VietNamNet Bridge - Why do the agencies that are not involve in education and training try to keep for themselves a number of colleges and universities? Is the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) incompetent in management? This question is a very sensitive and not everyone wants to answer.

Many state "giants" have recently forced to divest investments from non-core industries under the guidance of the Government. The question is whether the education sector is related to non-core investment and does it need divestment?

Core and non-core investment

Many thought that ministries and sectors do not invest in non-core areas so they do not need to divest, particularly the education sector, with limited capital. It is just the issue of banks and corporations. To explore this matter, let’s see how other ministries and sectors invest in education and how the education sector invests outside?

According to the "List of public colleges and universities" published on May 3, 2013, Vietnam has 311 colleges and universities, including 181 colleges and 130 universities, not mentioning schools of the police and the army. Notably, these schools are managed by not only the Ministry of Education and Training but many other agencies that do not have the function of education and training (see the below table).

The number of colleges-universities and their management agencies:

Looking at the table, one can see that the MOET manages less than 13 percent of the total colleges and universities across the country. The Ministry of Industry and Trade holds almost 10 percent of the schools and the provincial authorities control up to 42.77 percent of the schools. Except for the schools under the aegis of the MOET and provinces, ministries and state agencies control 44 percent of all colleges, universities in Vietnam.

It's hard to imagine that the MOET only manages the leading universities in the field of industry in Vietnam like the Polytechnic University of Hanoi, the University of Technology of Ho Chi Minh City, the Polytechnic University of Da Nang while all other industrial universities are under the management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Similarly, the University of Pedagogics of Hung Yen and the University of Technical Pedagogics of Ho Chi Minh City are the subsidiaries of the Ministry of Education and Training, while the University of Technical Pedagogics of Nam Dinh and the University of Technical Pedagogics of Vinh are controlled by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs. Of the 36 teacher training colleges, the MOET only holds three schools. The remaining schools are under the aegis of local governments.

The process of economic restructure is taking place in parallel with the process of education reforms. The question is should ministries and state agencies are requested to “divest” from colleges and universities like state groups are doing with non-core investment?

Clearly, funding for education and training comes from the State budget, so the state agencies that do not have education and training functions do not want to hand over colleges and universities to the MOET. Furthermore, they benefit a lot from these schools, which will be discussed in the next part.

Although they do not have to invest in these schools with cash, these agencies have to invest by human resource mechanisms and policies, and is that non-core investment?

Why do these agencies want to keep schools? Is that because the MOET is incompetent in management? This question is a very sensitive and not everyone wants to answer.

Before explaining several reasons, we should see whether the MOET performs non-core investment or not? This relates to a "feature" - the title of professor and associate professor.

In Western countries, “professor” is not an academic title or a scientific title but a teaching position, which is usually decided by universities themselves. When a person who holds the Professor title does another job that is not teaching, they is no longer a professor. Only some of them are recognized as Honorary Professor.

In Vietnam, Professor and Associate Professor are considered the title conferred by the State. To be recognized as a professor or associate professor, candidates must pass three rounds of selection at the grassroots, the sectorial and the state levels.

Title should be replaced by position

The first round that candidate has to pass is the Grassroots Title Council. This council is associated with universities and research institutes. Obviously, holding some universities and research institutes is a major advantage for getting “title” of officials of the agencies that manage universities and colleges.

The statistics by the end of 2011 show that: Vietnam had 1,432 professors and 7,750 associate professors and about 70,000 lecturers at colleges and universities. However, the number of professors and associate professors who are university lecturers accounted for only 1 percent and 5 percent of the total number of lecturers.

In early 2013, this figure changed for the worse (according to the Communist Party of Vietnam online newspaper,) of 1,473 professors and 8,176 associate professors in the country, only 286 professors (0.5 percent) and 2,009 associate professors (3.37 percent) are lecturers of universities and colleges.

According to another survey, of 9,649 professors and associate professors in Vietnam in early 2013, only 2,295 were involved in teaching, accounting for 23.8 percent. The remaining professors and associate professors are not lecturers. Some of them only guided several students in writing thesis to meet standards of getting professor and associate professor titles for the entire life.

Professor and associate professor are the “specialty” of the education and training sector. With 76.2 percent of professors and associate professors who do not work in the education sector, the MOET has invested in “non-core” fields.

The MOET loses the control of the process of granting the professor and associate professor title because it manages less than 13 percent of the total of colleges and universities in Vietnam, meaning that it manages less than 13 percent of the Grassroots Title Councils.

One more thing should probably be alerted right now, is according to the Higher Education Law, local governments will have representatives to the Board of Directors of non-public universities. The appearance of professors and associate professors who are local officials is entirely foreseeable. By then the number of professors and associate professors that need to retire the titles is not only one third as Professor Hoang Tuy identified.

Through three rounds from the grassroots to the state levels, each year Vietnam will have several hundred people that will qualify and will wait for being appointed by universities and academies as professors and associate professors. The number of people waiting for the titles will be longer and longer and corruption will surely happen. Why don’t we do one thing that we know for sure will bring about consequences?

Why do we have up to 7,354 professors and associate professors who do not teach anyone? Why do we have to recognize professors and associate professors who then are not appointed by universities? It is time to abolish the concept of "titles" to replace by "position." The three step process should be implemented, as follows:

- Universities and institutes based on their training needs to recruit professors and associate professors.

- The list of selected candidates will be evaluated by the national accreditation council.

- Universities and institutes appoint those who have been recognized.

Doing this means putting an end to the “inflation” of professors and associate professors and reduce the number of professors and associate professors who are not lecturers.

Of course the best way is to give schools autonomy, at that time professors and associate professors will have their names associated with the name of the schools that they are appointed.

If education reform does not come with withdrawing colleges and universities from the agencies that are not involved in education and training and the change of the professor and associate professor title granting process, Vietnam’s higher education will be forever underdeveloped.

Duong Xuan Thanh