In recent times, autonomy has helped Vietnamese higher education develop dramatically. However, many schools are no longer interested in registering for autonomy. Once autonomy is implemented, the regular budget will be cut while tuition has not increased, leading to certain difficulties.

“Throwing stones to find the way”

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vo Thi Thuy Anh - Chairwoman of The University of Danang-University of Economics (UD-DUE) commented: "One of the common difficulties of universities implementing autonomy is that the related legal framework is incomplete. Currently, the university is governed by legal documents related to autonomous and non-autonomous universities. Autonomy regulations for the model of member universities of national and regional universities are also incomplete. This overlap somewhat causes certain difficulties for the university during its operations”.

Specifically, to open a new major, autonomous universities must follow the same procedures as non-autonomous ones. Or if the school wants to invite experts from businesses to teach some contents in the training program, whether it is an autonomous or non-autonomous school, it must comply with regulations on visiting lecturers requiring a pedagogical certificate... However, not every expert can meet this requirement and even if the university has autonomy, it cannot "tear the fence".

UD-DUE

soon piloted the university autonomy

According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu – UD’s President, implementing university autonomy in recent times still has some problems. The legal system is not synchronized and inconsistent to give more autonomy to higher education institutions.

Some universities practice autonomy in many fields, but some regulations must be followed like non-autonomous schools. For example, tuition policies have not kept up, autonomous universities are not allowed to increase tuition. The tax policy of autonomous universities is not clear. Regulations on investment, and procurement... in autonomous universities are also bound by the same regulations as non-autonomous ones.

These problems can easily lead to a fear of autonomy in universities that have not yet implemented it. According to President of the University of Danang (UD), university autonomy is currently a process of "throwing stones to find the way". Many universities are no longer interested in registering for autonomy.

UD President and Chairman of UD Council for Junior Professor title

congratulated aand honored new Associate Professors

Need to consider specificity

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Vu affirmed that it is necessary to take university autonomy as the key step, the "breakthrough point" in perfecting higher education legal policies. However, according to UD President, when completing the legal policy on university autonomy, it is necessary to pay attention to the specific characteristics of universities.

Workshop on commenting on the Draft Project of promoting university autonomy organized by the Ministry of Education and Training

at UD-University of Science and Technology

Currently, higher education institutions cannot appoint scientific titles (research institutes/subjects...) due to being too old or requiring intermediate political qualifications like normal officials... Procedures and documents applying for work permits for international experts and volunteers face many difficulties. Meanwhile, attracting famous and experienced scientists abroad after retiring to participate in teaching and research benefits the university in many aspects.

According to President Nguyen Ngoc Vu, it was necessary to be taken into account when perfecting the policy on university autonomy as ownership. This would be the decisive factor in the nature and method of university governance. For private universities that are invested by foreigners, assets belong to shareholders, capital contributors, and investors. The right to manage and make decisions completely belongs to the owners, so the authority of the Rectorate Board and University Council is very large.

The 10^th Vietnam Mathematics Conference

held at UD-University of Science and Education

attracted many leading scientists and mathematicians

But for public universities, even though they are given autonomy in regular spending and investing, the land, assets, and people belong to the State, so they still are controlled by State Audit department. Therefore, eliminating the role of the ministry is a big problem that needs to be researched, piloted, and evaluated.

"In Vietnam, organizations and universities are all under the leadership of the Party organization. The Party Committee performs leadership and supervision functions with a full apparatus strictly organized according to the Party's regulations. Therefore, is it necessary for the university council to have leadership and supervision functions?” shared President Nguyen Ngoc Vu.

The launching ceremony of the Innovation Space

at UD- University of Science and Technology with mobility resources from businesses