for students: engineering: 415,800 VND/credit; economics: 353,300 VND/credit (on average, students study 30 credits per year)". Other information about the increase roadmap and the level of increase has not been mentioned.

What is the reason?

Previously, regarding the issue of the school not clearly informing about tuition fees for the 2023-2024 school year, Associate Professor, Dr. Architect Le Quan - Principal of Hanoi University of Architecture - said: "Currently, public schools do not dare to announce tuition fees and tuition increase roadmap. If after announcing now, they ask for a refund like last year, what should we do? Last year, we had to return thousands of tuition bills to students."

According to this Principal, to help schools in the 2023-2024 school year, the Ministry of Education and Training must announce whether or not to collect tuition fees according to Decree 81 of the Government?

Rector of Hanoi Architectural University. Graphics: Trang Ha

Regarding this issue, Dr. Le Viet Khuyen - Vice President of the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges - said that some public schools want high tuition fees but are subject to tuition ceiling controls, so it is easy for there to be a lack of transparency in the disclosure.

“Public schools want high tuition fees but are subject to tuition ceiling controls, so ambiguity can easily arise. Private schools are more fair,” Dr. Khuyen added.

Dr. Le Viet Khuyen talks about university tuition fees. Graphics: Trang Ha

Affirming that any ambiguity brings disadvantages, Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Xuan Nhi - former Deputy Minister of Education and Training affirmed that the issue of tuition fees must be clearly transparent so that parents and students can know and consider choosing the right school.

"According to regulations, public universities are allowed to set tuition fees that do not exceed the prescribed tuition ceiling. Many schools take advantage of this to obscure tuition fees.

This causes great disadvantages for candidates, leading to candidates and their families not understanding, not grasping clearly, "blindly" taking the exam to that school, and when they discover the exorbitant tuition fees that they cannot afford, they miss out on the opportunity to study" - said the former Deputy Minister of Education and Training.

According to Decree 81/2021/ND-CP, before enrolling or considering admission, educational institutions must announce and publicize tuition fees and training costs for each school year and school level for preschool education and general education, tuition fee increase roadmap (if any) for each school year and expected for the entire course for higher education.

According to regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, the expected tuition fees of universities must be made public in the enrollment plan posted on the school's website at least 30 days before receiving application documents.