The experiment of innovating universities’ modi operandi the Prime Minister approved will allow both public and private institutes to be more proactive when enrolling students and gives them autonomy in their finances, starting from 2015-2016. For that same academic year, many public universities are making a leap into a new tuition regime.
So, how do tuition fees at DTU compare to those at other non-public universities?
As a private university that has been growing for over 20 years and that has received the recognition of the government, the Ministry of Education and Training, and of society as a whole, DTU has been able to establish its brand and to gain prestige in the sphere of domestic education. At the same time, DTU always takes care to share in parents and students’ economic burden, with a focus on having stable tuition fees. In past years, DTU has consistently enacted preferential tuition regimes and many policies supporting students to borrow money or pay reduced tuitions together with handing out valuable scholarships to students with outstanding academic achievements.
Exhibition room with designs made by Architecture Faculty students
Tuition fees at DTU are not high compared to those at many other private universities. Specifically for 2014-2015, DTU tuitions were at 13.1 million VND/year; at Thang Long University, they amounted to 17 million/year; at Van Lang University to 16-25 million/year... And there are some with very high tuition fees such as Hoa Sen University at 36–39 million/year, FPT University at 36-46 million/annum, and Saigon International University at 42-49 million/annum.
Tuition fee hike at public universities...
Currently, the notion that non-public universities charge high tuition fees combined with the rather large gap in tuitions between public and private universities has led to not a little head-scratching among parents and applicants when choosing the school. Recently, new information about tuitions at non-public universities and of the rather sudden increase in tuition fees at public universities for 2015-2016 has painted a rather coherent picture of the price of investing in education for parents and applicants.
Thanh Nien Newspapers and VnExpress reported that, for the upcoming 2015-2016 enrollment season, many of Vietnam’s large public universities have collectively implemented sharp increases in their tuitions. Among them, Hanoi University upped its tuitions from 7.8 million in 2014-2015 to 12 million VND/year in 2015–2016. At Ton Duc Thang University they went up to 14.9 million VND/year, University of Finance-Marketing will charge 14.5 million VND/year, and at University of Economics HCMC it also goes up to 14.5 million VND/year. The planning of these universities for 2016-2017 foresees a further increase of around 2 million VND/year on top of the 2015-2016 fees. Furthermore, many other universities, such as Foreign Trade University and Industrial University HCMC, also submitted autonomy proposals to the government.
Duy Tan University - the First Private University in Central Vietnam
A multi-level, multi-disciplinary university, DTU has created educational programs in accord with its students’ study needs, corresponding with a credit-based tuition policy. Students at DTU pay a fixed fee for 16 credits/semester or 32 per academic year. Thus, each semester the regular tuition fee (universal program) at DTU is 6.56 million VND, and tuition for one year is 13.1 million - a number that is equal to or lower than what is charged by a number of public universities, which increased for 2015-2016. The interesting thing in DTU’s credit-based tuitions is that students can sign up for up to 19 credits per semester (but only pay for 16), with the 3 excess credits per semester or the 6 credits per year free of cost. Furthermore, the five Physical Education credits and the eight Defense Education credits for the entire course are completely “gratis” for DTU students.
DTU students at the library
DTU rolled out a rather impressive reduced tuition system for students in difficult situations with good study results, such as tuitions discounted with 20-45% for outstanding students from poor communes with average scores of 3.2 to 4.0 at DTU. Students of Literature and Journalism and of Culture and Tourism can get a 50% discount on their tuition for all 4 study years, and those studying Environmental Technology & Engineering or Resource and Environmental Management can get 20% off. In particular, students of the first course of the On-Site Study-Abroad program of DTU in collaboration with Upper Iowa University, US, starting in 2015, will only have to pay 2,500 USD per annum (down 50% from the full tuition of 5,000$/year). Upper Iowa’s tuition fees in the US are around 25,000 USD/annum. At DTU, Upper Iowa will coordinate with DTU and award regular diplomas (like in the US) for the On-Site Study-Abroad program. Apart from the above-mentioned preferential tuitions, DTU also gives students the opportunity to take loans of up to 10 million VND/year from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies in Danang.
In tandem with the policy of tuitions adapted to each student, in 2015 DTU rolled out a “gargantuan” scholarship system to give wings to thousands of students. This includes 50 Full Scholarships of 800 million VND each for students with a high score in the On-Site Study-Abroad program, and 1,200 scholarships with a total value of 5 billion VND, including scholarships from University of Pennsylvania, one of the three world-leading universities in Management & Tourism, and from aircraft manufacturer Boeing, IBM Corporation, and Microsoft.
Dr Vo Thanh Hai, DTU Permanent Vice-Provost, said: “Issuing a suitable tuition fee policy with many benefits for the students, so as to create training opportunities for the students, are the university’s very strategic target for working towards a generation of intellectual and skilled students. DTU always publishes its tuition fees on its website with a stable total, and students don’t have to pay any extras at all. DTU’s tuition and scholarship policies have given a lot of support to many students at our university.”
The tuition is not high: 13.1 million VND/year - for being able to receive training in a prestigious and high-quality educational environment with notable achievements, such as large national and international prizes awarded to DTU teachers and students - are a smart and right choice, opening a new door towards more future achievements for many applicants in this 2015–2016 enrollment season.
(Media Center)