Recently, the Minister of Education and Training has issued Circular No. 38/2020/TT-BGDDT providing for joint training programs for bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees delivered by online and blended learning methods.
The Circular applies to higher education institutions legally established and operating in Vietnam, academies, and institutes established by the Prime Minister in accordance with the Law on Science and Technology that are permitted to train doctoral degrees (hereinafter referred to as Vietnamese training institutions), foreign higher education institutions, and relevant organizations and individuals.
The Circular allows training institutions to perform joint training in the form of combining with the time being taught online not exceeding 30% of the total teaching time of the training program. At the university level, domestic and foreign training institutions can link in the online form. For master's and doctoral degrees, currently, training institutions are linked in the form of combined with online teaching time up to 30% of the total teaching time of the program. For joint master's or doctoral programs, the online or blended curriculum must reach 20% of the total teaching time of the program or more. The Circular also requires domestic and foreign training institutions to have experience in implementing online and combined training.
Besides, the Circular also stipulates that the content of education quality assurance in the project on joint training with foreign countries must clearly describe: Facilities, equipment, portal, system server system and Internet connection infrastructure, learning management system, learning content management system, e-learning materials serving the organization and management of online training links; the satisfaction of the regulations for lecturers participating in the joint program implementation.
Associate parties in organizing training association activities are responsible for formulating and promulgating specific regulations for training association programs by the Circular and relevant legal regulations about: enrollment, training organization and management, some learners in the class, exams, tests, process assessment, and final assessment of modules, project defense, thesis, thesis, thesis, storing and securing information. In particular, the Circular stipulates that the training institution will have to reimburse the learners' tuition fees if the higher education institution violates the regulations, resulting in the learner not being granted a degree or the granted diploma is not recognized in the country where foreign higher education institutions are headquartered.
