Universities fight to retain qualified staff

Hanoi (VNA) - Grappling with a shortage of qualified human resources, universities are seeking methods to retain teachers by increasing their allowances, expanding recruitment and creating better conditions for young teachers to attend professional training courses.

Deputy principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, associate
professor Trinh Phoi, said the university's recruitment drive aiming to hire
60 lecturers was launched in July, but so far only 30 candidates had passed
the initial writing exam.

In previous years when the school organised exams to recruit lecturers,
there were more candidates, according to the principal.

Phoi said both the number of registered candidates and quality of
recruitment documents this year was poorer than in previous years.

"Maybe we will organise one more recruitment campaign," he said.

A representative of HCM City Economic University explained the
recruitment target would depend on the needs of each faculty.

Nguyen Quoc Hop, head of the training office at Van Hien Private
University , said there was a growing trend of lecturers switching jobs
after only a short period of work, which has forced universities to find
ways to retain qualified lecturers.

According to Hop, the school has increased allowances for teachers and
also plans to bring out a new payroll that will increase incomes for all of
the university's staff.

Many universities have created conditions for their teachers to attend
training courses sponsored by international organisations.

Jointly organised with Germany 's Justus-Liebig Giessen University ,
Hanoi Law University recently inaugurated a training course on
administrative law in market economies. The course has attracted 40 trainees
who are law teachers at various universities in Hanoi .

Professor Le Minh Tam, principal of Hanoi Law University , said
training and cultivating human resources for legal education was crucial in
the country's current economic situation.

Vu Van Tuy, deputy director of the Ministry of Justice's Education
Department agreed, saying Vietnam 's lack of a large work force of
qualified legal officials was apparent after the nation entered the World
Trade Organisation.

Foreign Trade University has so far sent 100 teachers to
domestic and foreign professional training courses, Training costs for
domestic courses alone was about 300 million VND.

Universities try to employ graduates who top exams, however attractive job
opportunities with high incomes offered by enterprises were luring even
these less experienced graduates away.-Enditem