The Viet Nam National University in Ha Noi has been accused of violating regulations on international training co-operation programmes, placing the BA and MBA degrees of more than 2,000 graduates in doubt. 

Government inspectors made the accusations after inspections of the programmes between 2006 and 2010.

The university and its member schools' income-and-expenditure activities were also inspected and files sent to the police for further investigation.

The files relate to financial transactions between the Centre for Educational Technology and Career Development and Education (ETC) and its training partner, the Ecotourism Investment Development Joint Stock Company.

Inspectors said 16 of the 20 programmes between the university and foreign universities had operated without documents to prove the foreign partners' legal entity.

The files of students who applied for BA programmes between the university and the America-based Griggs University did not have score papers of the university entrance exams as required by the Ministry of Education and Training, they said.

Eleven programmes for the MBA degrees allowed students to graduate without writing and defending a graduation thesis, as ruled by the ministry, they said.

Students did not need take entrance exams in nine programmes.

The inspectors proposed the Government not recognise BA and MBA degrees of more than 2,000 students who graduated under the university's international training co-operation programmes.

However, in response to the inspectors' conclusions, university deputy director Vu Minh Giang told the Viet Nam News he had not received information of the claims.

"I have only heard via the mass media," Giang said.

"According to foreign university regulations, students do not need to take entrance exams, so it is ridiculous if Vietnamese regulations on education and training are applied to international training co-operation programmes." 

Besides, foreign universities often design two training programmes for MBA degrees including research and course work, he said, adding that onlystudents in research programmes had to write graduation theses, while students in course work programmes just wrote essays.

"Thousands of Vietnamese people study at international universities now, so I wonder which international university degrees will be recognised and how," he said. 

Source: VNS