Professor Doctor Lê Thành Bắc proposed to the Government, the Ministry of Education and Training, and relevant ministries and sectors to adjust the salary of university lecturers in accordance with their position and academic title, ensuring that the salary of lecturers is at least equal to or higher than that of other specialized officials.
The proposal was made at the 2024 University Education Conference, on August 9.
According to Professor Doctor Lê Thành Bắc, the current salary is unfair and does not match the position and academic title of university lecturers. The low income is causing difficulties in recruiting lecturers. He said "low" is an easy way to say it, but in fact, the income is very low.
This is the sentiment of all university lecturers at public universities at present. They are excellent in their studies, are retained by the university, pursue a master's or doctoral degree, but their salary is too low. The salary is not enough to live on, not to mention that lecturers also need money to pay for their studies, research, books, and documents.
Therefore, universities find it difficult to recruit and retain good lecturers, because good lecturers also need to live on in order to pursue their profession. Even if they love their job and stay at the university, they still cannot afford to advance in their research career.
Regarding financial autonomy, the university does not have the freedom to increase tuition fees at will, but is also dependent on the market average of university education. If the university increases tuition fees too high, students and parents will react. If tuition fees are not increased, there will be no source of income to increase salaries.
University lecturers must be excellent in order to train talented individuals, as our ancestors said "a good teacher produces good students". In order to have excellent lecturers, we must recruit excellent people to teach at universities, create conditions for them to pursue higher education, study abroad, and be in line with the spirit and objectives of Decision 89 on "Improving the capacity of lecturers and managers of higher education institutions to meet the requirements of comprehensive renovation of education and training from 2019 to 2030".
A salary that allows them to live, study, and research, without needing to be high, is the dream of university lecturers at present. Therefore, the proposal to increase the salary of university lecturers by the Vice Rector of the University of Da Nang is reasonable.
However, those who become teachers at universities must be worthy of being the cream of academic talent, must have "real academic talent". University lecturers must be real master's and doctoral degree holders, not "factory-made" or "super-speed" doctoral degree holders, or those who have plagiarized their work.
