The Difficult Life of Vietnamese Students

In a country where even the most patient person can be severely tested, Vietnam's university students are now facing yet another hurdle to successfully completing their studies. Having classes scheduled in different campuses means that constant traffic jams force many students to miss classes because they are unable to reach them in time.
For students in the West, multi-campus classes are not always a problem. In Vietnam, however, it is a major issue, particularly in Ho Chi Minh City where many students have classes scheduled in different campuses in the one day and often they are up to 10 kilometres apart.

Some students have classes in different campuses every day. In a city with a well-defined traffic and transport system this would be no problem But in Vietnam this is still a matter that needs to be seriously addressed.

While progress is being made in the higher education sector, Vietnam is struggling to keep up with the changes and provide the necessary infrastructure. It is often a case of one step forward, two steps back. In Ho Chi Minh City alone, the number of colleges and universities has increased from 100 two decades ago to around 400.

Yet, even with the increased numbers, there is still a shortage of classrooms and facilities. Many students study in unfinished classrooms while construction continues around them.

It is not only a lack of classrooms and facilities that make life difficult. Lack of space means universities and colleges themselves are not big enough in terms of area. According to the Ministry of Education and Training, a number of universities and colleges around the country's big cities have less than 10 hectares of floor space, or the equivalent of 2.67 square metres per student, when Ministry of Education guidelines say the necessary area per student should be 23 square metres.

The problem of inadequate infrastructure was highlighted recently when hundreds of students at the Saigon College of Art, Culture and Tourism went on strike. The students were protesting that the metal roofs on buildings made the rooms not only unbearably hot, because no adequate air-conditioning was provided, but also overly noisy during rainy periods.

Lecture halls are very large and unsuitable for their purposes. Students' views of the lecturers are often blocked by pillars and lecturers are forced to scramble for microphones that are always in short supply. Campuses, again, are scattered and in locations not conducive to learning, such as behind tea houses.

One campus is located inside a restaurant which doubles as a wedding hall, where lectures have been held since 2006. Yet, despite the poor conditions, students are still required to pay 5.5 million dong (US$308) each year for tuition, a hefty sum for most students.

Unfortunately, the problems for Vietnam's higher education do not stop at lack of space and a chaotic infrastructure. Qualifications of the lecturers, especially in foreign languages at the college, have also come into question.

Lecturer qualifications and the quality of teaching is a real problem. The Ministry of Education recently admitted that this was one question it was unable to answer because it was only directly managing 54 of the 376 operating universities.

The ministry also admitted it did not know whether or not universities obeyed current higher education legislation, or the degree of effectiveness of state investment in education.

Because of a lack of coherent planning between the ministry and the colleges and universities the sector has been able to function as an almost completely non-regulated system. Standards of lecturers, and therefore graduates, have not been monitored, ensuring continuously low standards.

Of the new and revamped colleges and universities that have been established since 2005, the ministry has acknowledged that 20% have not fulfilled their obligations. The actual figure, though, may be a lot higher.