What is the time to publicly announce university tuition fees in Vietnam?

What is the time to publicly announce university tuition fees in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Clause 5, Article 65 of the Law on Higher Education 2012 (amended by Clause 33, Article 1, Amendment to the Law on Higher Education 2018):

Tuition fees and other service charges

1. Tuition fees are amounts paid by students to higher education institutions to cover part or all of the training costs.

2. Public higher education institutions determine tuition fees as follows:

a) Higher education institutions that meet the conditions stipulated in Clause 2, Article 32 of this Law and ensure self-sufficiency in all recurrent expenditures are authorized to set their tuition fees;

b) Higher education institutions not specified in point a of this clause set tuition fees according to regulations of the Government of Vietnam;

c) Tuition fee determination must be based on technical-economic norms in accordance with the actual cost of training.

3. Private higher education institutions have the autonomy to set tuition fees.

4. Service charges for admissions and other services are determined based on the principle of covering reasonable actual costs incurred.

5. Higher education institutions must publicly disclose training costs, tuition fees, admission service charges, and other service charges for the entire course, each academic year, together with the admission announcements and on the institution's website; they have the responsibility to allocate a portion of the tuition revenue to support students in difficult circumstances.

Therefore, the time for universities to disclose tuition fees is when the university announces admissions.

What is the time to publicly announce university tuition fees in Vietnam?​ (Image from the Internet)

What are the principles of tuition fee collection for public universities in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 8 of Decree 81/2021/ND-CP, the principles of tuition collection for universities are as follows:

- Public universities that partially cover their own recurrent expenditures and public universities funded by the state for recurrent expenditures (hereinafter referred to as public universities that do not ensure self-sufficiency in recurrent expenditures) shall determine tuition fees not exceeding the ceiling specified in point a, clause 1 and point a, clause 2, Article 11 of Decree 81/2021/ND-CP;

- Public universities that ensure self-sufficiency in both recurrent and capital expenditures shall determine tuition fees according to each discipline's adjustment coefficient compared to the ceiling tuition fee applied to public universities that do not ensure self-sufficiency in recurrent expenditures as stipulated in clause 2, Article 11 of Decree 81/2021/ND-CP;

- For training programs at public universities that have achieved quality accreditation according to standards set by the Ministry of Education and Training or international or equivalent standards, the university can independently determine tuition fees for those programs based on economic-technical norms issued by the university, and must publicly explain to students and society.

What are the regulations on tuition fee collection for universities in vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 12 of Decree 81/2021/ND-CP, the regulations on tuition fee collection for universities are as follows:

- Tuition fees are collected periodically monthly; if students voluntarily agree, the school may collect fees one time for an entire semester or academic year. For short-term training and retraining courses, tuition fees are collected based on the actual number of months studied. For higher education institutions and vocational education institutions, tuition fees are collected for a maximum of 10 months per year.

- In case of natural disasters, epidemics, or force majeure events, tuition fees are collected based on the actual number of months studied (including the time organized for online teaching or make-up classes at school); no tuition is collected during the time when no teaching is organized.

Tuition fees must ensure principles based on the actual number of study months and necessary costs incurred to organize teaching, but not exceeding the total tuition collected based on the maximum number of months in a school year (a maximum of 9 months/year for preschools and general education institutions, and a maximum of 10 months/year for higher education and vocational education institutions) and must be publicly disclosed from the beginning of the school year within the educational institutions.

Provincial People's Committees submit to the People's Councils to decide on specific collection times and tuition fees for public preschools and general education institutions in their localities;

Heads of higher education institutions and vocational education institutions stipulate the collection times and tuition fees in cases of natural disasters, epidemics, or force majeure events.

- In the case of organizing teaching and learning based on credit systems, educational institutions may convert to collect tuition fees by credit, but the total tuition fees collected by credit for the entire course should not exceed the tuition fees prescribed for the course if collected annually.

- Educational institutions are responsible for organizing the collection of tuition fees and depositing them into commercial banks or the State Treasury for management and use.

In the case of collecting tuition fees in cash, the institution must periodically process procedures to transfer (deposit) all cash tuition fees remaining in the fund into the institution's account at the State Treasury or commercial banks for management according to regulations.