DECISION

ON THE ISSUING OF THE "REGULATION ON ADMINISTRATION OF OVERSEAS STUDENTS IN VIETNAM"

THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

In consonance with Education Law No.11/1998/QH10 of December 2, 1998;
In consonance with Government Decree No.15/CP of March 2, 1993, on tasks, rights and responsibilities of ministries and ministerial-level bodies in State control;
In consonance with Government Decree No.29/CP of March 30, 1994, on tasks, rights and organisation of the Ministry of Education and Training; and
In consonance with the proposal of the head of the Politics Department,

DECIDES

Article 1. To attach to this Decision the "Regulation Administration of Overseas Students in Vietnam".

Article 2. The Decision is effective 15 days after the date of signing; and it replaces Decision No.1815/QD of November 5, 1990, of the Minister of Education and Training regarding the issuing of the Regulation on Receiving and Controlling Lao and Cambodian Students in Vietnam. The previous regulations on overseas students in Vietnam of the former Ministry of Universities, Professional High Schools; the former Ministry of Universities, Professional High Schools and Vocational Training; and Ministry of Education and Training, which are contrary to the provisions of the "Regulation on Administration of Overseas Students in Vietnam" are null.

Article 3. Chiefs of offices, heads of related unit, under Ministry of Education and Training, directors of universities and directors of departments of education and training of localities where overseas students study assume the responsibility to implement this Decision.

REGULATION

ON ADMINISTRATION OF OVERSEAS STUDENTS IN VIETNAM
(Attached to Decision No.33/1999/QD-BGD&DT of August 25, 1999, of the Minister of Education and Training)

Chapter I

GENERAL REGULATIONS

Article 1. Scope of adjustment

The Regulation on Administration of Overseas Students in Vietnam rules that the receipt and management of training of overseas students in Vietnam who are either directly received by the Ministry of Education and Training or are allowed to study by the ministry. The receipt and management of training of overseas students at educational resources under the ministries of Defense and Police, the State Inspectorate, the Office of Public Prosecutor, the Governmental Cipher Department, the National Politics Institute and the National Administrative Institute are allowed to observe their own regulations and are not subject to the adjustment of this Regulation.

Article 2. Overseas students studying in Vietnam

1. Overseas students who are studying in Vietnam and are subject to the adjustment of this Regulation are foreign citizens entering Vietnam for study, research and practices at educational resources under Vietnam's national educational system. They include professional secondary school students, college students, university students, postgraduates, learners who come to improve professional knowledge, and finally, trainees. They are generally called overseas students.

2. Overseas students are divided into two groups:

a/ Overseas students received in consonance with the agreements between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and countries and international organisations. They are granted scholarship of the Vietnamese Government and are generally called overseas students under agreement.

b/ Overseas students received in consonance with the educational contract between Vietnamese educational resources and foreign organisations and individuals, or Overseas Vietnamese. They are generally called self-supporting overseas students.

Article 3. Language common in education

Vietnamese is the official language that overseas students must use when studying at educational resources in Vietnam. Overseas students, before entering the main training course, must have the required command of Vietnamese language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) according to the detailed regulations applied for each level of education and training. Foreigners coming to Vietnam for short term (less than one year) research and practice will be able to use a common language (using Vietnamese is not required) if the receiving resource allows this.

Chapter II

REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES FOR RECEIVING OVERSEAS STUDENTS

Article 4. Requirement of diplomas

1. Professional secondary school, college, university and post graduation training

Overseas students, before their study at professional secondary school educational resources, colleges, universities and post-graduation resources, must show their graduation certificates which are, at least, similar to those of Vietnam decreed in the Vietnam Education Law and applicable for each level of training. Those overseas students applying for post-graduation in Vietnam must work in the field they are applying for post-graduation for at least three years after their university graduation. This excludes honoured and highly honoured university graduates for whom the sending resource proposes their post graduation right after they graduate from universities.

2. Improving professional qualifications

Overseas students, before attending refresher courses for improving professionalism, must meet all requirements and criteria in consonance with the agreement between Vietnam and the sending resource or with the signed training agreement.

3. Trainees

Overseas trainees must have diplomas or certificates which are correlative to the majors and the levels of training regulated by the trainee receiving resource. In particular, those trainees who drill their Vietnamese language skills must only have been studying Vietnamese.

4. Gifted students

Overseas students who follow aptitude majors (cultures, arts, architecture, physical cultures and sports), apart from requirements of diplomas clarified in Article 4 of this regulation, must pass the examinations of their aptitudes for the field they are applying according to the regulations of Vietnamese gifted student educational resources.

Article 5. Health and age requirements

1. Health requirements

Overseas students must meet the health standards as applied to Vietnamese citizens. After entering Vietnam, overseas students must undergo health examinations. In case of infecting social and dangerous contagious diseases, the overseas student will soon be sent back to his/her home country in accordance with the regulations of Vietnam's Ministry of Health. In cases where the overseas student has common diseases, he/she will receive a three-month treatment. After that, if the treatment is proven ineffective, he/she will be sent back to his/her home country.

2. Age requirements

- Pupils and students, by the date of beginning the study, must not be over 30 years old;

- Post graduate learners, by the date of entering the course, must not be over 40 years old; and

- Age requirements are not applicable for trainees, learners who improve their professionalism, and sell-supporting overseas students.

Article 6. Application procedures of overseas students

Overseas students must have all necessary application procedures in both Vietnamese and English. These include:

- A summarised curriculum vitae;

- A copy of necessary diplomas as decreed in Article 4 of this Regulation (notarised or certified by a relevant body of the sending country);

- A duplicate of school report;

- A certificate of health (granted by a relevant body of the sending country no more than six months before the overseas student enters Vietnam);

- A draft study (applicable for post-graduation applicants and trainees);

- A certificate of professional qualifications, aptitudes, sports titles or works (applicable for gifted students); and

- Four 4 x 6cm photos (should no more than six months before the date of sending application procedures).

Article 7. Reception procedures

1. Before April 1, the sending side must transfer Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training the plan of numbers of overseas students to be sent for training with such majors as noted in the attached list.

2. Before June 15, the sending side must transfer to Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training the list of overseas students and their majors attached to the application procedures in accordance with Article 6 of this Regulation.

3. Before August 1, the Ministry of Education and Training replies to the sending side about its result of receipt of overseas students.

4. Before September 1, approved pupils and students must present in Vietnam. Post graduate learners, learners who improve professionalism, and trainees will present according to the schedules of Vietnamese educational resources after they already arrange classes and lecturers.

5. The procedures for receiving sell-supporting overseas students are fulfilled in accordance with the agreement in the signed training contract.

Article 8. Financial regime

Standards and regimes that ensure daily living, studying, examination and treatment of diseases (including the regimes on health insurance), two-way air fares (including the cases where overseas students must return home before the expiration date for any reason) and other expenses relating to overseas students are solved in accordance with the agreement or the signed training contract.

Chapter III

STUDY AND RESEARCH OF OVERSEAS STUDENTS

Article 9. Preparatory study and direct study

1. Preparatory study

- Overseas students who do not know Vietnamese will be required to attend a preparatory Vietnamese language learning programme; and after finishing the programme and before entering the main course, must undergo examinations of their Vietnamese language skills. The term for the preparatory study is identified according to the specific requirements of each level of training and of the overseas students. However, this term must not exceed one academic year.

- Overseas students who pass the examination of Vietnamese language skills will be certified and will fulfil procedures for entering the course at an educational resource arranged by Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training.

- Under-agreement overseas students who do not pass the examination of Vietnamese language skills will either be forced to return home or finance by themselves the repeating of the preparatory Vietnamese language learning programme within a maximum of one academic year. In cases where the student wishes to study at a lower grade, the sending side must send proposal, in writing, to Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training for consideration and resolution.

2. Direct study

Overseas students will be allowed to directly enter the main course once they have good command of Vietnamese language or have the certificate which testifies their practice of Vietnamese language in Vietnam for six months or more while satisfying all requirements of diplomas, health and age identified in Articles 4 and 5 of this Regulation.

Article 10. Training term

1. Professional secondary school, college, university and post graduation training

Terms of training applied to overseas students at all grades, ranging from professional secondary school to doctors degree training, will be the same as those applicable for Vietnamese citizens in accordance with the regulations of the Vietnam Education

Law.

2. Improving professional qualifications

Overseas students attending refresher courses for improving professional qualifications must observe the requirements of the training term and course programme in accordance with the agreement between Vietnam and the sending side. After the course is complete, the educational resource, within its competence, will grant certificates.

3. Trainees

Overseas students entering Vietnam for practicing their majors or practicing Vietnamese must finish the outlined programme over the term accepted by the Vietnamese side, and must regularly report to the faculty about the practice result, or must take the examinations as scheduled in the practice programme. After completion of the practice programme, the host resource will grant certificates or testily their complete practice.

Article 11. Foreign language for overseas students

- During their study and research in Vietnam, overseas students must finish the Vietnamese language programme in accordance with the general regulations;

- Apart from Vietnamese and their mother-tongue language, overseas students must learn one more foreign language determined by the educational resource. This is applicable for post graduate students and those students who study such majors such as external trade, foreign affairs, foreign languages and tourism which demand the concurrent use of many languages.

- Overseas students who desire to learn other foreign languages using their own budgets will receive all necessary assistance.

Article 12. Taking examinations, defending designs, theses, essays and graduation theses, and granting certificates

Study; research; examinations; approval of students who will continue the next courses final examinations; defence of designs, essays and theses; certifying graduation; and granting graduation certificates or certificates to overseas students at all grades, ranging from professional secondary school to doctors degree training is applicable as for Vietnamese citizens in accordance with the Regulation on Training at Different Grades issued by Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training. Apart from the original graduation certificate or certificate written in the Vietnamese language, overseas students are conferred an attached similar certificate written in English language.

Article 13. Repeating of a course

1. During the entire course, under-agreement to-be-masters students and other types of students and learners have the right to repeat the course over a year and the right to repeat their defence of theses, designs, graduation theses or final examination, but only once. During this time, overseas students can continue the regimes they are enjoying. If after a year of repeating the course the student still fails to enter the next course, or it he/she is unable to defend the thesis, design, essay, or it he/she does not pass the final re-examination, he/she must come back to the home country or follow the next sell-supporting course.

2. Under-agreement overseas students who are postgraduates must not self-willingly extend the research term. The extension of the term must be decided by Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training on the basis of the proposals in writing from a competent representative body of the sending side, from the lecturer and the director of the Vietnamese educational resource. The term can be extended over a maximum of one year. If the training programme is unfinished, the overseas student must either return to his country or continue the next self-supporting course.

Article 14. Overseas students leaving courses

Under-agreement overseas students must not self-willingly leave courses and practice programmes. They must observe the Regulation on Training at Different Grades issued by the Ministry of Education and Training and the Rule on Study and Practice at Vietnamese Educational Resources. Overseas students who exceed the total of hours of permissible absence (with or without reason) are treated as Vietnamese citizens in accordance with the above-mentioned regulation and rule.

Article 15. Changing subjects and universities

Overseas students must not sell-willingly change the major they have been studying or the study they have been researching or change the university. If desired, overseas students must address their request letter and must be approved by the sending side which will propose, in writing, that Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training consider and solve right in the first academic year. Only alter the approval, in writing, from Ministry of Education and Training, the educational resource is allowed to solve overseas students’ change of the majors, studies and practice draft, or change of universities.

Article 16. Self-supporting overseas students

1. Vietnam welcomes and gives favourable conditions for the sell-supporting study, research and practice in foreigners although they have to cover all living costs and training fees during their stay in Vietnam. Learners are free to choose their favourite majors, place of study and guiding lecturer on the basis of the direct agreement and the Training Contract signed with Vietnamese educational resources. All self-supporting overseas students related issues are solved on the basis of the Training Contract and the provisions of the Regulation on Administration of Overseas Students in Vietnam.

2. After receiving the notice of Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training regarding the shifting to the self-supporting study, under-agreement overseas students must directly sign a Training Contract with the Vietnamese educational resource in accordance with the regulations in Point 1 of this Article. In particular, for the return air ticket, stipulations in Article 8 of this Regulation are applicable.

Chapter IV

RESPONSIBILITIES OF RESOURCES THAT TRAIN, AUTHORISE AND SERVE OVERSEAS STUDENTS

Article 17. Responsibilities of educational resources that receive and train preparatory overseas students

Educational resources receiving and training preparatory overseas students assume the responsibility for the training programmes and preparatory text books in the categories of groups in training majors, levels of training and objects of training (overseas students). These resources must also join with main course training resources in examining Vietnamese language skills after the preparatory training course ends; grant certificates or certify that overseas students have required command of Vietnamese language skills after examination; and report on the study and study result of overseas students to the Ministry of Education and Training after completing the preparatory training course.

Article 18. Responsibilities of educational resources receiving under-agreement overseas students

1. Take the responsibility for the training programme and plans and professional quality of training overseas students. This relates to arranging accommodation, classrooms and guiding lecturers; overseeing and controlling their study and research: granting graduation certificates or other types of certification according to their competence; and after every semester and every academic year and after the course, reporting to the Ministry in Education and Training about the study and study result of overseas students;

2. Link with the educational resource which trains preparatory overseas students in examining their Vietnamese language skills before receiving them for the main course:

3. Link with responsible bodies in solving all issues in relation to overseas students during the course.

Article 19. Responsibilities of educational resources which receive and train self-supporting overseas students

1. Only receive and train self-supporting oversea students, with such majors that the educational source is authorised to train;

2. Compile the Training Contract, and before the signing with foreign partners, report to the Ministry of Education and Training for approval;

3. Formulate documents and list of self-supporting overseas students in consonance with the signed Training Contract for report to the Ministry of Education and Training, and work with related responsible bodies to fulfil necessary procedure, for the receipt of self-supporting overseas students;

4. Fulfil the responsibilities for education and training in consonance with the provisions in the signed Training Contract

5. Control the revenues from and expenses of study fees of overseas students in accordance with the existing financial regulations; and

6. Send self-supporting overseas students (if necessary) to the educational resource which provides preparatory Vietnamese language courses for overseas students in accordance with the agreement and the direct contract with the training resource.

Article 20. Responsibilities of resources controlling and serving overseas students

The Overseas Students Serving Centre and educational resources that host overseas students in their hostels must take the responsibility:

1. To receive, control and be responsible for material lives of overseas students who are within their scope of authority;

2. To co-ordinate with responsible bodies to promptly solve all issues related to overseas students who are within the scope of their authority; and

3. To observe the policies and regimes of the Vietnamese State towards overseas students and the regime on regular report to the Ministry of Education and Training on the status of overseas students.

Chapter V

OBLIGATIONS AND RIGHTS OF OVERSEAS STUDENTS

Article 21. Equality among overseas students

All overseas students who enter Vietnam for study, research and practice have equal obligations and rights to study, research, practice and live.

Article 22. Obligations of overseas students

Overseas students have obligations as follow:

1. Observe the laws of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and respect Vietnamese customs;

2. Fulfil the University Rule, the Regulation on Administration of Overseas Students in Vietnam, the Regulation on Administration of Pupils and Students in training resources, and the Rule on Study and Lives;

3. Fulfil the task of studying and researching in accordance with the training programme and plan stipulated by the educational resource;

4. Maintain friendly relations with the Vietnamese and with overseas students from other countries;

5. Keeping and protecting assets of the educational resource that trains governs and serves overseas students; and

6. During their study, research and practice in Vietnam, under-agreement overseas students who wish to enter the third country must have letter of request and must be permitted by the educational resource. The educational resource provides recommendation for fulfilling visa procedures after the permission, in writing, of the sending, competent body.

Article 23. Overseas students have the following rights:

1. To receive the equal respect and treatment from the educational resource which trains, governs and serves overseas students as towards Vietnamese citizens; to access adequate information necessary for their study and corresponding to the real capacity of the educational resource;

2. Under-agreement overseas students are monthly granted scholarship in the Vietnamese dong which is calculated from the date of entering Vietnam, including the summer holiday and a month after graduation (from the date of defending designs, theses essays or of taking the final examination). They are provided with accommodations in hostels in consonance with the agreement signed between Vietnam and the sending side;

3. To access facilities of overseas students training, governing and serving resources which cater to such purposes as study, cultural activities, physical cultures and sports;

4. To be allowed to partake in cultural, arts and sports festivities of the overseas students training, governing and serving resources;

5. To be allowed to take part in scientific research of the educational resource as for Vietnamese students;

6. To be recognised if they record high-profile result of study and scientific research and to be granted occupational allowance as decreed in the Vietnamese existing regulations;

7. To be allowed to return to their home countries during the summer holiday and other holidays and to be allowed to invite the relatives to visit them in accordance with the Vietnamese regulations;

8. To be allowed to leave study over a maximum of one academic year (without receiving the scholarship) for solving personal businesses if the reasons are acceptable and the absence is permitted by the sending side, the educational resource and Vietnam', Ministry of Education and Training; and

9. The collective of overseas students from the same country who study at the same university or live in the same hostel is allowed to vote its representative who will oversee the collective and contact with the training, governing and serving resource for solving related problems.

Chapter VI

APPRAISAL, REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS

Article 24. Apprasing, rewarding and punishing overseas students

1. Appraisals and rewards

Overseas students who report outstanding achievements in their study, research and friendly activities will be appraised and rewarded in consonance with the regulations of Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training.

2. Punishment;

Overseas students will be punished, according to the level of seriousness of the violation once they violate the laws of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the University Rule, the Regulation on Administration of Overseas Students in Vietnam, the Regulation on Administration of Pupils and Students in Training Resources, the Regulation on Training at Different Grades, and the Rule on Study and Lives. The levels of punishment follow:

a/ Blaming

b/ Warning

The director of the resource that trains, governs and serves, overseas students determines levels a/ and b/.

c/ Suspending the study, research and practice, and returning to the sending country:

d/ Proposing prosecution in accordance with the Vietnamese laws.

Levels c/ and d/ are proposed by the director of the resource that trains, governs and serves overseas students and are approved by the Minister of Education and Training.

Article 25. Appraising, rewarding and punishing resources, which train, govern and serve overseas students

Collectives and individuals that report outstanding achievements in training, controlling and serving overseas students, or violate the provisions of the regulation on Administration of Overseas Students in Vietnam will be treated in accordance with the existing general regulation on appraisals, rewards and punishments of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.