Some students might not be able to attend their dream university due to increases in tuition fees. — Photo nld.com.vn

HCM CITY — Sudden increases in university school fees have brought challenges to both parents and students.

Even though the Ministry of Education and Training has written a proposal to keep the tuition fee unchanged between the 2021 and 2022 school years, many universities have announced multiple price hikes.

HCM City University of Law is one of the schools with the highest tuition fees next school year.

According to the school's announcement, the lowest tuition fee for Course 47 applied from the academic year 2022-23 to 2025-26 for general programmes of law, international commercial law and business administration is VNĐ151 million (US$6,455) .

The tuition fee for remaining general majors range from VNĐ179 million to VNĐ205 million per course.

For high-quality programmes of administration and law, a student would have to spend VNĐ358 million per course.

The highest tuition fee will be VNĐ766 million per course for a high-quality law programme, taught in English.

Hà Nội Law University is also expected to charge a higher tuition fee compared to the previous school year.

During the 2022-23 academic year, the tuition fee for a general training programme is VNĐ2 million per month, more than double the VNĐ980,000 fee in the 2021-22 school year.

Meanwhile, tuition for a high-quality training programme is VNĐ5 million, an increase of 65 per cent compared to VNĐ3 million in the pervious school year.

For the next school year, the Academy of Journalism and Communication charges tuition by credit.

Except for the training of political theory lecturers, the tuition fee for general progammes is expected to be VNĐ440,000 per credit while that of the high-quality programmes is VNĐ1.32 million per credit.

This is an increase of nearly 60 per cent and more than 70 per cent, respectively, compared to the tuition fees last school year.

“Excess crisis" and "shortage crisis"

Nguyễn Ninh Thuỵ, head of the Financial Planning Department of the HCM City National University (VNU-HCM), admitted that when public universities increase tuition fees autonomously, it may lead to a reduction in the chances of poor students to go to school.

This will slow down the process of expanding the scale of human resource training at university level.

Thuỵ added that the increase in tuition fees also affects people’s tendency to go for basic science programmes, which play a crucial role in the country's sustainable development orientation.

Students will be less likely to choose basic science majors and instead pursue "hot" subjects, because of better career opportunities and higher incomes.

High tuition fees, together with changes in the perception of society, may indirectly create a "crisis of excess" and "crisis of shortage" of some basic sciences in the near future, she said.

At the recent conference on university autonomy held in Hà Nội, Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam emphasised equality for everyone in accessing high-quality higher education.

Increasing tuition fees without a mechanism for scholarship funds and lack of support from the State budget will pose a great challenge.

In response to the increase in university tuition fees, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoàng Minh Sơn said that it is necessary to recognise the nature of the problem.

Currently, the total investment cost for a student is still very low compared to the rest of the world.

In order to improve the quality of education and training, it is necessary to increase the level of investment for students, through investment in facilities and quality of lecturers.

According to Sơn, some universities in the region have charged ten times higher than public universities in Việt Nam.

If the current level of investment remains the same, it will be difficult for domestic universities to compete. VNS