Deputy PM advises Delta to focus on human resource

CAN THO — Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan has called on Can Tho city and the 12 provinces in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta to tailor human-resource development plans to their economic strengths and potential.

Speaking at a meeting held in Can Tho last Saturday by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to discuss HR planning for the region for the next decade, Nhan said it must ensure the full potential is developed to turn the Delta into a key economic hub.

The region has nearly 18 million people and 10 million are of working age.

But the proportion of trained workers is low compared to other regions, according to the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) – 34 per cent have not completed primary school while 0.9 per cent have college diplomas and 2.1 per cent have university degrees. The national average for university degrees is 10 per cent of the workforce.

Nhan pointed out that though the Delta was the country's rice granary and had a major seafood industry, the enrolment rate in the agriculture and forestry faculties at universities was very low.

In fact, only 10.4 per cent of students in the region's 12 universities studied agriculture or forestry.

To put it in perspective, the rate was 31.7 per cent for economy, finance, and banking, he said.

To encourage students to study agriculture, forestry and some other unpopular streams like culture, physical training, and sports, Nhan said the universities should soon expand these faculties or set up universities and colleges dedicated to them.

More training

The MoET has said it will set up more schools to meet the target of increasing the rate of trained workers from the current 23.5 per cent to 45 per cent in 2015 and 60 per cent in 2020.

Local administrations have promised to set up 10-12 new universities, 22-24 colleges, and 10 vocational schools to ratio of college and university students to 2 per cent in 2020 compared to the current 0.85 per cent.

At the meeting, delegates said the region needed more architecture, law, culture, and technology universities and polytechnics.

It was also necessary to upgrade some existing institutions like the Tra Vinh Province Medical College, the Mien Tay Construction College into universities, they said.

Nhan ordered MoET and MPI to work with authorities in the region to make zoning plans for building universities, colleges, and vocational schools.

He also urged the region to report their HR plans by December 15 to the MPI, which would in turn report them to the Government by January. — VNS

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Higher education audit plagued by inexperience

HA NOI — More than 45 per cent of universities and colleges in the country have completed their educational quality self-assessment, but the project has experienced difficulties because of a lack of experience among those conducting the review.

A total of 185 out of more than 400 universities and colleges across the country have completed the self-assessment review. The Ministry of Education and Training plans that by 2015, 90 per cent of universities and colleges will have completed the work.

The self-assessment review started at the beginning of 2008, and is intended to improve university and college quality in terms of syllabus, facilities and student results.

However, most academic staff taking part in the survey claimed that the review was an unfamiliar process.

Head of the Educational Quality Examination and Verification Division under the Ha Noi Community College Pham Mai Hong said: "Most of the college's officials and teachers struggled because they didn't understand how to conduct a self-assessment."

Compiling accurate statistics also posed a problem.

Chu Thi Minh, deputy head of the Training Division of the Thai Nguyen College of Medicine, said that her college lacked post-graduate employment figures, and feedback on teaching materials.

Another official, Nguyen Van Minh, from the Ha Noi Foreign Trade University, said the university also met difficulties in compiling the necessary data.

"Despite having received training, university departments still thought that the collection of data was the work of the quality verification centres and had failed to compile the necessary figures," he said.

Pham Xuan Thanh, deputy director of the Department of Educational Quality Examination and Verification, said that the quality audit was a new experience for the country, and the department only required minimum assessment norms.

"Some universities and colleges ignored important benchmarks so they failed to properly conduct the assessment," he said.

At present the biggest obstacle to the work was funding, and the Ministry of Education and Training would work with the Ministry of Finance to issue regulations next year.

"The university self-assessment project met difficulties because assigned officials failed to understand their tasks despite attending training courses, which was compounded by a lack of experience in the work," Thanh said.

The Ministry of Education and Training had begun drafting plans for the improvement and development of the educational quality system for the 2011-20 period, in which educational quality verification organisations and strengthened international co-operation in the field would be prioritised, he said.

Under the ministry's regulations, universities and colleges would be audited in terms of their syllabus, facilities, management, teacher quality and measures to improve education standards. — VNS

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Colleges lack quality facilities

Infrastructure and learning facilities at many of the country's public universities and colleges have been discovered to be severely low in quality in a recent nationwide survey.

The Ministry of Education and Training's survey, which was carried out for the first time at 196 educational establishments, revealed that only one library seat is available for every 21 students at public universities and colleges in Vietnam, and many public higher education institutions to not even have a library to facilitate studies, the survey released on Oct. 25 reported.

It also revealed that 24 lacked a library altogether and 119 did not provide their students access to e-libraries.

Additionally, the quality of e-libraries was revealed to be inadequate and ineffective. Only 16.9 percent of the e-libraries were connected with other libraries and as many as 175 students had to share a computer.

The survey found that a shortage of land area, and inadequate training facilities and functional areas for educational pursuits were common.

On average, area available per student was about 35.7sq.m, far from the current standards of 55 to 85sq.m.

Students only had about 3.6sq.m of study area available, less than half of the national standard and three times lower than that in developed countries.

On average, total land area of each university and college was reported to be under 10 hectares. Only 20 percent of the 850,000 students in these educational establishments were able to stay in dormitories because there is simply not enough room.

Only 15.5 percent of laboratories met research and study requirements for teachers and students. Nearly 50 percent were reported to be outdated while only 1.4 percent met the same quality standards as international schools.

Tran Thanh Binh, director of the Institute for Research and Design of Schools, said the growing student population and the rapid increase in the number of educational establishments were the main reasons for the limited land funds.

For example, the number of students has increased by 135 percent in the past five years while the land fund has remained unchanged.

Binh said most existing universities were established on sites of less than 10 hectares and 15 universities hovered just below or just above one hectare. This has led to a substandard educational environment at these universities.

Le Hong Can, vice rector of Hong Duc Private University in central Thanh Hoa province said there should be a policy to prioritise the construction of university facilities.

Vice head of the Ministry of Finance's State Budget Department Nguyen Truong Giang said the schools should mobilise investment sources from businesses or the community to develop infrastructure.

Giang said one-fifth of the State budget was spent on the educational sector, with 10 percent of that going to higher education.

That percentage is expected to increase to 12 to 14 percent in the upcoming years, he said.

Giang said the schools should be re-classified according to national standards and that low-quality institutions should be merged together to avoid ineffective and scattered investment./.

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Career advice vital for graduates

HCM CITY — Universities and other training institutions should provide career orientation for their students, experts told a workshop held last Saturday in HCM City.

Dr Nguyen Anh Hong of HCM City Social Sciences and Humanities University (HSSHU) admitted it is not yet considered an important issue though some city universities and colleges have set up centres to provide orientation and find jobs for students.

Dr Le Thi Thanh Mai of the Viet Nam National University of HCM City, said she and her colleagues conducted a study on such centres and found only five universities and colleges had them but even they did not attract many students.

"Most of them merely inform students about jobs and hold job fairs and fail to provide career counselling," she said.

The HCM City University of Economics and Law even co-operates with corporates like Dutch Lady Viet Nam, Sacombank, and Hoa Sen Group to provide internship to its students, but fails when it comes to counselling.

Another study, this one of 200 students at the Viet Nam National University's dormitory, found most of them worried about what job to pursue after graduation and what skills they should learn, Mai said.

Dr Nguyen Thi Kim Loan, Hong's colleague, said employers also had a responsibility to provide career guidance and not just educational institutions.

But the task should begin as early as 12th grade, continue through university, with companies and universities holding forums regularly to guide students, she added.

Dang Duc Thanh, deputy chairman of the HCM City Enterprise Association, said with career counselling and a choice of future career made, students were likely to join short-term courses or even look for part-time employment in their field of choice while still in college.

Hong said universities and colleges should also provide up-to-date information on the labour market and employers' requirements so that students could equip themselves with suitable skills. — VNS

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