On October 22, at a press conference on the socio-economic situation of the People's Committee of Binh Duong province, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Cuong - Chairman of the Board of Thu Dau Mot University - said that an official decision had been made to refund 37 billion VND in excess tuition fees to students.

Mr. Cuong said that the leaders of Binh Duong Provincial People's Committee have given instructions and the school has officially decided to refund tuition fees.

"The refund of tuition fees is also related to the budget and must be reviewed and calculated for each case in the large number of students, so the implementation must be careful. But the spirit is that the school will implement it immediately and complete it as soon as possible to harmonize and ensure the legitimate interests of the students," said Mr. Cuong.

The move to refund tuition fees is considered a measure to "correct" the case of "incorrectly collecting 37 billion VND in tuition fees but not paying students" at Thu Dau Mot University (a public school under the People's Committee of Binh Duong province).

According to the audit conclusion, the amount of 37 billion VND is the excess tuition fee collected for the two school years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 for practical credits.

At that time, Thu Dau Mot University multiplied the practical credits by a factor of 1.5 compared to the theoretical credits. However, the State Audit concluded that at that time the school was not financially autonomous, and the budget still covered tuition fees, so the calculation of tuition fees with practical credits was incorrect.

According to the explanation of Thu Dau Mot University, one theoretical credit is equivalent to 15 teaching hours, while one practical credit is equivalent to 30 teaching hours. That means the cost of teaching and facilities for practical teaching is twice that of theoretical teaching.

For practice credits, practice materials are consumed, while tuition fees according to Decree 86 of 2015 (applied when schools are not financially autonomous) are only general regulations.

Thu Dau Mot University is the largest public university in Binh Duong province, with about 20,000 students. Each course has about 4,000 people. From 2022, the school will begin to be financially independent in regular expenses.