Comments on the draft Law on Higher Education

On March 2nd, 2011, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities held a meeting with the National Assembly's survey team to gather feedback on the second draft of the Law on Higher Education.The survey team was led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Van Hoc - Vice Chairman of the Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, and Children - and its members included: Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nga - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Education, Youth, and Children; Mr. Nguyen Van Tuyet - Standing Member of the Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, and Children; Mr. Hoang Van Loi - Specialist in the Department of Culture, Education, Youth, and Children; and Ms. Dang Thu Hang - Specialist in the Department of Culture, Education, Youth, and Children. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Duc Nghieu - Vice Rector of the University - along with representatives from the leadership of various faculties and functional departments, directly exchanged and discussed with the team. Summarizing the feedback on the draft, the majority of comments suggested that regardless of the development model, the autonomy of each university must be the top priority. All opinions unanimously affirmed that the higher the level of autonomy and accountability, the more it will overcome inertia and increase the dynamism of the university's leadership. Along with that, the structure and organization of the University Council in public and private higher education institutions must follow general regulations but also possess a certain degree of independence. Professor Tran Tri Doi (Faculty of Linguistics) believes that the draft law still lacks regulations to regulate the behavior of the subjects that need to be regulated. He particularly noted the issue of language use in higher education, emphasizing the need for clear regulations on the use of Vietnamese. Professor Do Quang Hung (Department of Political Science) stressed several points, such as: Chapter II of the draft law, when introducing the subject – higher education institutions – still lacks political and social organizations. And the most important aspect of autonomy for a university is curriculum structure, financial autonomy, and human resource autonomy. According to Professor Do Quang Hung, the issue of international cooperation also needs clear regulations. In addition, Professor Dang Xuan Khang, Head of the Personnel and Organization Department, suggested that the draft should standardize the ranks of civil servants and adjust the salary scales for greater fairness. Furthermore, many other specific suggestions regarding terminology, concepts in the draft, and issues related to quality accreditation, diplomas, certificates, finance, and assets were also presented in detail at the meeting. Thirty out of 450 universities and colleges will directly contribute their opinions to the draft Law on Higher Education. The University of Social Sciences and Humanities is one of two units under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi, that will provide feedback on this draft law. The National Assembly will give its first opinion on the draft Law on Higher Education in July.