The draft Circular is built to complete the legal basis for managing, using and developing the team of human resources supporting higher education. This is a step to concretize the 2025 Law on Higher Education, aiming to build a professional, modern support team that meets the requirements of education innovation.
For the first time, digital competence becomes a mandatory standard
The draft Circular focuses on standardizing and improving the capacity of support personnel in higher education institutions, including: teaching assistants, researchers and teaching support personnel.
For the first time, digital capacity, the ability to apply information technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are included as mandatory standards for all positions of human resources supporting higher education. This is to comprehensively develop the working team in higher education institutions to meet the requirements of the new context.
The draft stipulates that teaching assistant positions and teaching support personnel (in cases where there are no specialized regulations) must have a university degree or higher suitable for the job position. For researchers, the standards will be implemented according to the regulations of the Ministry of Science and Technology but add requirements on pedagogical capacity and teaching support.
Work 40 hours a week
According to the draft Circular, the working time of university education support personnel in the academic year is 44 weeks (equivalent to 1,760 administrative hours) to perform professional activities including teaching support, performing science, technology and innovation activities, studying, fostering, practicing, experimenting and other professional activities, determined by semester or academic year after deducting the number of days off as prescribed.
Along with that, the draft stipulates that university education support personnel work in a 40-hour regime in a week, flexible time is arranged according to the requirements of professional tasks, and if necessary, it must be implemented on weekends or outside office hours.
The draft also stipulates that based on the specific characteristics of the training industry, research field and conditions for organization and implementation, the head of the higher education institution shall specifically stipulate the allocation of working time for each group of higher education support personnel.
Appointment and salary ranking are not only based on qualifications and seniority
Instead of applying separate regulations for each title, the draft stipulates a common legal framework on ethical standards, qualifications and working regimes for the entire group of personnel supporting higher education. This ensures uniformity and consistency in legal regulations.
The draft circular also shifts from title management to job positions. Appointment and salary ranking will be based on job positions and the actual needs of educational institutions, instead of just based on qualifications or pure seniority.
According to the draft Circular, public employees who have been appointed to the title of teaching assistant or researcher according to the old regulations will be reviewed and rearranged according to the new job position if they meet the standards.
