THE PRIME MINISTER

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To approve the master plan on the university and college network in the 2006-2020 period with the following principal contents:

1. Planning viewpoints

The university and college network in the 2006-2020 period is built and developed in the following basic orientations:

a/ To properly expand tertiary education to meet industrialization and modernization requirements; to conform with the country's socio-economic conditions and scientific and technological potential; to contribute to raising the people's intellectual standards, developing human resources and training talents; to restructure the human resource training system with a view to improving training quality and efficiency, and providing training in response to social needs; to associate training with scientific research and social life;

b/ To harmoniously combine the promotion of the market mechanism's positive factors with the improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of state management; to increase state budget for training of tertiary education lecturers and administrators; to set aside land for the construction of universities and colleges; to ensure social equality; to adopt support policies for difficulty-stricken areas and learners entitled to study priority and incentives and, at the same time, to boost the socialization of education in order to mobilize all social resources for the development of tertiary education;

c/ To perform unified state management of universities and colleges in terms of training policies, planning and quality, standardization of lecturers, financial management requirements, and international cooperation. To further decentralize management powers to and raise the autonomy and accountability of universities and colleges; to build up a number of strong universities and colleges, to form university clusters; to redress the scatteredness of the existing network of numerous small colleges provide single-discipline training with limited expertise; to encourage coordination among localities in opening colleges and universities;

d/ Development of the university and college network must conform with the country's development strategies, socio-economic conditions and scientific and technological potential and must be associated with each region and locality; to properly structure training disciplines and levels which must be regionally appropriate; to build a number of highly qualified human resource training centers linked to key economic regions and driving economic regions; to form a number of regional human resource training centers and university clusters for the relocation of universities from the inner areas of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and to meet new investment demands;

e/ To ensure that requirements on lecturer quality, land area, material and technical bases and equipment are met in conformity with the state budget investment capacity and mobilized social resources;

f/ To prioritize the formation of new universities and colleges with adequate potential and conditions; to restrict the upgrade of existing ones; to encourage training in disciplines in the industrial domain; to rationally balance the training structure between university, college, and professional secondary and vocational levels and between disciplines, basic sciences, and technical-technological sciences; to ensure transferability between training forms and levels;

g/ To concentrate investment in building international-level universities, key universities and universities in deep-lying, remote and difficulty-stricken areas and in crucial domains; to encourage the development of private universities in order to increasingly mobilize social resources for tertiary education investment on the basis of ensuring quality and social equality and associating with talent fostering.

2. Planning objectives

a/ To strive for the target of 200 students per 10,000 people by 2010; 300 students per 10,000 people by 2015 and 450 students per 10,000 people by 2020. By 2020, around 70-80% of university students will be trained under applied career programs and 20-30% of students will be trained under research programs;

b/ By 2020, 30-40% of students will study at private tertiary education institutions;

c/ By 2010, over 40% of university lecturers and over 30% of college lecturers will hold a master degree or higher, and over 25% of university lecturers and 5% of college lecturers will hold a doctorate;

By 2015, 70% of university lecturers and over 50% of college lecturers will hold a master degree or higher, and over 50% of university lecturers and at least 10% of college lecturers will hold a doctorate;

By 2020, over 90% of university lecturers and over 70% of college lecturers will hold a master degree or higher, and over 75% of university lecturers and at least 20% of college lecturers will hold a doctorate;

d/ After 2010, the land area and construction area of universities will reach the standard on the average study space per student; to form university clusters for foreign-invested universities in Vietnam;

e/ By 2010, to ensure sufficient textbooks and learning materials as required for students in all subjects and disciplines;

f/ By 2010, to have 10 universities each of which has at least one faculty (discipline) or training field reaching the training quality similar to that of internationally accredited universities; by 2015, to have 20 universities reaching the above target and by 2020 to have one university ranked among 200 world leading universities;

g/ Foreign students studying in Vietnam will account for over 0.1% of the total number of students after 2010; 1.5% after 2015 and 5% after 2020.

3. Planning contents

a/ Overall university and college training scale

- To gradually raise the network's annual enrollments to around 420,000 students by 2010; nearly 600,000 students by 2015; and 1,200,000 students by 2020;

- The network's aggregate university and college training scale will reach 1.8 million students by 2010; 3 million by 2015 and 4.5 million by 2020.

b/ Training scale of universities

The training scale of universities and colleges is based on quality conditions and factors such as the quantity and quality of lecturers, training facilities, classes, laboratories, student hostels and the capacity to apply information technology to training and administration work and, at the same time, is balanced in accordance with the characteristics of universities, training disciplines, training levels and administration capacity to ensure improvement of the training quality. The training scale (the number of students converted to the formal training form) of various groups of universities and colleges is oriented as follows:

- Hanoi National University and Ho Chi Minh City National University: around 42,000 students;

- Other key universities: around 35,000 students;

- Universities and institutes providing training in technical-technological, economics, law and teachers-training disciplines and other technical-economics fields: around 15,000 students;

- Universities and institutes providing training in health and socio-cultural disciplines: around 5,000 students;

- Colleges offering diversified disciplines at multi-training levels: around 8,000 students;

- Technology colleges and community colleges: around 5,000 students;

- Gifted students training colleges: around 3,000 students.

c/ Disciplines

- Prioritized disciplines: a number of disciplines in natural sciences, social sciences and humanities; information technology; electronic engineering and automation; bio-technology; new material technology; a number of technical and technological disciplines to meet industrialization and modernization requirements; training of trainers and highly qualified experts in the service domain;

- To restructure the proportions of students according to groups of disciplines to reach the following targets by 2020: basic sciences: 9%; teachers-training, 12%; technology-technique 35%; agriculture-forestry-fisheries, 9%; health, 6%; economics-law, 20%; and others, 9%.

d/ Training level structure:

- To gradually reduce the proportion of university students from 78.4% of the total number of university and college students in 2005 to 72% by 2010, 64% by 2015 and 56% by 2020;

- To continue establishing professional secondary schools and expanding professional secondary education programs in colleges and community colleges;

- To study the development of a two-year college-level program.

e/ Forms of tertiary education institution comprise:

- Public institutions;

- Private institutions;

- Foreign-invested institutions (100% foreign investment or joint venture or association with foreign partners).

f/ The system of tertary education institutions comprises:

- National universities;

- Universities;

- Universities, institutes, colleges and community colleges.

g/ Classification of universities and colleges:

- Universities ranked among 200 world leading universities;

- Research-oriented universities;

- Applied career-oriented universities and colleges.

h/ The university and college network is regionally arranged as follows:

- The cities of Hanoi, Da Nang, Hue, Ho Chi Minh and Can Tho are training centers with large numbers of universities and colleges;

- The northwestern region currently has 5 schools (1 university and 4 colleges) and is expected to have around 10 schools by 2020 (3 universities and 7 colleges);

- The northeastern region currently has 25 schools (6 universities and 19 colleges) and is expected to have around 37 schools by 2020 (10 universities and 27 colleges);

- The Red River Delta currently has 104 schools (61 universities and 43 colleges) and is expected to have around 125 schools by 2020;

- The northern central region currently has 22 schools (11 universities and 11 colleges) and is expected to have around 45 schools by 2020;

- The coastal southern central region currently has 31 schools (10 universities and 21 colleges) and is expected to have around 60 schools by 2020;

- The Central Highlands region currently has 10 schools (4 universities and 6 colleges) and is expected to have around 15 schools by 2020;

- The southeastern region currently has 90 schools (47 universities and 43 colleges) and is expected to have around 105 schools by 2020;

- The Mekong delta currently has 24 schools (6 universities and 18 colleges) and is expected to have around 70 schools by 2020.

i/ Proportions of students and school networks according to three key economic regions:

- The northern key economic region (associated with to the Red River Delta): To gradually reduce the proportion of the region's students from 43% of the country's total number of students in 2005 to 42% by 2010 and 40% by 2020. To attract investment to found a number of 100% foreign-owned or foreign-invested joint venture universities;

- The central key economic region (associated with the coastal southern central region): To establish a number of universities and colleges with priority given to Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh to meet the human resource demand for industrialization and modernization in central provinces. To gradually raise the proportion of the region's students from 8.3% of the country's total number of students in 2005 to 10% by 2010 and 15% by 2020;

- The southern key economic region (associated with the southeastern region): To gradually reduce the proportion of the region's students from 26% of the country's total number of students at present to 25% by 2010 and 24% by 2020. To attract investment to found several 100% foreign-owned or foreign-invested joint venture universities.

4. Implementation solutions

a/ Investment and capital-raising solutions

- To step by step increase state budget for tertiary education and at the same time increase management and efficiency of the state budget use;

- To boost the socialization of education;

- To attract ODA and FDI capital for tertiary education investment;

- To step up scientific research, technology transfer and provision of high quality services in response to social needs to increase incomes for universities.

b/ Solutions on development of tertiary education lecturers and administrators;

- To increase the quantity and improve the quality of university and college lecturers to reach the required student-lecturer ratio for universities and colleges and for groups of disciplines;

- To support the training of university and college lecturers (of both public and private schools). To implement a program on training 20,000 doctors to increase the number and raise the quality of university and college lecturers;

- To elaborate and promulgate a working regulation for university and college lecturers;

- To elaborate and implement new wage schemes suitable to university and college lecturers;

- To adopt policies to attract scientists working in domestic and overseas scientific research institutes to give lectures in universities and colleges;

- To renew the assessment of university and college lecturers by adopting diversified forms of assessment by students;

- To adopt post-graduate training plans exclusively for difficulty-stricken areas.

c/ Solutions on material base improvement

- To provide land supports for universities. The minimum area for a 3,000-student college is 6 hectares; for a 5,000-student college, 10 hectares; and for a 7,000-student college, 15 hectares. The minimum area for a 5,000-student university is 10 hectares; for a 15,000-student university, 30 hectares; and for a 25,000-student university, 40 hectares or more;

To adopt measures on conversion and swapping of land and construction works attached to land for inner-city located public schools with small areas (less than 2 hectares) in big cities to relocate to suburban areas with an acreage of 10 hectares or more;

- To adopt mechanisms to help universities actively tap investment resources in order to renew their material and technical bases and equipment;

- To raise university libraries' operating capacity and quality; to set up an electronic library system linking universities in the same area, region and the whole country;

- To establish a global information network and expand international exchanges for all domestic universities and colleges;

- To re-plan and re-arrange the publishing of textbooks, and reference books and materials;

- To concentrate investment in modernizing equipment of classrooms and lecture halls; to improve the quality of services for students;

- To invest in renewing, upgrading and building student hostels, especially for universities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City; to encourage investment in building a number of university clusters in the northern, southern and central regions;

- To promote coordination among institutes, scientific and technological research centers and universities in training and research; to build a number of key national laboratories in key universities and top universities; to assign the basic research task to universities on the basis of ensuring conditions and quality. To step by step support the formation and development of technological experiment establishments in colleges.

d/ Management solutions

- To elaborate and adopt specific criteria for the establishment of universities and colleges and the training in new disciplines. To study amendments and supplements to charters and organization and operation regulations of universities to meet new requirements;

- To extensively assess and accredit the tertiary education quality; to rate universities and colleges on a regular basis;

- To build a human resource demand forecast center to provide statistical data, information, precise and full forecasts to serve the planning on development of the education sector and training establishments;

- To help single-discipline universities and colleges diversify their disciplines and training areas;

- To consolidate and raise the training capacity and quality of teachers or technical teachers colleges and faculties;

- To study the decentralization of the management of universities and colleges in conformity with practical conditions. The Ministry of Education and Training shall concentrate on performing state management of tertiary education, key universities, top universities and foreign-invested universities;

- To intensify the management of university enrolment and training to ensure quality criteria set by the Ministry of Education and Training;

- To elaborate and promulgate specific support policies to boost the socialization of education and develop private and foreign-invested universities.

5. Implementation periods

a/ The 2006-2010 period

Together with the formation of new quality universities according to planning, to focus on the consolidation and increase of investment in; to expand areas and land, supplement lecturers, equipment and material bases, and raise the training quality, of existing tertiary education establishments; to study, amend and supplement mechanisms and policies to renew and enhance the management of tertiary education quality.

b/ The 2011-2020 period

To focus on the development of a contingent of lecturers, raise the quality of universities and colleges to a higher level; to boost international integration, and adopt advanced training programs; to create a substantial change in reforming training methods in universities; to continue properly developing and expanding the university and college network in accordance with the master plan.

Article 2.- Organization of planning implementation

The Ministry of Education and Training shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with concerned ministries, agencies, localities, universities and colleges in, concretizing this master plan into specific implementation programs and plans for the direction, guidance and organization of implementation of the master plan on a yearly and periodical basis, and shall sum up and report implementation results to the Prime Minister on a regular basis.

Ministries, branches, localities and tertiary education institutions shall closely coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training in grasping and organizing the implementation of, this master plan; proactively adopt orientations and plans on development and consolidation of the university and college network within their management scope and localities, contributing to step by step improving the quality of the national university and college network according to set targets.

Article 3.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its publication in "CONG BAO."

This Decision replaces the Prime Minister's Decision No. 47/2001/QD-TTg of April 4, 2001, approving the planning on the university and college network in the 2001-1010 period.

Article 4.- Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, and presidents of provincial/municipal People's Committees shall implement this Decision.