Many universities increase tuition fees for the new school year

Increase by 70-110 thousand VND/month/student

Mr. Do Van Dung, Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, acknowledged:In the new school year, many schools will increase tuition fees. Non-autonomous schools will increase according to the level prescribed by Decree 86 of 2015 of the Government, autonomous schools will increase according to their own regulations.

Previously, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology announced that the average monthly tuition fee for the regular mass program is implemented according to the Government's tuition fee regulations. The average monthly tuition fee for the advanced, high-quality program is implemented according to the Decision approving the Project of Ho Chi Minh City National University.

Specifically, the regular mass program including the talented engineer program and the PFIEV high-quality engineer program has a tuition fee in the 2018-2019 school year of 960,000 VND/student/month. In the 2019-2020 school year, the tuition fee is 1,060,000 VND/month/student.

For the advanced, high-quality regular program taught entirely in English, the tuition fee is 6 million VND/month/student. In addition, this school also noted that when autonomous, tuition fees will be determined according to the approved autonomy project.

Mr. Vo Van Sen, Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said that because the school is not yet autonomous, the school will collect fees according to Decree 86, and tuition fees will increase slightly.

According to Mr. Sen, even though tuition fees have increased, the new revenue is still not enough to cover expenses.

"For our school, we spend about 270 billion VND annually on all activities, but the state budget only covers about 45 billion. The school has to take care of this difference, of which only tuition fees are collected," said Mr. Sen.

Mr. Sen said that this revenue level is "enough to survive".

"But schools cannot spend much on scientific research, improving teaching, upgrading lecturers' lives or providing funding for lecturers to go abroad. I think this is a difficult problem that schools are facing today."

According to Mr. Sen, in the near future the school will consider partial autonomy, specifically autonomy in majors that are likely to attract students.

"Basic science training cannot follow the "market economy". There are some majors that the school currently exempts tuition fees for both undergraduate and graduate levels, but only 3-5 people study them, while our school's majors are mostly basic science majors."

Mr. Sen said that even if we implement autonomy, we must still think about the fate of basic science because research to sell products to cover training costs is impossible.

Vinh University also applies tuition fees to full-time students and a tuition fee increase schedule for each year according to the provisions of Decree No. 86/2015/ND-CP dated October 2, 2015 of the Government.

In the 2018-2019 school year, the tuition fees for the majors of Social Sciences; Economics; Law; Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will increase by 70,000 VND/month/student compared to the 2017-2018 school year, reaching 810,000 VND/month. It is expected that the tuition fees for these majors will increase to 890,000 VND in the 2019-2020 school year and to 980,000 VND/month in the 2020-2021 school year.

For the Natural Sciences; Engineering, Technology; Sports, Arts; Hotel and Tourism majors, the tuition fee for the 2018-2019 school year will be 960,000 VND/month/student, an increase of 90,000 VND compared to the 2017-2018 school year. The tuition fee for these majors will increase to 1,060,000 VND in the 2019-2020 school year and 1,170,000 VND/month in the 2020-2021 school year.

According to Decree 86/2015 of the Government, the tuition fee ceiling for the 2018-2019 school year for mass training programs, university level at public educational institutions that do not yet ensure their own regular and investment expenses, applicable to the fields of Social Sciences, Economics, Law, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is 810,000 VND/month/student. Thus, this fee will increase by 70,000 VND/month/student compared to the previous school year.

The fee for Natural Sciences; Engineering, Technology; Sports, Arts; Hotel and Tourism is 960,000 VND/month/student. This fee increases by 90,000 VND/student/month.

The tuition for the Medical and Pharmaceutical industry is 1,180,000 VND/month/student. This fee increases by 110,000 VND/student/month.

Autonomous schools increase according to roadmap

Also according to Decree 86, the tuition fee ceiling for the 2018-2019 school year for mass university training programs at public educational institutions that self-finance regular expenses and investment expenses applied to training sectors and majors in the fields of social sciences, economics, law; agriculture, forestry, and fisheries is 1.85 million VND/month/student.

Natural sciences; engineering, technology; physical education, sports, arts; hotel, tourism is 2.2 million VND/month/student. Medicine and pharmacy is 4.6 million VND/month/student.

Mr. Do Van Dung, principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, said that tuition fees will increase according to the prescribed schedule. Previously, the school announced the tuition fees for general university programs: 15 - 17 million VND/year; high-quality Vietnamese: 27 - 28 million VND/year; high-quality English: 30 million VND/year.

"Even though it is an autonomous school and collects tuition fees according to a schedule, this tuition fee is still not enough to cover current training costs," said Mr. Dung.

Hanoi University of Science and Technology has tuition fees for new full-time undergraduate students entering in 2018 (course 63) basically remaining stable compared to the previous course, except for tuition fees for some majors which have been adjusted to increase but ensure the average tuition fee is lower than the maximum average level approved by the Government according to Decision No. 1924/QD-TTg.

Tuition fees for mass university training range from 15-20 million VND/school year 2018-2019 depending on the training major.

Tuition fees for advanced programs are 1.3-1.5 times higher than the tuition fees for regular universities in the same field. Tuition fees for international training programs awarded by Hanoi University of Science and Technology are around 40-50 million VND/2018-2019 school year depending on the program.

From the 2020-2021 school year onwards, tuition fees will not increase by more than 10% compared to the tuition fees in the previous school year.

Currently, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine is still waiting for approval of the project on financial autonomy from the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. If approved, the school's tuition fee will be at most 4.4 VND/month/student.

This fee will depend on the industry, in which the highest fee for General Medicine (regular); Dentistry (regular); University Pharmacy; Regular Bachelor of Refractive Surgery is 4.4 million VND/month/student.

The three majors of Bachelor of Nursing (full-time); Bachelor of Nursing (VHVL); Bachelor of Medical Technology (full-time) are 3 million/month/student. The Bachelor of Medical Testing (full-time) is expected to be 3.6 million/month/student; The Bachelor of Public Health (full-time) alone is 2.5 million/month/student. A school leader said that the school is still in a "waiting" state so it cannot confirm.

Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry said that this year's tuition fee is still between 17 and 19 million VND/year/student depending on the major. Students will pay by credit and are divided into two types: theoretical and practical credits, so majors with less practice will have lower tuition fees. This tuition fee is also fixed throughout the course.

With a high-quality, international standard program, tuition fees range from 28 to 35 million/year/student and are fixed throughout the course. In addition, the school implements a college training program that commits to 100% employment in Japan with an estimated tuition fee of 18 million/year.

Previously, Ton Duc Thang University had only been approved for its autonomy project for the 2015-2017 period. According to the school representative, tuition fees for the new school year will increase slightly according to Decree 86, however, this is an increase according to the ceiling because many majors will be lower due to the dependence on the total number of credits in the training program.

For high-quality programs, the tuition ranges from 35 to 36 million/year of study, for business administration (Marketing Management), business administration (Restaurant - Hotel Management), and international business, it ranges from 44 to 45 million/year of study.

Dr. Le Viet Thuy, Deputy Head of Training Management Department of National Economics University, said that the tuition fee for the regular mass program of the school in the 2018-2019 school year is the lowest at 13.5 million VND/year and the highest at 18.5 million VND/year depending on the major.

The roadmap for increasing maximum tuition fees for each year will be implemented according to Decree No. 86/2015/ND-CP dated October 2, 2015 of the Government.

“The lowest tuition majors are the majors that we want to prioritize for enrollment and are in great social need, such as Information Technology, Economics, etc. Majors with high demand for study and admission such as Finance, Accounting, Marketing, International Business are at the highest level.

Candidates should note that for training/study programs in English (POHE, EBBA, EPMP, BBAE, etc.); advanced, high-quality training programs will have higher tuition fees. Therefore, candidates planning to enroll in these programs should pay attention, to avoid the unfortunate situation of realizing after being admitted that the tuition fee is beyond their family's financial capacity but there is no more opportunity to apply to other majors or other schools" - Mr. Thuy said.

Hanoi University of Industry also implements the mechanism for collecting and managing tuition fees according to the provisions of Decree 86 dated October 2, 2015 of the Government. The average maximum tuition fee for the 2018-2019 school year for the regular university program increased by 2 million VND compared to last year.

The maximum average tuition fee for the 2018-2019 school year is 16 million VND/student/school year. It is expected that for the 2019-2020 school year it will be 17.5 million VND/student/school year.

The University of Industry said it will calculate and publicize specific tuition fees for each group of majors, majors, and training programs before enrollment, ensuring that the average tuition fee (of mass programs) does not exceed the maximum average tuition fee of the school according to regulations.

The school also decided that the tuition fee ceiling for doctoral training level is 2.5 times; master's level is 1.5 times; college level is 0.8 times the above average maximum tuition fee. Tuition fee for continuing education training does not exceed 1.5 times the regular tuition fee for the same level of education and the same training group.

For students who enrolled before July 4, 2017, the school will collect tuition fees not exceeding 20% ​​of the tuition ceiling prescribed for mass university training programs at public educational institutions that have not secured regular and investment expenses as prescribed. The maximum increase in the following year will not exceed 30% of the previous year from July 4, 2017.