Many lecturers don’t know what they’re teaching

There are at least two English pedagogy lecturers at two major universities in Ho Chi Minh City who nevertheless hold a PhD in comparative language, revealed Dr Vu Thi Phuong Anh, of an association of private junior colleges and universities.

Dr Anh cited this as evidence of a common phenomenon in which college lecturers at many city universities do not have the expertise in what they are teaching.

T. University, for example, has publicly announced on its website that lecturer T.D.H.T. is in charge of a computer programming course whereas he has an MBA.

The lecturer is even assigned to teach IT applications in accounting in the first semester of this academic year.

The school has similarly tasked D.D.V., another MBA holder, with teaching the web design discipline.

Dr Kieu Xuan Hung, vice president of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, admits that many lecturers with an MBA degree are teaching technology courses at the school.

Likewise, an academic affairs chief at a private university says a dozen have a master’s degree in disciplines irrelevant to what they are lecturing there.

A veteran educator revealed that around 20 percent of the city college lecturers have a master’s or doctoral degree in an unrelated major.

Why?

This is a matter of paperwork as these people earned the degrees just to stay in their job, for the Law on Higher Education stipulates that only those having a master’s degree or higher qualifications are allowed to teach undergraduate courses.

Some educators said that majors like education management, comparative linguistics, and business administration are considered a way out for lecturers wishing to settle this paperwork matter.

“In Vietnam, it is easier for them to get a graduate degree in these majors because they can even ask others to do coursework for them,” Dr Anh, from the college association, explained.

Dr Pham Xuan Hau, with the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, pointed out a case in which a lecturer with a bachelor’s degree in English teaching opted for education management in his graduate program as he was ineligible to follow a master’s course in teaching the foreign language.

“This is not a unique case,” Dr Hau said.