Ministry of Education and Training admits that universities still face difficulties and have to "cut their coat according to their cloth" despite tuition increase

Tuition does not cover training costs

According to the Ministry of Education and Training at the 2024 university conference held on August 9 in Hanoi, although tuition fees are implemented according to the price mechanism prescribed in the Law on Prices, the Lawon Education and Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW, the tuition fee framework and level are still too low, not enough to cover training costs.

In addition, the decision to increase the basic salary from 1.8 million VND to 2.34 million VND (an increase of 30%) from July 1st has caused the annual salary fund of units to increase, causing difficulties in balancing revenue sources to maintain regular operations and improve training quality.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) said that state budget investment in higher education (HE) has been on a downward trend in recent years. Many public HEIs do not have enough financial resources to cover training costs (salaries, direct costs, management costs, fixed asset depreciation costs) and reinvest to improve training quality.

Tuition fees of public higher education institutions are still slow to be adjusted to ensure adequate cost recovery according to the prescribed roadmap, thus affecting the financial autonomy of higher education institutions.

The annual regular budget continues to be cut, causing difficulties for units. Meanwhile, tuition fees have not been able to fully cover training costs because increasing tuition fees will affect social security, so schools still set tuition fees that do not fully cover costs, which also affects the unit's revenue.

Schools still have to collect tuition fees according to state regulations, but the low fees cause difficulties for the units.

While the salary level must be implemented according to the prescribed scale, the content of the expenditure level must comply with state regulations, especially for schools with no income or low income, leading to difficult lives for staff and teachers.

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter, Prof. Dr. Chu Duc Trinh, Principal of the University of Technology (Vietnam National University, Hanoi ), said that although tuition fees have increased this year according to the roadmap, along with the increase in basic salary, in the 7 months from now until the end of the year, the school needs to spend about 12 billion VND more to increase salaries for lecturers. This puts a lot of pressure on not only this school but also on the leaders of other schools.

"Cut your coat according to your cloth"

Faced with the difficulty of increasing salaries and low tuition revenue, according to Professor Trinh, schools must "cut their coat according to their cloth", and all parties involved must share together. Specifically, schools share with students' families through cost-saving measures and increased management measures. Students consider this a source of future investment.

Professor Trinh said that the school cannot increase tuition fees too much because it would be against regulations and put pressure on students' families, while lecturers' salaries must increase according to the roadmap.

The school currently has about 300 official lecturers and about 100 invited lecturers from outside. Given this situation, some plans that were scheduled to be implemented this year will have to be postponed to next year to save capital for salary increases.

"The salary increase is very heavy for the school. In the past, we had to compete for good lecturers, especially in technology and engineering fields...

If they want to make a living, the salaries of these industries must be relative to what businesses are paying, for example, businesses pay them 10, schools must try to pay them 8 to feel secure enough to stay.

If schools only pay around 3.4, it will be difficult to retain lecturers. This is a problem that weighs heavily on the shoulders of leaders of both public and private schools.

So our solution is to try to use the budget effectively, increase salaries for lecturers but student tuition increases slowly," said Professor Trinh.

In terms of training, the school will prioritize investment in lecture materials, training programs, practice equipment, effective management, and experimental equipment.

For some other costs related to facilities, the school must consider choosing an effective solution instead of a beautiful one. "Therefore, costs such as: a beautiful school, beautiful seats, a beautiful management system... must be saved, not implemented in a hurry and waited for time," said Professor Trinh.