It is a young and dynamic city and the destination of a lot of investors, tourists, and people searching to settle down. Despite its strong development the last decade, the “Livable City” of Danang maintains its distinctiveness, which few other places can. One should mention the stability of the cost of living, the safety of the living environment, the modern and spacious roads, the diverse career opportunities, and the tuition fees which, for high school as well as for university, are lower than in South & North Vietnam.
Danang to live in and to visit
Danang is one of the most attractive tourist cities in Vietnam with its mild and pretty beaches. One can get to Danang overland, by air, or over sea, and it is an ideal transfer hub for visitors to the world heritage sites of Hue, My Son, and Hoi An, as well as to Bana Hills, Non Nuoc beach, Tien Sa beach, or the world biosphere reserve of Cham Island.
The beauty of the seaside city of Danang
Besides being the largest city in the Central Vietnam–Central Highlands region, Danang is one of the leading socioeconomic hubs of the country. Nevertheless, the city conserves its lifestyle like it was when the city was still taking shape. Social ills are few, the quality of living high, and the people are unpretentious, friendly, and welcoming. Danang also gave birth to many outstanding, dynamic, youthful, creative, and life-loving people. The city is often selected to hold the Miss Vietnam beauty pageant, gathering the youthful beauty of pretty and talented young women from all over the country. The naturalness and simplicity of the land and the people of Danang, besides many other of their characteristics, have been enchanting many young people and attracting them to live here.
Cost of living and student rooms from only from 1.5 to 2 million VND per month
Every year at the opening of the academic year, freshmen admitted to university flock to Danang. The city is home to many universities of renown in Central Vietnam. These schools all offer a variety of degrees in a multitude of majors: economics & management, foreign languages, literature, and journalism, and even engineering, IT, construction, architecture, medicine, and tourism.
Besides a place to live in peace, most students need a reasonable cost of living above all else, as most families nowadays do not yet have the abundant finances they would like. And Danang meets this requirement. For only about 15 or 20 thousand VND, you can get a nutritious breakfast. Food prices are not high, especially of fish, shrimp, crab, squid, etc. which are fresh and tasty but not prohibitively expensive thanks to the local supply from the fishing villages and neighborhoods which have been here for many generations. The cost of living is therefore only about 1.5 or 2 million VND per month.
The modern study environment at DTU, the first private university in Central Vietnam
In Danang, the rent for a student room is also quite low. According to surveys, the areas students choose to rent rooms in are in part in the city center, where it is easy to get around. Even in areas considered expensive, such as the area of Dien Bien Phu, Me Nhu, and Nguyen Duc Trung, the Hoa Khanh area, or the area of Nguyen Van Linh and Phan Than, rent is also only about 1.5 or 2 million VND per month or lower. Rooms with air conditioning are rented for
2.5 million VND per month or more. In more remote parts of the city, about 1 million VND per month can get you a room with space for more students.
Of note is the Danang city collection of student dormitories located in Lien Chieu district and in Ngu Hanh Son district, meant for all students regardless of which university in the city they are at. The cost to live in these dormitories is about 100 thousand VND per month. With an area of 37,322 m² and spacious and modern five-story blocks, they meet all student requirements: gardens, social space, recreation & sports, management quarters, library, canteen, minimarket, coffee hall, cheap laundry, free Wi-Fi, and so on. Furthermore, student management through automatic magnetic cards at the city student dormitories creates a modern and civilized lifestyle.
Low tuition compared to North & South
Tuition fees are known to have made record increases two, three years ago, through the announcement of universities in many localities throughout the country, and especially in the big cities. This jeopardizes the university dream of many prospective students.
Tuition fees in the health sciences, for example, tended to enjoy most interest of all after the announcement to considerably increase tuition from the Universities of Medicine & Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City & Hanoi. Tuition for Medical Practitioner at many public schools in Ho Chi Minh City surpassed 70 million VND per annum, while in Hanoi this is 60 million VND per annum. Tuition for Odonto-Stomatology at several private universities in Ho Chi Minh City surpassed 100 or even 150 million VND per annum. Tuition for Nursing, Medical Technology, and Testing in Danang are only from 15 to over 20 million VND per annum; for Pharmacy fees are from 30 to over 40 million VND per annum, and for General Practitioner and Odonto-Stomatology they are from 30 to over 70 million VND per annum, depending on the school.
…meeting all requirements for studying, which is why many young people choose to study university in Danang
For many other majors, tuition in the two extremities of the country exceeds 30 or even 40 million VND per annum at both public and private institutions. Advanced and high-quality programs even go beyond this with a factor of 1.5 to 2. Meanwhile at universities in Danang, tuition fluctuates around only 15 or 25 million VND per annum. Advanced and high-quality programs do not go much over 30 million VND per annum here. Training quality and prestige, from their side, is not less at schools in Danang compared to other regions. DTU and Danang University are two examples that can always be found at high positions in the world’s university rankings, like in QS Ranking, THE (Times Higher Education), and Webometrics.
Government student credit of 4 million per month
Besides leaving applicants to choose the university they like best, the state has many new policies that have been providing the best possible financial support to students for their university studies.
Recently, the Prime Minister amended and supplemented a number of articles in Decree number 157/2007/QÐ-TTg of September 27, 2007, on student credit. Accordingly, students of both high school and university can receive loans of at most 4 million VND per month.
With such a loan, most students in Danang will only spend about half on tuition, and the other half will be left for living expenses. Students in North & South, however, will only have enough to pay for monthly tuition, while living expenses and other costs will have to be carried by their families or by the students themselves, meaning many will need to work to make a living instead of spending focused time on their studies.
(Media Center)