VietNamNet Bridge – Many university graduates are attending postgraduate training courses to obtain master’s degrees because it is easier than ever to obtain the degree.

A lecturer at a prestigious university in Hanoi said:  “You just need to pay money to attend postgraduate training courses and then… receive the degree.”

“Universities nowadays enroll postgraduates in large quantity. Therefore, no need to worry that you may fail the entrance exam,” he said.

“And you don’t have to spend too much time on learning, because you will surely pass the final exams if you pay money,” he added. “You just have to be present at the roll call”.

Under current regulations, training establishments have the right to train master’s within the “quota” granted to them by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). It is the establishments which raise entrance exam questions, prepare examinees for the exam and mark exam papers.

The lecturer said the schools are very “diligent” in training masters, because the training is their “bread earner”.

People have high demand for master’s degrees, especially those who cannot find jobs after university graduation.

Nguyen Thi Dung, who has been jobless since graduating from journalism school, insists on obtaining a master degree, despite her parents’ disagreement.

“They (the parents) told me that for journalists, practical experience is more useful than theoretical knowledge. But I think I’d better study than be idle,” she said.

While Dung decided to return to school as a solution to kill time, Nguyen Quang Hung, a graduate of the Hanoi University of Education in 2013, said he wants a master’s degree to catch up his classmates who are attending postgraduate courses.

Hung has to pay tuition of VND32 million for four semesters of training.He, like other learners, also has to pay many other kinds of fees, official and under-the-table.

Pham Tat Dong, secretary general of the Vietnam Society of Study Encouragement, said that it was a blunder to waste too much money to train master’s candidates.

“It is really a wrong to try to produce as many master’s degrees as possible,” he said.

“It is a big waste of money to produce redundant university graduates, and it is even a bigger waste to produce redundant masters,” he said, adding that many university graduates now have to go to vocational school to practice their skills.

According to Tran Van Hung, Headmaster of Saigontourist, which specializes in providing training courses on tourism and hotel services, about 30 percent of the total of 600 learners at the school have university and junior college degrees. Many have masters degrees.

“Though they have higher education degrees, they remain unemployed. Therefore, they think they should try other careers,” Hung explained.

KT&DT