It has been tomtomed in expert circles and in the press for years that many universities of dubious quality are being established, but this has not stopped citizens from patronizing them in search of higher education.
Every year more than one million high school graduates attend university entrance exams held in July.
Many of those who fail to get their places at public schools turn to private ones, including those of sub-par quality, as long as they are labeled universities. The belief that a university certificate will give its holder a good social position and a good job is still widely prevalent in the country.
On the other hand, as these private colleges and universities can only operate when they have enough students, and the more the better, many of these institutions lower their threshold to as low as scores of 16 to 20 percent at the entrance exams.
As many students with poor academic track records get out of college after receiving training of inferior quality, it is no wonder that complaints abound about Vietnamese graduates for both lack of knowledge as well as of soft skills needed to succeed in a competitive environment.
The question here is how tough are the measures that agencies are taking to deal with these sub-par schools? The answer is they have been allowed to operate for years despite repeated criticism and even scandalous exposures.
This leads us not only to the need for tougher and more effective measures to improve the quality of tertiary education in the country, but also to the need for a change in attitude.
We have to realize and accept that a university degree is not the be all and end all of education; that a college graduation certificate is not the only thing that ensures good jobs, education and a decent life; that vocational schools can offer all the things that we look for – employment and other income generation avenues.
This craze for the certificate can actually limit and stunt the talent and skills of many young people, who would otherwise excel in other fields.
Isn’t it high time that an effective campaign brought about this awareness and dealt a death blow to sub-standard and dysfunctional academic education?
