University education network planning: Necessary but not sufficient

The Prime Minister has just issued a decision on planning the university and pedagogical education network. Education experts agree but still have many concerns about the content of the plan.

Director of Ho Chi Minh City National University Vu Hai Quan said that university education planning needs to be linked to the development strategies of schools. In the photo: a laboratory of Ho Chi Minh City National University - Photo: Ho Chi Minh City National University

* Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Hai Quan (Director of Ho Chi Minh City National University):

Planning should be more open.

The planning of the university education network is an effort of the Ministry of Education and Training to restructure and promote the development of university education. However, I think that this planning should have some open points, linked to the development strategy of universities.

First are key universities. I think the initial list is reasonable. However, there should be an open policy for other universities that are not yet key universities. In the process of development, if universities make investments to improve, they should also be evaluated as key investments.

This means that the list of key universities can change over time and is not fixed. Only then can schools be encouraged to improve their quality in all aspects, thereby improving the quality of the system. Mechanisms for ordering and fair competition, whichever school produces better results will be assigned.

Another point I think is that planning needs to be linked to the development strategies of schools, especially large universities. For example, the development strategy of Ho Chi Minh City National University in the period 2020-2025 invests in developing biotechnology, artificial intelligence, semiconductor microchip technology and interdisciplinary science .

However, in the planning, the construction was assigned to Ho Chi Minh City National University. Construction is also a strong field of Ho Chi Minh City National University but it is not linked to our development strategy. Ho Chi Minh City National University is the leading training center in the country in science and technology, not just in the field of construction.

* Dr. Le Dong Phuong (former director of the Center for Higher Education Research, Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, Ministry of Education and Training):

Balancing university development in regions

I participated in about half of the process of building this plan. The highlight of this plan is the balance of investment in university development between regions, especially in areas with low access to higher education. Therefore, if investment is implemented according to this plan, higher education will have a harmonious development, ensuring many goals of human resource development, social development, and national security.

This will contribute to the overall development of the society in these areas. Moreover, this plan is also the first official document establishing a key university system. This is an effort of the Ministry of Education and Training to develop the university education system.

However, there are many other urgent social issues that have not been mentioned. For example, the vocational education system has been transferred to the Ministry of Education and Training, but the planning does not mention it at all.

In reality, education at all levels is closely related to each other. Although key fields and universities have been identified, hot issues of social development have not been mentioned. For example, building nuclear power plants, developing high-speed railways, metro systems, semiconductor chips, etc. are hot development issues that require a lot of human resources.

Thus, it can be seen that this planning has not kept up with the development of society in recent years. State management policies have also changed, including the transfer of two national universities to the Ministry of Education and Training. However, the way the text is presented can easily cause misunderstandings. Another notable point is that the mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the planning has not been mentioned.

* Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh (education expert):

Need to plan "raw material sources" for universities

Planning for the development of higher education therefore needs to be harmonized and fully evaluated from general education - vocational education - higher education. I see that this planning only focuses on higher education without mentioning the "raw material source" for this level of training.

We have seen how ineffective sugar factory planning was in the past. Only planning sugar factories without raw material areas led to sugar factories being built but not having enough raw materials to operate.

Another point that needs attention that this plan has not mentioned is the planning of training sectors to avoid overlap and imbalance, causing waste. In the context of promoting university autonomy, schools compete to open sectors that society is interested in. This leads to imbalance and overlap and can leave long-term consequences for learners.

There was a time when universities grew rapidly in number. Planning higher education in association with regional development was necessary. However, there are some indicators such as the number of students per 10,000 people, public schools accounting for 70% of the training scale that I find a bit forced and without specific solutions.

In the context of the State encouraging the socialization of education and the development of private universities, is it okay to limit the training scale to 30% by 2030? What is the specific solution to this problem and how the State budget invests are issues that need to be clarified.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/quy-hoach-mang-luoi-giao-duc-dai-hoc-can-nhung-chua-du-20250305100749648.htm