The Ministry of Education and Training announced a draftdecree stipulating the criteria to move universities and colleges to theoutskirts of big cities at a meeting in Hanoi yesterday (March 11, 2011).
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Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga said there were two main criteria for the relocation of universities and colleges in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Each student should have between 20 and 30 square metres to serve their study activities; 10 to 15 square metres for accommodation and 10 square metres for exercise.
That land must belong to the universities or colleges, and leased land would not count, Ga said.
Under the new criteria, 19 universities and colleges would be completely relocated while 16 would be partially relocated out of the 62 in inner Hanoi. All together, about 283,000 students would need to relocate.
In Ho Chi Minh City, 17 institutions would be completely relocated with 13 partially shifted out of the 69 universities and colleges based in the city. Around 170,000 students would be relocated.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said the relocation process must have comprehensive planning, policies and co-operation between authorities and schools as it would directly affect students.
Nhan urged the ministry to work with the Ministry of Construction and asked the two cities to complete their planning before March 20.
The plan, together with the list of schools to be relocated, would be submitted to the Government by the end of May.
The plan to move universities and colleges was conceived in 2007 under Prime Minister's Decision 121/2007. According to the general scheme, Ha Noi would have eight university collective zones, and there would be up to 65 square metres of land per student.