In addition, there are hundreds of junior colleges (3-year training) and intermediate schools (2-year).

These include prestigious schools, such as the Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi Pharmaceutical University in the north. The HCMC Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University are the best known schools in the south.

The schools are under different governing bodies. The Hanoi Medical University, for example, is under the management of the Ministry of Health. Other schools belong to the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).

Nguyen Van Tuan from Garvan Institute in Australia commented that the system of medical schools in Vietnam is unlike any other in the world.

“This is not seen anywhere else in the world,” he said. 

These include prestigious schools, such as the Hanoi Medical University, Hanoi Pharmaceutical University in the north. The HCMC Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University are the best known schools in the south.

The expert went on to say that it is difficult to re-organize the medical training system and health sciences in Vietnam, because the medical school system in Vietnam is a mixture of French organization, and American (in the south) and Russian (in the north) styles. 

Hoang Ngoc Vinh, former director of the Professional Education Department under MOET, said in order to reorganize medical schools, it is necessary to consider socio-economic development policies, and determine the needs of human resources for health care at different levels and in different training majors.

“The demand for physicians is very high in communes because of limited training and unfavorable working conditions. State-owned schools set very high requirements on students,” Vinh noted.

He suggested that for higher education, it would be better to reorganize schools by region. For junior colleges and intermediate schools, it would be better to reorganize schools by locality to form community junior colleges which include medical and other faculties.

Meanwhile, Le Truong Tung, president of FPT University, thinks the medical school system should be determined by market demand.

“No need to rearrange the medical school system. There are only a few prestigious schools in HCMC and Hanoi. HCMC and southern provinces have only two schools – Pham Ngoc Thach and HCMC Medical and Pharmaceutical University,” Tung said.

“There are very few schools that provide medical training. Therefore, the most important thing that needs to be done is improving the quality of students, and joining forces with localities and hospitals to improve training quality, not rearrange schools,” he commented.

Mai Lan 

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