The Government has just issued Decree No. 66/2026/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Education.
In which, Article 8 stipulates policy scholarships as follows:
1. Subjects and levels of benefits:
Students studying under the enrollment system; students of university preparatory schools, ethnic minority boarding schools; students of vocational education institutions for war invalids and people with disabilities are entitled to scholarships equal to 80% of the basic salary/month;
Students from poor households studying in vocational education institutions for war invalids and people with disabilities: the scholarship level is equal to 100% of the basic salary/month.
2. Principles of enjoyment:
Policy scholarships are only awarded once throughout the study period of students and trainees specified in Clause 1 of this Article. Policy scholarships are paid twice during the academic year, each time for 6 months, the first time awarded in October, the second time awarded in March.
In case students, pupils, and trainees (hereinafter referred to as learners) have not received policy scholarships within the prescribed time limit, they will be retroactively awarded in the next scholarship award period;
In case learners are eligible for many policies at the same time, they are only entitled to the highest policy or study many majors and many educational institutions at the same time, they are only entitled to the highest policy in one major at one educational institution;
Students who are eligible for policy scholarships as prescribed in this Article and are also eligible for preferential allowance policies, social allowances, and study encouragement scholarships are still entitled to these policies as prescribed;
Policy scholarships are granted for 12 months/year, the number of school years eligible for policy benefits must not exceed the maximum number of years or semesters to complete the training program corresponding to the majors according to regulations. For the final school year, they are entitled according to the number of actual study months.
For students of ethnic minority boarding schools and university preparatory schools, if they are suspended, the first suspended school year will still be entitled to policy scholarships according to regulations;
Policy scholarships are awarded for training programs using the method of accumulating modules or credits according to the converted training time but not exceeding the training time of the industry, occupation and equivalent training level for the annualized training program, calculated by the formula below:
Policy scholarships are not applied to people studying with a second university degree, training at the address, distance learning forms, joint training and working and studying.
3. Application for policy scholarships:
The application has confirmation from the school where the student studies (Form No. 04 in the Appendix attached to this Decree) and a Certificate of poor household status (if belonging to poor households).
In case competent authorities can exploit the above information from specialized databases or from state agencies on poor households, learners do not need to provide a Certificate of Poor Household and only need to provide information to have a basis for comparison and data exploitation.
