Training postgraduates themselves to create lecturers for is the way many universities are following to upgrade their lecturing staff.

Offering preferences to lure young lecturers

Associate Professor Huynh Thanh Hung, Deputy President of the HCM City University for Agriculture and Forestry, has affirmed that it is now difficult to recruit young lecturers, but this is not impossible mission.

He said that the school always welcomes the excellent graduates who want to join the school’s lecturing staff and seek the opportunities to study further. Once employed to work as lecturers, the graduates can have the chances to go studying abroad or attend domestic training courses. Besides, in order to help young lecturers live on their job, the school has been trying to help the lecturers earn legal extra money to have “acceptable income.”

Meanwhile, non-state owned schools prove to be even more flexible in luring lecturers. Le Anh Tuan from the Thanh Dong University in Hai Duong province, said that the school aims to attract young lecturers, especially the local ones. He said that young lecturers would accept the pay equal to that offered by state owned schools, while they can work near their homes and can expect promotions in their jobs.

Especially, the school has promised to offer good allowances, including considering allocate accommodations to qualified lecturers, and offering extra income.

Nguyen Viet Thinh, President of the Hanoi University of Education, said his experience in recruiting lecturers is that it would be better not to employ lecturers at the same age. “They prove to be dynamic, eager for learning and innovative. However, they usually do not recognise each other’s talents, which may lead to disunity if the lecturers are put at different positions,” he said.

Training lecturers themselves has become more popular

Nguyen Manh Hung, President of the Hong Bang International University, said that from the 2011-2012 academic year, the school will have young lecturers to work under the “training exchange” programme.

The school carries out some training programmes in cooperation with the schools of some countries such as Cuba, Mongolia and Cambodia. In return, the school’s lecturers obtain the scholarships to go attending training courses abroad for master degree and doctorates. At least five masters and PhD will return to work to school after finishing their training courses in Japan, South Korea and the US.

To date, the school has also has been organising self-training for 30 young graduates who will become the lecturers of the school and have master and higher degrees. The young lecturers will replace the lecturers who are getting old. By doing this, the school hopes to take initiative in using the high quality labor force.

The HCM City University for Agriculture and Forestry has also been running a programme on producing lecturers for itself. Vice President Huynh Thanh Hung said approximately 150 out of the 650 lecturers are attending training courses to become masters and PhDs who will become help upgrade the teaching staff of the school.

Commenting about the training programmes run by schools, Associate Professor Van Nhu Cuong, a well-known educator in Vietnam, said that no matter what schools do, the most important thing they must do in order to attract lecturers is to offer acceptable pay. If only receiving 3 million dong a month, no one wants to become lecturers.

He emphasised that if the state does not change the salary mechanism, it will not be able to attract talented people. The state now spends 20 percent of the budget on developing education, which is believed a big sum of money. However, the problem is that the money has been thrown into unnecessary projects.

“I know some projects that cost tens of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, the projects just aim to send English teachers abroad to attend training courses. This is really a big waste, and it would be better to use that sum of money to pay to lecturers,” Cuong said.