Students at the University of Economics and Law under VNU-HCM. — VNS Photo Gia Lộc

HCM CITY — A number of public universities in HCM City that have been granted financial autonomy are planning to increase tuition in the 2020-21 academic year.

Tuition at the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, for instance, will increase to VNĐ30 million-70 million (US$1,289-3,009) in the 2020-2021 academic year for various majors. The current fee is VNĐ13 million ($558.9) per year.

Tuition for the dental and maxillofacial major at the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy will be the highest with VNĐ70 million ($3,009) per year, followed by the medical major with VNĐ68 million ($2,923).

The majors in nutrition and public health will be the lowest, at VNĐ30 million ($1,289) each.

The university will increase tuition by 10 per cent per year for the following years.

The increased tuition will be applied to freshmen enrollees in the 2020-2021 academic year.

The university will provide 800 scholarships for outstanding freshmen and those with financial difficulties.

It will allocate 10 per cent of collected tuition and the amount that the university plans to call on other sponsors to provide partial and full scholarships to students in their second to final years.

The School of Medicine and Pharmacy under Việt Nam National University- Hồ Chí Minh City (VNU-HCM) will increase fees for so-called high-quality training majors in the 2020-2021 school year.

The school’s high-quality dental and maxillofacial major fee will be VNĐ88 million per year, an increase of VNĐ8 million.

Tuition for high-quality medical majors will be VNĐ60 million per year, an increase of VNĐ4 million.      

Cần Thơ University of Medicine and Pharmacy will increase tuition to VNĐ24.6 million per year. 

The fees at the University of Information Technology (under VNU-HCM) for high-quality majors will be VNĐ35 million per year and VNĐ20 million per year for normal majors.

The university also plans to increase tuition by VNĐ5 million-9.4 million in the 2020-2021 year compared to 2019-2020. It will increase the fee by VNĐ2 million each year in following years. 

The tuition for the HCM City University of Technology and Education will increase by VNĐ1 million-VNĐ2 million in the 2020-21 academic year compared to the 2019-20 year.

The HCM City University of Law tuition in the 2020-2021 year will increase by VNĐ500,000 -VNĐ5.75 million.   

According to a representative of the HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, the university will be granted financial autonomy in the 2020-21 year. The increased fees will help the university have enough capital to operate.

The university currently receives subsidies from the State budget since the current fee of only VNĐ13 million per year is not sufficient for it to operate.

However, the subsidy will be eliminated because of the university's financial autonomy mechanism.

The highest fee, for the major of dental and maxillofacial, is due to the high training costs and the discontinued subsidy from the state. In addition, the university cannot increase the student enrollment quota for the major.

The Ministry of Education and Training has issued legal documents as the foundation for universities to carry out autonomy. The ministry has also managed the implementation of policies on tuition and financial autonomy of universities.

The HCM City University of Medicine and Pharmacy’s tuition will be verified by the Ministry of Health and accounted publicly.     

According to the Planning and Finance Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, the ministry will issue detailed regulations on ceiling fees for universities. — VNS