Circular No. 26/2026/TT-BGDĐT (Circular No. 26), aims to detail and concretize the provisions of the Law on Teachers. The Circular takes effect from the date of signing.
Circular No. 26 inherits the contents specified in Circular No. 40/2020/TT-BGDĐT regulating codes, professional title standards, appointments and salary rankings for teaching officials in public higher education institutions; ensuring consistency and synchronization with relevant current legal documents; in accordance with the Party's guidelines, policies, and the State's laws.
Expanding the scope of application to non-public lecturers
One of the notable points of the Circular is expanding the scope of application to the entire university teaching staff, including lecturers, principal lecturers and senior lecturers in public and non-public higher education institutions, along with relevant organizations and individuals. This regulation contributes to ensuring uniformity in professional standards throughout the higher education system. Previously, Circular No. 40/2020/TT-BGDDT only applies to teaching staff in public higher education institutions.
The Circular does not apply to lecturers of higher education institutions managed by the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security, in accordance with the specific characteristics of these forces. The Circular also specifically stipulates the tasks of lecturers, principal lecturers and senior lecturers, including key task groups such as: teaching and guiding learners; participating in building and developing training programs; compiling textbooks and materials; implementing science, technology and innovation activities; participating in cooperation activities, serving the community and managing according to assignment...
For each title, the requirements for professional capacity, scientific research and academic contribution are regulated according to appropriate levels, contributing to clearly orienting the career development roadmap of lecturers.
Building a comprehensive professional standard system
The Circular stipulates that the professional standards for university lecturers include 3 basic groups of standards: Standards on ethics; standards on training and fostering qualifications; standards on professional and nghiệp vụ capacity. These standards are designed according to each professional title, ensuring stratification and suitability with the requirements of each job position.
In which, ethical standards emphasize the requirements for qualities, prestige, sense of responsibility, fairness and integrity in teaching and scientific research... Standards on training and fostering levels stipulate requirements for professional qualifications and fostering certificates according to professional standards. Standards on professional and nghiệp vụ competence focus on teaching ability, scientific research, technology application, foreign language use and participation in professional development activities...
Building a standard system in this direction creates a basis for higher education institutions to arrange, assign, assign tasks and evaluate lecturers according to job positions, and at the same time serves as a basis for developing training, fostering and developing staff plans.
Ensuring the inheritance and rights of the teaching staff
Circular No. 26 also clearly stipulates transitional contents to ensure the rights of university lecturers.
Accordingly, training certificates according to professional title standards issued before December 31, 2026 are recognized as equivalent to professional standard training certificates according to new regulations.
Lecturers in higher education institutions who are recruited, received or changed jobs to university lecturer positions before the effective date of this Circular are not required to meet the standard of having a professional training certificate for university lecturers.
According to Circular No. 26, heads of higher education institutions or heads of units under, directly under higher education institutions are decentralized according to their authority based on the professional standards of university lecturers to arrange, assign, assign tasks to university lecturers and assess the level of task completion according to the job position corresponding to the title of university lecturer; develop and implement plans for training, fostering, and developing university lecturers according to their authority.
The promulgation of Circular No. 26/2026/TT-BGDDT contributes to completing the legal framework for developing the university teaching staff, creating an important foundation to improve the quality of education and training, meeting the requirements of developing high-quality human resources in the new period.
