Many Vietnamese universities have been discovered running off-campus Masters degree programs in violation of the education ministry’s regulations on graduate course training.

The Ministry of Education and Training requires universities to teach courses at their official campus or authorized branches, but infringements, even by top-tier schools, are not uncommon.

The School of Law under the Vietnam National University – Hanoi (VNUHN), the country’s flagship university bloc, announced in April that it was recruiting students for a criminal law master’s program to be taught at Dong A University, located in the central city of Da Nang.

The curriculum is designed by VNUHN, which will confer degrees on graduates as well, the school affirmed.

This was the third of its kind to have been run at the Da Nang university so far, Nguyen Huu Tuan Huy, a Dong A official, told Tuoi Tre.

Huy added that Dong A merely leased campus space to the law school, which provided lecturers and was in charge of the entire teaching process.

“But that was rule breaking anyway,” he said.

One month later, the National Academy of Public Administration, with campuses in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, looked for enrollees for its master’s programs to be offered in the southern province of Binh Thuan.

Tuoi Tre has also learned that the academy has recruited master’s candidates in the northern province of Quang Ninh for quite a time.       

A deputy education minister told the newspaper that the ministry will release a circular this week to establish a framework for the regulation of these master’s programs and crack down on such violations.