If only mechanical mergers cannot make universities stronger
On the morning of November 20, the National Assembly discussed 3 draft laws including: Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education; Draft Law on Higher Education (amended); Draft Law on Vocational Education (amended).
Contributing opinions to the Draft Law on Higher Education (amended), delegate Nguyen Quang Huan (HCMC Delegation) said that Article 11 of the draft Law on Higher Education (amended) includes the concept of "high-level educational institutions including: Universities, multi-disciplinary universities, national universities, regional universities".
However, according to him, the concept of high-level education institution is being understood differently from the common understanding of instruction. He gave an example, in the resolution on preventing global tax erosion, a facility is identified as the last enterprise in a corporation; or in a Party organization, a grassroots organization is the last organization with a seal, not a Party Committee of a ward or district.
Here, the concept of multi-disciplinary universities, national universities, and regional universities - models with many units below - is included in the concept of " graduation". If we consider that those universities are similar to corporations or general companies but still considered " Facilities", then the implementation of Resolution 71's requirements on increasing autonomy for institutions will not focus on the units below.
According to the delegate, this is the reason why many institutions were previously merged into regional universities and national universities, which were once very strong, but after the merger, they are no longer as strong as before.
If there is a mechanical merger, developing facilities may weaken because they are no longer financially autonomous. In fact, some schools and higher education institutions before the merger were very strong, after the merger, they reduced their attraction, reduced input quality, forced to lower admission standards; thereby, the institutions became smaller, weakened, and not developed" - he further analyzed.
To achieve the goal of making universities in the top 100 in the world, delegate Quang Huan said that it is not possible to just organize mechanical mergers but need to develop those institutions to become truly strong, like Hanoi University of Science and Technology, when strongly developed, became a university, and in that university there are many member schools. At that time, strength comes from within.
If we do not correctly define the concept of high-education institutions, we will allocate resources that are not in the right focus; instead of focusing on people to make the body healthy, we focus on cells depository the delegate said.
Proposal to remove regional university model
Delegate Nguyen Quang Huan said that currently, the National University, as a national brand representative, can be considered for stability at this time. As for regional universities, if they are considered " Facilities", it is not suitable, closely following the spirit of Resolution 71.
"Therefore, it is necessary to re-determine whether regional universities should exist or not" - he proposed.
In addition, he also expressed concern that the way we call universities in a large university is currently causing confusion, similar to the situation of "city in city" in the past.
"This is not only not fluent in Vietnamese, but also not in accordance with international practice" - Mr. Huan said and suggested reviewing the way of calling the names of units in international universities and national universities.
"When a large school is called a "vedication", the units inside can be called a "school" - the delegate added.
Sharing the same view, delegate Le Thi Thanh Lam (Can Tho delegation) proposed that the drafting committee study the removal of regional university regulations or restructuring the regional university model in the higher education institution system.
According to the delegate, member schools of regional universities are mostly specialized, which is not a trend of universities around the world. Multi-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary universities are the current trend.
"I recommend restructuring member universities in regional universities into multi-disciplinary universities, with many specialized schools" - Ms. Lam proposed and said that the removal of this model is to properly implement the spirit of Resolution 71 of the Central Committee, eliminate intermediate levels, streamline the apparatus and increase substantial autonomy for higher education institutions to develop more and more strongly, more in line with the general development trend of universities.
