[VOV2] System restructuring - Opportunity for Vietnamese higher education to make a breakthrough

Re-planning the university network is an opportunity for development.
According to Prof. Dr. Chu Duc Trinh, Rector of VNU University of Technology: In recent times, we have vigorously exploited geographical advantages, signed cooperation agreements with international partners, and especially we have fully exploited the strength of Vietnamese people. But if we look back, we still rely on cheap labor resources associated with simple jobs, at the assembly level.
Therefore, in the coming time, with the goal of making a breakthrough, we must increase the average labor productivity of Vietnamese people, increasing the country's GDP. Professor Dr. Chu Duc Trinh believes that education and training, especially university education, plays an important role in determining the success of this goal.
According to Professor Chu Duc Trinh, we have invested a lot in university education. However, if we look at it from the perspective of demand, the current Vietnamese university education system is not developing commensurately. In the current public school system, investment in facilities is still weak and lacking, "the schools are not worthy of the schools we want, the classes are not worthy of the classes we want."
With the current economic potential of our country, it is certain that we must re-plan the university system, focusing on a number of focal points for investment and development. Of which, special attention should be paid to two major points: Training programs that meet the standards of skills and knowledge for each different level associated with the mission of universities. The second point with university education is to link the training mission with scientific research, thereby creating an environment, ability, and lifelong self-learning skills for students and workers.
According to Professor Dr. Chu Duc Trinh, in the coming time, it is necessary to drastically change the university system, focusing on building high-quality university education facilities that can be compared with universities in countries in the region and the world.

Resolution 71 sets the goal that in the coming time, some Vietnamese universities must be in the world's top 100. According to Professor Chu Duc Trinh: if we take drastic measures this time, our country will have Vietnamese universities ranked higher than 50, even 20 in the world. When we invest in key areas, we will have a leading university education institution and this excellent institution will lead the development of the country's science and technology.
Professor Chu Duc Trinh assessed that the implementation of the requirement to re-plan the university education network will certainly affect schools nationwide, but we must consider this an opportunity for us to develop.
Regarding the implementation of Resolution No. 71 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in education and training development, including the arrangement and reorganization of the university education system, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duc Son, Rector of Hanoi National University of Education, acknowledged: Universities in Vietnam have developed quite spontaneously in different fields and sectors for many years. There are many training schools for some fields and vice versa. Having too many universities will disperse resources.
There are schools with only a few hundred lecturers, meaning that resources are not enough but they still try to train. This leads to a vicious circle of trying to have students to survive, which means low input, leading to low quality. Such dispersion and fragmentation does not bring good quality education. Therefore, re-arranging and planning the higher education system is necessary.
“I think this is considered a breakthrough for schools of higher caliber. Of course, the issue of human resource management will be linked to the scale. How to streamline the apparatus? How to arrange it effectively. That is the next step, but it will clearly create units that are large enough, competitive enough, and strong enough to reach out to the world. Therefore, I think this is a necessary step,” Mr. Son emphasized.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duc Son, there are also significant challenges as the schools currently exist differently and have their own limitations and difficulties. Now, if units merge together in an unreasonable way, for example, or if they cannot resolve organizational issues, it will lead to overload or non-smooth operations.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan - Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, said that the arrangement of universities in Vietnam at this time is necessary and appropriate when a number of key Resolutions on Education and Training have been issued by the Politburo, the Government has specified the action program and ministries and branches have specified related activities.

According to Professor Hoang Anh Tuan, the development of universities over the past 20 years has revealed many shortcomings, not only in relation to the spirit of leanness, compactness, and strength of the entire national political system, but also completely out of sync with the development trend of world universities. Therefore, the rearrangement of public universities in the direction of mergers to reduce the number of focal points to create larger, higher-quality university centers is in line with the trend and meets the goal. The problem is that higher education institutions need to thoroughly understand the general strategy and seriously implement the strategy being deployed by the Ministry of Education and Training - as concluded by Minister Nguyen Kim Son at the University Education Conference on September 18, 2025. Because the arrangement will bring many overall benefits, including:
The first:Eliminate the fragmentation in scale leading to fragmentation in quality, and the quality of training will directly affect the quality of human resources trained for the labor market - which is in dire need of a breakthrough in quality to serve the country in the new era of development (from knowledge, skills, digital and AI capacity, international languages, etc.)
Monday: We all know that the Central Government and Ministries/Sectors are placing great expectations on the mission of higher education institutions in the breakthrough development of science and technology. It will be very difficult to have good results if universities are scattered and fragmented because the investment resources for science and technology are inherently not abundant, and now they are divided into many units, making it difficult to create key programs/or steel fists in science and technology; while we all know that in order to form and operate high-level science and technology programs (such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, etc.), the investment requirements in resources (including human resources and funding) are very large, and need to be focused on...
Tuesday:The Central Government's restructuring policies in recent times have been very harmonious between principles and humanity, that is, they are strategic, formal, but always in harmony with human interests (which we can see very clearly from the story of the country's rearrangement over the past half year). Saying this so that groups and individuals at public universities can rest assured that the story of rearrangement will not be a matter of life and death for officials and workers, but will be for the betterment of all. Of course, the arrangement will involve some job positions, but some individual job positions will be very, very small compared to the overall benefits that the University, thousands of officials, tens of thousands of students will receive... That is not to mention the longer-term national benefits, which will appear after a few years when the scale of the schools is larger, the potential is stronger, the position is higher, the role is more prominent... And importantly: the new university centers will create new positions and forces to bring Vietnam's Education and Training - Science and Technology - Innovation - International Integration to new heights...
Principal Hoang Anh Tuan emphasized: "Personally, I as well as the leadership team of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities believe in the common strategy and are ready to work with the Vietnamese higher education system to adjust for a new development path."
Reorganizing the apparatus will bring many benefits.
The central government and ministries have set high expectations for the mission of university education in the breakthrough development of science and technology. It will be very difficult to achieve good development results if university education institutions are scattered and fragmented because the investment resources for science and technology, which are not abundant, are now fragmented, making it very difficult to complete key programs and to implement the steel fists of science and technology. As we know, to form and operate high-tech programs such as Artificial Intelligence and semiconductors, it requires a huge and concentrated investment in human resources and funding.
According to Professor Hoang Anh Tuan, the Central Government's restructuring policies in recent times have harmonized principles and humanity, which we can see clearly through the arrangement of administrative units and local governments. Saying this so that groups and individuals at public universities can rest assured about the arrangement.
Professor Hoang Anh Tuan has great confidence and expectations in the general strategy and is ready to work with the Vietnamese university education system to adjust for a new development path.

Regarding the policy of planning and merging universities to meet new requirements, Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh - Former Director of the Department of Vocational Education, Ministry of Education and Training, assessed it as necessary. According to Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh, the restructuring needs to be based on the following factors:
Firstly, it must be linked to the socio-economic development conditions and the demand for high-quality human resources in each economic region to determine the needs of industries, facilities, land funds, and teaching staff, especially balanced with input resources.
The issue of human resources and staff after the merger must be reasonable, at the same time, ineffective training majors with poor enrollment should be reduced to focus resources.
Private universities with training capacity in some fields should reduce the training scale of public universities to focus on saving resources.
The merger process needs a mechanism to protect the rights of students and lecturers, and should not be disrupted. After the merger, the training quality and output standards must be improved, and academic factors must be considered the core to develop a balanced and harmonious human resource in each roadmap associated with the country's short-term and long-term socio-economic development goals.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Duc - former Vice President of Hanoi National University said: The success of new universities depends on the management capacity of visionary and capable people. In his opinion, priority should be given to organizing multi-disciplinary universities, avoiding grouping schools in the same field, same ministry and same locality into one group.
It is necessary to consider when building a national university system whether it is necessary to have a "uniform" system including all major universities, or whether there should still be diversity, serving different segments, as long as it operates effectively.
Professor Nguyen Huu Duc believes that the reorganization of the university education system needs to be carried out synchronously, from design, roadmap and investment plan, as the Government is currently doing: drafting laws and preparing drafts, decrees, and accompanying instructions so that when the organization is completed, it can be put into practice to avoid the situation of having to wait for the investment mechanism for several years after establishment, which will lose the opportunity and inspiration for innovation.
Identifying this as an opportunity to innovate and improve quality, realizing the goals of the Party and State, the restructuring of the Higher Education system needs to be carried out by the education sector in a scientific and impartial manner for the quality of training, scientific research, for the quality of human resources and, more importantly, for a strong Vietnam in which the development of science and technology is considered the spearhead.

Related news:
President of Hanoi National University: Education is the key to turning intelligence into Vietnam National University, Hanoi
Seeking comments on the draft Decree regulating the construction, exploitation and use of open educational resources in higher education
Science and technology are the breakthrough spearhead of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in affirming the model of a smart, creative, and nation-building research university.
Enhancing and affirming the leading role of VNU and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Vietnamese higher education