Deputy Prime Minister Lê Tiến Châu chairs the meeting. — VGP/VNA Photo

HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Lê Tiến Châu has called for clear benchmarking criteria and defined aspirational targets in the development and refinement of a project to build major universities in the southeast region, aiming for them to reach advanced levels among Asia’s top institutions.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) will submit the completed project by May 10.

He made the request on Monday morning at the Government Headquarters while chairing a meeting on the project.

Reporting to the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Education and Training Hoàng Minh Sơn said the MoET had developed and refined the project based on input from relevant ministries and agencies while updating the Party and State’s policies and guidelines.

Regarding the national orientation for the higher education system, the project aligns with the overall direction, ensuring consistency with existing and ongoing plans, programmes and projects.

The selection and investment in three higher education institutions, including the University of Economics HCM City, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at HCM City and Việt Đức University Hospital, followed a rigorous review and evaluation process, prioritising key fields with objectivity and transparency.

Selection criteria include public leading institutions with high autonomy, existing international reputation and training programmes directly linked to the region’s strategic human resource needs, focusing on addressing gaps in high-quality personnel in semiconductors, international finance, smart medicine and core technologies.

According to the MoET, the project ensures synchronisation between objectives and implementation resources through three pillars: financial resources, infrastructure and policy mechanisms.

After hearing reports and opinions from ministries, agencies and universities, Deputy Prime Minister Châu largely agreed with the project’s content.

The Deputy Prime Minister urged the Minister and Deputy Ministers of MoET to increase visits to localities during this term, better understand conditions and work closely with local leaders.

“It is impossible to think that education is solely the responsibility of MoET and the education sector. The entire political system must contribute with localities playing a very significant role,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

He also requested that the MoET urgently finalise related projects to achieve targets set by Resolution 71 by 2030, including striving for at least eight higher education institutions in the top 200 Asian universities and at least one in the top 100 world universities in certain fields according to reputable international rankings.

These projects must be completed by the end of June at the latest.

Among the three selected institutions, the University of Economics HCM City and the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in HCM City have specified development targets.

The Deputy Prime Minister called for clarification of the target ranking in Asia for Việt Đức University Hospital. He also said the project should specify which ranking systems are used and ensure consistency across MoET projects and plans to avoid differing criteria or benchmarks.

This would allow further review of indicators to ensure they are appropriate and feasible against ranking requirements.

Deputy Prime Minister Châu also directed the MoET to review and develop a more detailed task assignment list for each ministry, sector and locality. The general principle is clear tasks, clear lead units, coordinating units, deliverables and deadlines.

“This is a tool to support management and progress control, a basis for regular monitoring and for evaluating task completion by each ministry, sector and locality, linked to the responsibility of heads and implementation results,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

Resolution 71-NQ/TW continues to set the target of State budget spending on education and training at a minimum of 20 per cent of total State budget expenditure.

To ensure feasibility in implementing the project, the Deputy Prime Minister requested coordinating ministries work closely with the Ministry of Finance for thorough review. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for allocating funds to fully achieve the set objectives, tasks and solutions.

Based on feedback from meeting participants, the MoET will lead, in coordination with relevant ministries and agencies, to urgently finalise the project and related documents, submit the completed project by May 10 and issue the action programme by the end of May at the latest.

Emphasising that this is one of many tasks the education sector must undertake in the coming time, Deputy Prime Minister Lê Tiến Châu expressed hope that alongside the MoET’s efforts ministries, sectors and localities would continue to support and assist the MoET in fulfilling its responsibilities and mission. — VNS