Arrangement and merger of higher education institutions is an issue that has received much attention from the public in recent times. Regarding the arrangement and merger of pedagogical colleges and universities, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that in the planning of universities, colleges, and the system of pedagogical colleges in the coming time, there will be only 3-4 schools, the trend of pedagogical colleges will be merged into pedagogical universities.
In the pedagogical university, there will be training for preschool teachers at the college level. How and what is required for training requires separate and specific regulations to avoid universities "massively enrolling at college level" causing inactivity and reducing the ability of colleges to enroll.
Discussing this issue, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Duc Son - Principal of Hanoi National University of Education said that merging pedagogical colleges into universities will create unity in training.
"For example, preschool teacher training, college to university training and postgraduate training, the centralized training force will create connectivity and unity in the program" - he said.
The President of Hanoi National University of Education said that in the context of the shortage of preschool teachers, especially when implementing the everyone implementation of preschool education, maintaining college-level training in pedagogical universities is reasonable. This allows the use of professional resources, teaching staff and facilities of universities to serve training at a lower level but has great social significance.
However, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Duc Son believes that choosing which college to merge with which university requires specific principles, such as similarity and support in terms of human resources to be able to develop that field. This choice helps create an overlap and connectivity in terms of expertise, thereby expanding the training capacity of that university.
"That way we can help the university become more large-scale for development" - Mr. Son said.
Regarding the rights of learners, the Principal of Hanoi National University of Education affirmed that whether students study at college or university level, after the merger, the training process will be unified, ensuring the rights of students according to general regulations of the State and the Ministry of Education and Training.
However, according to Mr. Son, the biggest challenge in the merger process is the teaching staff. Specifically, the standards for lecturers at college and university levels are different, especially the doctoral rate. This is a difficult problem, but it is also a driving force to have policies to encourage and support lecturers to improve their qualifications, meeting the requirements of a higher education institution in the long term.
"I think that when recognizing that challenge, there will certainly be solutions to promote and encourage the teaching staff of colleges to self-improvement and self-education to reach the level of university lecturers" - Mr. Son said.
