Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam relieves 'fear' of autonomous universities

On September 30, in Hanoi, the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges held a workshop on “University autonomy and social responsibility” with the participation of hundreds of universities across the country. Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam attended and delivered a speech.

Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam speaks at the workshop. Photo: Pham Thinh-VTC

Speaking at the workshop, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam emphasized that innovation is a continuous process. Vietnam regularly innovates education, but considering the world trend and the current state of education in the country, the Central Committee issued Resolution 29. When reviewing the process of building Resolution 29, it can be seen that the country's education has achieved many results, in which general education has many more positive points.

There are many indicators that indicate that higher education has “problems”, such as the number of bachelors and masters graduates who are unemployed. Of course, this problem depends on the socio-economic situation, but clearly there are also problems with the quality of training, the Deputy Prime Minister affirmed.

In fact, the issue of university autonomy in Vietnam has been raised for a long time and was piloted 10 years ago for Hanoi National University and Ho Chi Minh City National University. However, it is regrettable that this issue has not been further promoted and has not achieved the set expectations. "The main reason for the slow progress of autonomy is that most people misunderstand it in the financial direction, worrying that if the state stops providing money, there will be no money for regular spending" - the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam mentioned three notable issues, first, professional autonomy, teaching and research related to state management. Previously, the State had many "hand-holding" tasks, but now it has been resolved, and recently, schools have been given more autonomy.

Second, autonomy in organizational structure and personnel. Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to fundamentally remove the issues related to innovation in public service. In the education sector, the current number of staff is self-sufficient, and people have the right to recruit as many more as they want without being bound by the need to request a human resource plan.

Third, about financial autonomy. In countries like Germany and France, there are many autonomous universities, but the state still provides funding. That means autonomy does not mean the state no longer provides funding.

So what is autonomy? The Deputy Prime Minister stated that university leaders should get rid of the fear that if they are autonomous, they will no longer receive investment from the state.

“I affirm that autonomy does not mean that the State does not invest, but only changes the way of investing. Registering for autonomy not only brings benefits to oneself but also helps to remove the barrier between public and private sectors. Instead of the State providing teachers' salaries, when civil servants feel secure in that position, now use that money to provide scholarships for students who are policy beneficiaries or from poor families. Or the State continues to invest more resources for scientific research, but the State does not immediately cut off investment resources for the university sector” – the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam also said that the Government is drafting a Decree in the direction of basically giving autonomous universities full authority but changing the governance model, the governing body reduces administrative intervention by first appointing a temporary school council (6 months, 1 year). During that time, the school council elects the principal, vice principal, and leadership body in the school.

The Deputy Prime Minister expressed that university reform is more difficult than business reform because it involves people. Therefore, in the coming time, we need to be more responsible and more determined./.

According to the Communist Party of Vietnam