Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Theapplication of financial autonomy for universities in Vietnam is still on atrial basis and remains limited, according to experts.

This means the State must makebasic changes in mechanism and policies in order to create the best financialenvironment for universities to operate effectively.

As many as 23 universitiesnationwide have so far applied autonomy following the Government Resolutionon pilot renewal of the operationmechanism of public tertiary education institutions during the 2014-2017periods.  Autonomy means they commit to covering allexpenses for their regular operation and investment.  

Theresolution aims to encourage public institutions to actively tap and reasonablyand effectively utilise resources to improve the quality of tertiary education,reduce State budget expenditure without limiting opportunities to accesstertiary education for poor students and students being social policybeneficiaries.

However,Professor Nguyen Trong Hoai, Vice Principal of the HCM City University ofEconomics, said the application of financial autonomy in Vietnam still had manyshortcomings.

TheGovernment has yet had specific orientation for the transfer from pilot implementationto official implementation of the autonomy policy, causing difficulties foruniversities in making long-term investment plans in infrastructure and humanresources development, according to Hoai.

Most ofpublic tertiary educational institutions faced limitations in infrastructureand human resources. Meanwhile, those universities piloting autonomy faceddifficulties in diversifying their sources of revenues which now chiefly camefrom tuition fees, he said. As a result, they would face many difficulties instabilising their operation without any financial support from the Statebudget.

Frominternational experience and the context of Vietnam, it could be seen thatautonomy did not mean that the Government cut all budget for the university, hesaid. The State budget still played an important role for universities,creating a firm foundation for them to gradually move to the model of financialautonomy.

TheGovernment should still provide funding for these universities, particularly indeveloping labs with international standards to attract domestic and foreignstudents and scholars to develop their research there or providing scholarshipsto train PhDs of international standards, Hoai said.

Former headof the Research Institute of Education Management Dang Thi Thanh Huyen said theState should adjust related mechanism, policies and administrative managementover public universities.

Shesuggested to change investment mechanism for education to help diversifysources of revenues for universities as most public universities in Vietnam stilldepended on the State budget and tuition fees. The State budget should bemainly allocated for prioritised and key training areas, she said.

Other experts from the HCM CityNational University said the number of public tertiary educational institutionswas huge while the State budget was limited. Therefore, it was time to reducethe number of public universities to improve quality and concentrate Statefunding for key facilities.

The State should also restructurethe school system and classify training areas to improve the efficiency ofeducation investment, they said.

ProfessorHoai said university autonomy was a pathway for countries to move from Staterunning to State supervising operation of tertiary education.

In othercountries, it was coordinated between the State legal framework andself-efforts of universities. The legal framework was issued to ensurestrategic public funding for university operation but still reducing thefunding to motivate them to seek other sources of income; and to loosenpolicies for universities to diversify their sources of income to help themdevelop sustainably, according to Hoai.

One of thepolicies many Asian countries have applied was to tighten State budget. Apartfrom reducing State funding, China and Japan provided assistance packages forkey universities instead of funding all universities as before.

Statebudget expenditure for education of China and Japan dropped from 83 percent to53 percent after applying autonomy for tertiary education.

The expertsfrom the HCM City National University said the world trend was to grantautonomy rights to public universities but the States still provided financialsupport in developing infrastructure and scientific research.-VNS/VNA