Pham Hung Hiep, PhD, director of the Institute of Education Research and Knowledge Transfer at Thanh Do University, said it is true that a university lecturer can get a total annual income of billions of VND, but the number of such high income earners is modest.

“From my observations, only a few cases—sometimes just one or two, sometimes a few dozen—at major universities reach such income levels, and it requires an extremely high level of expertise,” Hiep said.

In addition to a fixed monthly salary, university lecturers can earn money from three sources – extra teaching, research, and knowledge transfer.

Universities try to raise the base salary for lecturers (along with ensuring the number of teaching hours and research output), so they might earn VND20-30 million per month.

Regarding additional lecturing (following international teaching programs), lecturers can be paid VND500,000-1,000,000 per session. Thus, lecturers who diligently teach in joint or international programs at undergraduate or master’s levels could earn VND200-300 million annually.

For research, top-tier universities might offer bonuses of VND50-100 million, even VND200 million, for an international article. 

Meanwhile, less-known schools offer lower bonuses: a Q1 article might only fetch VND10-40 million. If internationally published articles are implemented by many authors, the bonus for each of them is smaller.

According to Hiep, to earn billions of dong annually, lecturers must simultaneously meet many conditions. For instance, the schools where they work apply policies to give high awards for scientific articles (most of the schools are public self-determined universities, or private universities). In addition, they need to conduct research single-handedly from start to finish, and more.

Hiep noted that some lecturers might publish a large number of articles in certain years, achieving high income, but that’s often the result of efforts accumulated over many years.

“No lecturer or scientist can ‘burn bright’ for many years straight. For me, I could publish 15 articles in my peak year, but then it dropped to 7, and last year just 6. That 15-article year was built on years of prior work. Afterward, I couldn’t keep up that pace because I had to focus on quality. My university doesn’t reward excessive articles annually, and the bonuses aren’t substantial,” he said. 

“I think some might earn a few hundred million from research in a year, but those cases are very few,” Hiep said.

As for knowledge transfer, Hiep said this is reserved for only certain disciplines, where the market is very high, such as law, technology, or environmental processing. And the income is from external consulting contracts.

“Thus, only lecturers with real capability, high energy, and those working in fields with strong market demand might have a chance at earning a billion VND annually,” Hiep concluded.

The rector of a public university in HCMC said the money universities use to pay lecturers comes from student tuition. So, the schools that set high tuition pay more to lecturers and low-tuition ones pay less.

“Our school charges tuition as per state regulations, so we can’t pay professors and PhDs nearly VND100 million monthly. About 100 professors, associate professors, and PhDs here are public servants paid according to state regulations,” he said. 

“If there’s a surplus after covering expenses, we will provide additional income as regulated. What’s admirable is their dedication to the profession and the school for the common cause,” he said.

He added that 80-90 percent of university revenue in Vietnam currently comes from tuition. The question is what professors and PhDs have to do to deserve the high monthly pay of VND100 million and what responsibilities are placed on them.

He thinks that universities set KPI for lecturers, i.e., the achievements lecturers have to gain within a year, such as the targeted number of articles they have to publish, the number of students they advise, and how many periods they have to teach a year.

A rector in HCM City told VietNamNet that though his school still receives funding from the state, each PhD can earn at least VND25 million monthly. The average income for PhDs ranges from VND45-50 million monthly, and for professors and associate professors, VND50-60 million. Their average annual income is about VND600 million per person.

“At other schools, lecturers might get paid at year-end, but we pay every month,” he revealed.

Thanh Hung - Le Huyen