News and Events

Many general school teachers and university lecturers were recently found as not having  education degrees required for their jobs, while they have been working on posts for many years.

The public has been stunned by the news that a lecturer at the Hanoi Foreign Trade University, one of the most prestigious schools in Vietnam, does not have a doctorate in marketing as he declared. 

According to the school’s president Hoang Van Chau, the lecturer (NHM) was sent to France in 2002 to study at Pantheon-Sorbonne University for a doctorate in marketing. The training course was funded by the state.

When NHM returned to Vietnam in 2008, he continued working as a lecturer at the school as per a decision by the Minister of Education and Training and the decision by the school’s president.

NHM’s inaccurate declaration about the doctorate was discovered recently. He has been giving lectures to students over the last eight years as a PhD.

Inspectors found that NHM did not defend his PhD dissertation and he has no doctorate as declared.

A local newspaper quoted its sources as saying that NHM would be required to reimburse the money the state has spent to fund NHM’s study in France.

A student at the school who asked to be anonymous said though he admired the lecturer’s talent and pedagogical methods, the lecturer’s behavior was “unacceptable” and “unforgivable”.

Hoang, a member of an education forum, who introduced himself as a polytechnic university student, commented that there are two options for the lecturers. 

First, he needs to prove that the accusation is wrong by showing necessary documents related to his training course and his dissertation. 

Second, he needs to apologize to the school management board, colleagues and students and receive punishment.

“No excuse could be accepted if he has no doctorate, especially when he is a teacher, who should be an example to his students,” he commented.

Thua Thien-Hue provincial authorities are following necessary procedures to discipline three officials who used counterfeit high school degrees.

The three all are high-ranking officials of Phu Vang District’s authorities – Dao Huu Truyen, secretary of the Phu My Commune Party Committee, Le Ngoc Kien, deputy chair of the Phu Thuong Commune People’s Committee, and Hoang Cong Phuong, deputy chair of the Phu My Commune People’s Council.

Tran Thi Hang, who has been working as a teacher at Dinh Hung Primary School in Thanh Hoa province for 18 years, has been denounced for using counterfeit high school degrees. 

With a counterfeit high school degree, Hang registered to study at Thanh Hoa Intermediate School of Education in 1996-1998 and then became a teacher.