On the evening of January 23, many students posted on their personal pages that they had been refunded tuition fees that had been collected in excess of previous regulations by Thu Dau Mot University (Binh Duong).
There were cases where nearly 900,000 VND was refunded, there were cases where 3 million VND was refunded, and there were cases where more than 4 million VND was refunded. The money was transferred to the student's account at 8:45 p.m. the same day.
Former student Bao Chau said she studied at Thu Dau Mot University since 2018 and graduated in 2022. It was only when the press reported that the school had collected more than the tuition fee. Now Bao Chau has been refunded 3.2 million VND by the school. According to Bao Chau, she is still facing difficulties in life, the tuition refund near Tet helps Chau have money to cover the end of the year.
Speaking with Lao Dong Newspaper reporters, Dr. Doan Ngoc Xuan - Principal of Thu Dau Mot University confirmed the information that the school will refund tuition fees to students.
Dr. Doan Ngoc Xuan said that tuition fees have only been refunded to students at this point because it took a lot of time to review and compare the list and account numbers of students. In addition, the school needs time to carry out the procedures and refund process in accordance with State regulations.
To date, the school has completed the procedures and identified the list of 10,005 students, and the school has also transferred money to the students' accounts. The total amount refunded to students is 21 billion VND. The school will continue to review the remaining amount and students to refund the students.
Previously, Lao Dong Newspaper reported that the State Audit pointed out that Thu Dau Mot University collected tuition fees not in accordance with regulations for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years. The school collected about 1.5 times higher than the prescribed level and the total amount found to have been collected incorrectly was about 37 billion VND.
The State Audit then issued an official dispatch requesting Thu Dau Mot University to refund to students (in case of failure to refund, it must be paid to the budget) the tuition fees collected in excess of the prescribed level.
Regarding the tuition fee collection higher than the prescribed level, Thu Dau Mot University explained that there were many reasons, both subjective and objective. In the period of 2020 - 2022, the school was not financially autonomous, the implementation of teaching practice credits was much higher than theory, the Board of Directors reported to the School Council to propose that the collection rate for practice credits be 1.5 times higher than that for theory credits. The social sciences and economics block is 490,500 VND/credit and the natural sciences and engineering block is 585,000 VND. The above collection rate compared to Decree 86/2015/ND-CP is not suitable.
The school determined the cause was due to a lack of consistency in understanding and applying State regulations in calculating tuition fees for credits.
