As universities accelerate their path to financial autonomy, tuition fees for the 2025-2026 school year at many public schools are expected to increase sharply, causing many candidates and parents to worry about the financial burden. However, along with the trend of increasing tuition fees, many training institutions have proactively expanded their scholarship policies, financial support, and preferential loans to share the burden with learners.
Tuition fees increase sharply
In 2025, Saigon University announced its enrollment plan with many new points, including opening 4 more training majors and adjusting tuition fees to increase by about 1.5 times compared to previous courses, raising the tuition fee for the 4-year program from 65.8 - 70.1 million VND/course to 92 - 129 million VND/course, while the 4.5-year program increased from 87 - 147 million VND/course to 150 - 167 million VND/course. This plan has been submitted to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and will only apply to the 2025 enrollment course if approved, without affecting students of previous courses.
At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City Open University announced that the tuition fee for the standard program ranges from 24 to 28.5 million VND/year, with the highest technology and engineering majors and the lowest social and humanities majors, while the high-quality program has a tuition fee of 46.5 million VND/year, with the Computer Science , Construction Engineering Technology, Management Information Systems and Information Technology majors up to 49.5 million VND/year.
Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics (UEH) also announced that tuition fees in 2025 will increase by more than VND200,000/credit compared to 2024, with the Vietnamese language program at VND1.1 - 1.3 million/credit, and the English and practice programs at 1.2 - 1.4 times higher. The school committed to increasing by no more than 10%/year.
In 2025, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Ho Chi Minh City National University) will apply tuition fees based on credits with the following formula: Tuition fee = Number of converted credits × Unit price of tuition fee/credit.
Tuition fees for the 2025-2026 school year range from 14.46 - 33.8 million VND/year, specifically for the Religious Studies, Philosophy, Geography, History, Russian, Spanish, and Italian language groups, it is about 16.65 million VND/year; for the Sociology, Linguistics, Cultural Studies, Office Administration, and Social Work groups, it is about 24.26 million VND/year; for the Psychology, Journalism, International Relations, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese language groups, it is about 29.84 million VND/year. The international training program at this school has a tuition fee of 60 million VND/year.
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University) announced tuition fees from 30 to 80 million VND/year, with standard, talented, high-quality engineering programs from Vietnam to France at 30 million VND/year, transfer or Japanese-oriented programs at 60 million VND/year, advanced programs and English-taught programs at 80 million VND/year, and for the first time implementing an international engineering bachelor's joint program with tuition fees of 256 million VND/year.
Unlike the trend of increasing tuition fees at many schools, Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy keeps tuition fees the same as in 2024, ranging from 30 - 84.7 million VND/year, of which the highest is Dentistry (84.7 million VND/year), Medicine (82.2 million VND/year), Pharmacy (60.5 million VND/year), Traditional Medicine, Preventive Medicine, Pharmaceutical Chemistry (50 million VND/year)...
Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine maintains two tuition levels of 41.8 million VND and 55.2 million VND/year, equivalent to the previous year, for the majors of Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Traditional Medicine at the highest level. The school commits to increasing no more than 10%/year in the future.
The adjustment of tuition fees of universities is currently carried out according to Decree 97/2023/ND-CP of the Government amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree 81/2021/ND-CP dated August 27, 2021 of the Government regulating the mechanism of collecting and managing tuition fees for educational institutions in the national education system and policies on tuition exemption, reduction, support for learning costs; service prices in the field of education and training.
Of which, non-autonomous public schools have maximum tuition fees of 15.2 - 31.1 million VND/year (an increase of 1.7 - 3.5 million VND); autonomous schools have regular expenditures of 30.4 - 62.2 million VND/year (an increase of 3.4 - 7 million VND); autonomous schools have both regular and investment expenditures of 38 - 77.75 million VND/year (an increase of 4.25 - 8.75 million VND).
Share the financial burden
In the context of tuition fees at public universities in Ho Chi Minh City increasing sharply in 2025, many parents are facing significant financial pressure. Ms. Le Thi Thanh (47 years old, Long Binh ward, Dong Nai province), could not hide her anxiety when her daughter was waiting for the results of the admission exam to the Law major at Ho Chi Minh City University of Law with an estimated tuition fee of 39 - 47 million VND/year for the general program and 79 - 181 million VND/year for the high-quality program taught in English.
With an average family income, Ms. Thanh wonders if she can afford it, especially when adding the high cost of living in Ho Chi Minh City. “In addition to tuition fees, I also have to worry about housing and food for my children. I just hope that the school and the government have practical support policies,” she said, adding that she is looking into scholarship programs or preferential loans for her studies.
To support students, many universities have implemented practical policies. Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade has allocated more than VND55 billion for scholarships and student support for the 2025-2026 school year, an increase of nearly VND8 billion compared to the previous year.
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hoan - Principal of the school said that the school also has a policy of reducing 50% of the first semester tuition fees for new students in majors such as Thermal Engineering, Nutrition and Culinary Science, Textile Technology, Fashion and Textile Business, and Natural Resources and Environmental Management.
At the University of Finance and Marketing in Ho Chi Minh City, MSc. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung - Deputy Head of Admissions and Business Relations Department, shared that the school will spend 50.5 billion VND on scholarships, supporting students with preferential policies, high entrance scores, difficult circumstances, or talents, with scholarships to encourage learning, light up dreams and from businesses.
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education has allocated at least VND60 billion for incentive and support scholarships, while Ho Chi Minh City Open University has announced 4,000 scholarships worth more than VND40 billion for excellent students, students with difficulties or those who strive to study. Ho Chi Minh City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology has implemented a scholarship policy for 2025 specifically for new students with a total value of VND46 billion.
In addition to scholarship packages, universities also cooperate with financial institutions or social organizations to implement preferential loan policies. The University of Technology (Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City) cooperates with businesses and alumni to implement a 0% interest loan guarantee program for new students. Previously, after 7 semesters, the program disbursed 1,349 loans worth more than 25 billion VND.
Notably, Ho Chi Minh City National University and Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) signed a cooperation program, providing a loan limit of 50 billion VND for full-time students at 8 member schools of this university. Students can borrow a maximum loan of 30 million VND/semester, 50 million VND/year, no need for collateral, simple procedures and no requirement for proof of income.
The program's breakthrough is reflected in the 5.5% unsecured loan interest rate policy. However, students only need to pay 2% interest per year; the difference of 3.5% is paid by the University Development Fund from sponsorship from businesses.
Associate Professor Dr. Vu Hai Quan - Director of Ho Chi Minh City National University assessed that the program will help students feel secure in studying with an interest rate of only 2%. "This figure is both practical support and helps students form a sense of responsibility for their loans," Mr. Quan shared.
Associate Professor Dr. Vu Hai Quan said that although there is a loan policy from the Social Policy Bank, this model still has many limitations such as complicated procedures, requiring parents to be named, low loan amounts, and interest rates that are not really preferential. In fact, the number of students accessing capital is decreasing, while tuition and living expenses are increasing.
Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/no-luc-chia-se-ganh-nang-voi-nguoi-hoc-post743896.html
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