6 forms of arranging and reorganizing educational institutions
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has sent documents to ministries, branches, and localities on orientations for arranging and reorganizing public higher education and vocational education institutions, stipulating the forms of arranging and reorganizing educational institutions as follows:
First, restructuring: Type conversion; restructuring training fields and sectors; renaming; increasing investment, changing development orientations accompanied by internal restructuring of the institution to ensure compliance with the criteria for arrangement and reorganization according to regulations.
Second, for higher education institutions that do not meet the standards of higher education institutions but continue to be maintained, ministries, branches, and directly managing localities must have plans and roadmaps for investment, training, fostering, and development of institutions and have written commitments that institutions will ensure that by 2030 they meet the conditions and criteria of higher education institution standards according to regulations. After 2030, resolutely rearrange and reorganize higher education institutions that do not meet the conditions and criteria according to regulations. Apply similarly to vocational education institutions (after vocational education institution standards are promulgated).
Third, transferring educational institutions to ministries and sectors with state management scope suitable to the training fields and majors of educational institutions.
Fourth, transferring educational institutions to local management when committed to local investment support, ensuring to serve human resource training for socio-economic development of the locality and the region.
Fifth, merge with other educational institutions (through mergers or reorganization into branches) to focus resources on development, not merging in a "mechanical" form. The specific determination of the merger plan needs to be based on the suitability of training fields, majors, resources, facilities, geographical location and have specific plans to enhance the effectiveness of training and research activities. Encourage multi-disciplinary training institutions with prestige at the central level to receive educational institutions that are facing difficulties and weaknesses or merge single-disciplinary training institutions to form multi-disciplinary training institutions.
Sixth, dissolve and transfer resources to other educational institutions in the same area or with appropriate training sectors and fields for effective and purposeful use.
Along with that are plans to arrange and reorganize other educational institutions in accordance with the provisions of law.
The Ministry requests educational institutions that are not subject to rearrangement or reorganization to conduct self-review, implement internal organizational rearrangement, remove intermediate levels, and ensure a streamlined, unified, and effective management apparatus according to regulations.
For vocational secondary schools (applied from July 1, 2026 according to the provisions of the 2025 Vocational Education Law), the Ministry requests to prepare a plan to form vocational secondary schools on the basis of arranging and reorganizing intermediate schools, vocational education centers, continuing education centers, vocational education - continuing education centers in communes, wards or inter-wards, communes.
Do not organize vocational secondary schools in communes, wards or inter-wards, communes in cases where there are already colleges or intermediate schools where vocational secondary school programs are organized.
The formation of vocational secondary schools is carried out in accordance with the regulations of competent authorities on guiding and implementing the 2025 Vocational Education Law.
5 criteria for rearranging and reorganizing universities
In the guidance, the Ministry sets out 5 criteria to determine schools subject to rearrangement and reorganization as follows: Level of meeting conditions and meeting standards; Training majors and fields; Service to state management functions; Essentiality; Specificity.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the rearrangement of educational institutions, in addition to being consistent with the goals and policies of the Party and the Government, must also ensure that after overall arrangement and reorganization, educational institutions operate training and research effectively, with higher quality, multi-disciplinary, multi-field, strong resources and large enrollment scale.
In particular, the arrangement and reorganization is not based on the level of financial autonomy to carry out arrangement and reorganization of educational institutions, but based on geographical location, space, socio-economic situation, human resource needs of the locality, of the whole country; based on training occupations, actual operation of educational institutions; with assessment of brand factors, domestic and international influence of the unit.
