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The Ministry of Education and Training is seeking public feedback on a draft decree to replace Government Decree 86 of 2018, as revised by Decree 124 of 2024, on foreign cooperation and investment in education.
In furtherance of the Party Central Committee’s Resolution 71-NQ/TW of 2025, the draft aims to promote decentralisation, reduce administrative burdens and shift from pre-licensing approval to post-licensing oversight, while enhancing transparency and accountability.
Increasing forms of education cooperation
For early childhood education and general education, the draft provides three cooperation models: enhanced domestic curricula, integrated domestic-foreign curricula, and entirely foreign curricula.
Notably, the quota on Vietnamese students enrolled in foreign upper-secondary programmes would be removed, provided such programmes cover all compulsory subjects under the national curriculum. However, public schools must ensure that cooperation with foreign education institutions does not interfere with compulsory education, their assigned educational tasks or students’ right to study.
At the higher education level, cooperation would cover implementation of joint training programmes involving the issuance of foreign degrees or certificates; cooperation to establish research institutes, innovation centres and key laboratories; and establishment of campuses of foreign universities in Vietnam.
For vocational education, permitted forms of cooperation would include joint training and establishment of specialised faculties, centres or units.
Enhancing autonomy and streamlining procedures
Under the draft, education institutions would be given greater autonomy in joint training activities with foreign partners, empowering them to make decision in accordance with their internal procedures. Prior approval would be retained only for cases requiring enhanced quality control.
For cooperation in the organisation of examinations and issuance of foreign certificates, the draft similarly shifts towards post-licensing control, while requiring compliance with regulations on information disclosure and data updates.
It also seeks to avoid repeatedly imposing conditions and procedures for establishment and operation licensing already provided under the investment law and relevant decrees.
Strengthening transparency and accountability
The draft strengthens the accountability of education institutions, investors and other stakeholders through mandatory information disclosure, data updates, reporting and feedback mechanisms.
It also introduces compliance assessment and risk classification mechanisms, with priority given to remote monitoring based on open data and information, feedback from students and teachers, and quality accreditation results.
The proposed approach is expected to help safeguard students’ rights while increasing transparency and stakeholder accountability.
- (VLLF)
