The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training announced a draft new tuition fee plan for the 2010-2015 period, under which the fees will not be allowed to surpass 5% of residents’ average income, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported Dec 16. Under the draft, the new tuition fees applied from the 2010-2011 school year for preschools, junior and senior high schools will be different for each region. Accordingly, the monthly fees for students in urban areas will be from VND40,000 ($2.16) to VND200,000; for rural areas will be VND20,000-VND80,000 and for mountainous areas will be VND5,000-VND40,000. Meanwhile, tuition fees for university students will be specific for six groups of majors: social sciences, economics and law (group I); technology and engineering (group II); natural sciences (group III); agriculture-forestry-fishery (group IV); medicine and pharmacy (group V) and sports and arts (group VI). Students of the group V will pay the highest monthly fees of between VND340,000 and VND800,000, while those of the group I and group IV pay the lowest fees of between VND290,000 and VND550,000. The monthly new tuition fees for vocational training students will be VND260,000-VND440,000.
From the 2011-2012 academic year, tuition fees will be adjusted annually based on the average consumption price index (CPI) released by the government, the ministry said. Vietnam welcomes 22 million pupils and students in the 2009-2010 school year. Of them, 3.47 million attend nursery schools and kindergarteners; around 6.84 million join primary schools; 9.1 million take part in high schools and more than 1.8 million attend universities.
