On August 9, speaking at the 2024 higher education conference held in Hanoi, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that the main topic of this conference revolved around the keyword "quality".

“The topic is very old, but it will follow us for a long time, that is the story of quality. The focus is on quality, the first issue to discuss is quality, the issue to discuss thoroughly is quality and the issue to pay attention to in the coming time is also quality. We implement and enhance autonomy for quality, innovation is also for quality,” said the Minister.

According to the Minister, many major challenges are facing Vietnam's higher education system. The first is the challenge of global competition for the higher education system. That is the increasingly fierce competition in attracting lecturers, attracting students, competing for rankings, attracting investment and even social influence. Vietnam currently has more than 200,000 students studying abroad and we accept competition, considering it as a driving force for development, innovation and quality improvement.

Along with that is the challenge of great expectations, the entrustment, the expectation of the Party, the State, the people, enterprises, and society on higher education that is increasingly greater. Increasing expectations are a pressure. Next is the challenge of providing an increasingly large, diverse and increasingly high-quality human resource for an economy with many unique characteristics like Vietnam's economy. "Vietnam's economy has a very large proportion of FDI enterprises. Foreign enterprises coming to invest in Vietnam are mostly in new fields, or not available in Vietnam. Their question is whether there is human resources and we are always at a disadvantage because the human resources do not meet the requirements," said the Minister.

Therefore, Vietnam's higher education needs to fully understand the challenge of meeting the human resources needs of FDI enterprises, the challenge of training human resources in semiconductor technology and cutting-edge technology is an example. "If we can meet the demand for semiconductor microchip human resources, we will eliminate the negative view of society that training does not meet the demand - creating new trust with society, we need to overcome this challenge", the Minister shared with universities.

Regarding enrollment, Minister Nguyen Kim Son said that higher education is facing the challenge of innovating enrollment to match the entire innovation from general education to higher education. The 2025 high school graduation exam has many innovations. Universities need to be more responsible for general education. “Our early admission has a negative impact on general education in the final stage of this level, so it needs to be considered in the coming time. Students who are admitted early will not study anymore in the second semester; universities are only assured that the number of students who will be admitted to their schools will be very small, the benchmark score will be very high, creating inequality in the opportunity for candidates to enter good universities. The Ministry of Education and Training will consider including it in next year's enrollment orientation,” the Minister commented.

The Minister also noted that there should not be too many admission options, the simpler the better, convenient for students and society. “Universities have a high level of autonomy in admissions, but that does not mean they can do whatever they want. Autonomy is autonomy within the framework of regulations. For this reason, the Ministry of Education and Training can increase some frameworks and sanctions to regulate admissions next year. Autonomy but must promote social responsibility,” the Minister emphasized.

Concluding the conference, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son said that in the coming time, higher education needs to focus on quality, shifting from quantity to quality, because only by maintaining and improving quality can we continue to improve quantity. Recently, the number and scale of enrollment have been guaranteed, proving that society's trust in higher education has increased. "Do not worry about quantity, the source of enrollment in the coming time is abundant, our responsibility is to ensure quality, thereby improving the thinking of learners, from form to substance and efficiency", the Deputy Minister of Education and Training stated. In particular, it is necessary to pay special attention to the issue of training and improving the quality of the teaching staff.

Regarding enrollment, the Deputy Minister assigned the Department of Higher Education to urgently coordinate to draft the enrollment regulations for 2025 as soon as possible, in order to simplify, ensure quality as well as fairness for candidates. Schools should implement autonomy but should not have a negative impact on general education, but should have a more positive impact on general education; attention should be paid to diverse enrollment as well as early enrollment at present...

PHAN THAO