Circular No. 08/2021/TT-BGDDT promulgating the Regulation on University Education

REGULATION ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATION
(Promulgated together with the Circular No. 08/2021/TT-BGDDT dated March 18, 2021 of the Minister of Education and Training)

_________________

Chapter I
GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of regulation and subject of application

1. This Regulation provides general regulations on organization and management of university-level training, including: training program and study time; forms and approaches of training; planning and organization of teaching; assessment of learning outcomes and granting of diplomas; and other regulations for students.

2. This Regulation applies to universities, academies, colleges; schools of state agencies, political organizations, socio-political organizations tasked with university-level training (hereinafter referred to as educational institutions), organizations and individuals involved in full-time and part-time training. Training programs with diplomas awarded by foreign educational institutions, including inter‐institutional collaboration training programs, are subject to this regulation, or the regulations of the degree-granting educational institutions under the training collaboration agreements between the parties, which are not contrary to the provisions of this Regulation.

3. This Regulation shall serve as the basis for presidents of universities and academies; rectors of senior colleges, schools run by state agencies, political organizations, socio-political organizations (hereinafter referred to as rectors), and educational institutions to develop and issue specific regulations (hereinafter referred to as regulations of educational institutions), including the organization of training at the university level and even the trainer level for a number of in-depth academic majors as specified at Point a, Clause 1, Article 14 of the Government’s Decree No. 99/2019/ND-CP dated December 30, 2019, detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education.

Article 2. Training programs and study time

1. Training programs shall be built based on units of credit and structured from subjects or courses (hereinafter referred to as courses), in which all compulsory courses shall be included, and the training program standards as prescribed by current regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training shall be met. In the case of dual-disciplinary training or academic major – minor training, the training programs shall clearly show the general and specialized quantity of study for each academic major.

2. The contents and output standards of the training programs shall be generally applicable to different forms and methods of training and learners. For those who have graduated from another degree or other academic major, the actual quantity of study shall be determined based on recognition or conversion of accumulated credits and exemption of courses of the previous training programs.

3. The training programs shall be made public to learners before enrollment and at the beginning of the training courses; the changes and adjustments related to the training programs shall be made in accordance with current regulations and announced before being applied, without adverse effects on students.

4. For each form of training, the training program should provide a standard study plan for the entire training course as a guideline for the students.

a) The time in the standard study plan for the entire training course in the form of full-time training shall be consistent with the time specified in the structural framework of the national education system while ensuring the majority of students can complete the training program;

b) The time in the standard study plan for the entire training course in the form of part-time training shall be at least 20% longer than that of the form of full-time training with the same training program.

5. The maximum time for students to complete the training course shall be specified in the regulations of the educational institutions but shall not be 02 times longer than the time in the standard study plan of the entire training course for each form of training. For transfer students who have been exempted from accumulated credits, the maximum time for such students to complete their training courses shall be determined based on the time in the standard study plan of the entire training course that is shortened corresponding to the exempt quantity of study.

Article 3. Approaches of training

1. Academic year-based training approach:

a) It is an approach of training in which students are organized in relatively fixed classes for all compulsory courses of the training program in the entire training course, allowing students in the same class to follow the standard study plan and a common schedule except for electives or retakes;

b) Students who are assessed to have normal academic progress shall be allowed to study the following year as scheduled in the standard study plan and re-register for unsatisfactory training courses as prescribed in the training program;

c) Students who are assessed not to have the normal academic progress shall study with the students of the following training course to re-study the unsatisfactory courses as prescribed in the training program.

2. Credit-based training approach:

a) It is an approach of organizing training in separate courses, allowing students to accumulate credits of each course and implement the training programs following their individual study plans, in accordance with the teaching plans of the educational institutions;

b) Students who fail to pass a compulsory course shall retake that course, or take an equivalent course as prescribed in the training program, or take an alternative course if such course is no longer taught;

c) Students who fail to pass an elective course shall retake that training course or may choose to study another elective course as prescribed in the training program.

3. The educational institution shall select and apply the following training approaches:

a) Credit-based training approach, uniformly applied to all training courses and forms;

b) Academic year-based training approach, uniformly applied to all training courses and forms;

c) Credit-based training approach to some training courses or to one form of training; academic year-based training approach to some other training courses or another form of training.

Article 4. Forms of training

1. Full-time training:

a) Teaching activities are carried out at the educational institution, but practical activities, internships, practical experiences and online teaching can be carried out outside the educational institution;

b) The time for teaching activities is from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Monday to Saturday; the time for specific activities of the training program shall comply with the regulations of the educational institution.

2. Part-time training:

a) Teaching activities are carried out at the educational institution or at its host educational institution in accordance with the regulations on inter-institutional training collaboration specified in Article 5 of this Regulation, except for practical activities, internships, practical experiences, and online teaching, which may be carried out outside the educational institution or the host educational institution.

b) The time to organize teaching activities is flexible during the day and during the week.

3. For priority academic majors that train human resources for socio-economic development in each period, the Ministry of Education and Training shall guide the implementation of appropriate training forms.

Article 5. Inter-institutional training collaboration

1. Inter-institutional training collaboration shall be only applicable to the form of part-time training as specified in Clause 22, Article 1 of the Law Amending and Supplementing a Number of Articles of the Law on Higher Education and in accordance with Clauses 2 and 3 of this Article. Inter-institutional training collaboration shall not be applied for health-related disciplines with practice certificates.

2. Minimum requirements for home educational institutions:

a) They must be recognized as meeting the quality standards of higher education institutions by lawful and valid education quality accreditation organizations in accordance with the law provisions;

b) The training programs which are put forward for inter-institutional training collaboration must be implemented for at least 03 consecutive full-time training courses; from the enrollment in 2024, the training programs shall be recognized as meeting quality standards in accordance with current regulations;

c) The contingent of faculty members must teach at least 70% of the contents and quantity of the training program;

d) Regulations on inter-institutional collaboration have been issued and the quality assurance conditions of the host educational institution have been appraised;

dd) Educational institutions under the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security shall not apply Points a and b of this Clause; however, they may collaborate in inter-institutional training with only educational institutions under the same directly-managed ministry and must obtain written documents assigning the task of inter-institutional training collaboration from the directly-managed ministry.

3. Minimum requirements for host educational institutions:

a) They must satisfy the requirements of the pedagogical environment, facilities, equipment, libraries and management staff as required by the training programs;

b) They have made reports on self-assessment of their quality and sent them to the competent state agencies as prescribed by law provisions; from the enrollment of 2024, they shall be recognized as meeting the quality standards of educational institutions in accordance with current regulations, except for training and refresher institutions under the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Public Security.

4. Responsibilities of the parties engaged in inter-institutional training collaboration:

a) The home educational institution and the host educational institution shall be responsible for signing the inter-institutional training collaboration contract or specific agreement on the rights and responsibilities of the parties in coordinating, organizing, implementing, and managing the training activities to ensure training quality, and implementing the agreed contents in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation and other relevant law provisions;

b) The home educational institution shall be responsible for managing the training quality; reporting on the inter-institutional training collaboration with the People's Committees of the provinces where the training collaboration activities take place before organizing enrollment of students; if the host educational institution fails to meet the requirements for quality assurance as prescribed for the courses or training program, the students must be transferred to the home educational institution to continue their training program in accordance with regulations, in which the interests of the students must be assured;

c) The host educational institution shall cooperate with the home educational institution to ensure the conditions of training facilities; participate in management and teaching as agreed between the two parties;

d) The home educational institution and the host educational institution shall take accountability to the laws for the performance of their inter-institutional training contract; comply with the regulations on enrollment and training; and ensure the legitimate interests of lecturers and students throughout the training course of training activities.

Chapter II
PLANNING AND ORGANIZATION OF TEACHING

Article 6. Teaching and learning plans

1. A teaching and learning plan shall detail the organization and implementation of the training program in the academic year or semester, in accordance with the form and approach of training.

2. An academic year-long plan shall show the main milestones of training activities in the academic year for all training forms and programs and be promptly announced to stakeholders before the start of the academic year. An academic year shall comprise 02 or 03 main semesters with a total of at least 30 weeks of class. In addition to the main semesters, the educational institutions may organize additional semesters.

3. A semester-long plan shall include class opening plans, form of teaching and learning (face-to-face or online), class schedule, and exam schedule of courses held in the semester for the training courses, training programs, and forms of training. The semester-long plan shall be developed and published promptly with all necessary information, ensuring convenience for students to develop study plans and register their classes.

4. A schedule shall show the time, location, teaching and learning activities of each class of a training course, training form and program. Classes of regular courses shall be evenly distributed throughout the semester weeks in the schedule. In cases where it is necessary to arrange a tight schedule, the number of teaching hours for any course shall not exceed 15 hours/week and 4 hours/day.

5. The regulations of the educational institutions shall clearly specify the allocation of semesters, time, location, and arrangement of class hours in accordance with the provisions of this Regulation.

Article 7. Organization of class registration

1. Before the start of each semester, the educational institutions shall instruct their students to register for their classes on the class registration systems of such educational institutions.

2. Students who study under the form of credit-based training shall register for classes of the courses they intend to study in the semester, including: new courses, some unsatisfactory courses (for re-study, if any) and some passed courses (for study result improvement, if any) based on the list of opened training courses and the registration conditions of each training course.

3. Students who study under the form of academic year-based training shall register to retake the unsatisfactory courses that they intend to study in the semester or register to improve their grades or register for elective courses as prescribed by the training program.

4. The regulations of the educational institution shall specify the process, procedures, organization, management, storage of students’ class registration in each semester, and the withdrawal of registered courses; and limit the study quantity of students in each semester within the following frame:

a) The minimum quantity shall not be less than 2/3 of the average quantity of a semester in the standard study plan;

b) The maximum quantity shall not exceed 3/2 of the average quantity of a semester in the standard study plan.

Article 8. Organization of teaching and learning

1. Requirements on organization of teaching and learning:

a) Promoting the professional capacity and occupational responsibility of the teaching staff, in accordance with the regulations on the working regime of the lecturers;

b) Promoting the active role while upholding the responsibility of students, creating conditions and motivation for students to make efforts to study; maintaining school academic major, improving the training quality and effectiveness;

c) Having internal inspection and monitoring mechanisms and quality improvement systems based on collecting and evaluating feedbacks from learners.

2. Online teaching and learning:

a) Educational institutions may organize online classes when meeting current regulations on application of information technology in management and organization of online training; having quality assurance solutions and demonstrating that the quality of online classes is not lower than the quality of face-to-face classes;

b) For the forms of full-time and part-time training, up to 30% of the total quantity of the training program shall be conducted via online classes. In case of natural disasters, complicated pandemics and other force majeure cases, educational institutions shall comply with the guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Training.

3. Regulations of educational institutions shall specify:

a) The assignment of teaching staff to classes, lecturers, instructors guiding students to do experiments, conduct practical activities, serve their internships, carry out their projects, thesis and other learning activities;

b) The collection of students' feedbacks on the conditions for ensuring learning quality and efficiency in all classes of the educational institutions and the disclosure of learners' feedbacks, including the contents, extent and form of disclosure;

c) The responsibilities and powers of lecturers assigned to teach or guide students; responsibilities of specialized units and relevant administrative and supportive units;

d) The responsibilities and rights of the students when attending classes, participating in experiments, practicing or when assigned to carry out practical activities, projects, theses, and other learning activities.

Chapter III
ASSESSMENT OF ACADEMIC RESULTS AND GRANTING OF GRADUATE DIPLOMAS

Article 9. Assessment and scoring of courses

1. For each course, students are assessed with at least two component marks; for courses of less than 02 credits, they may be assessed with only one mark. Component marks shall be calculated on the 10-point scale. Methods and forms of assessment and weight value of the component marks shall be specified in the detailed outline of each course. Online assessment shall be applied when honesty, fairness and objectivity are ensured like face-to-face assessment, and contribute no more than 50% of the grade of the course; in particular, the defense and assessment of projects and theses may be carried out online with higher weight values when the following additional conditions are met:

a) The assessment is carried out by a professional council consisting of at least 3 members;

b) The online defense and assessment are agreed upon by the council’s members and learners;

c) The online defense session is fully filmed, recorded and archived.

2. Students who are absent from an exam or assessment session without valid reasons must receive a score of 0. Students who are absent with valid reasons may take another exam or be assessed in another session, in which they will be graded as their first time.

3. A course grade shall be calculated by multiplying the sum of the component marks with the respective weight values, rounded to one decimal, and graded in letters as below, unless otherwise specified at Point d of this Clause.

a) Graded pass applicable to the courses used to calculate the grade point average, including:

A: from 8.5 to 10.0;

B: from 7.0 to 8.4;

C: from 5.5 to 6.9;

D: from 4.0 to 5.4.

b) Ungraded pass applicable to the courses that only require passing, not used to calculate the grade point average:

P: 5.0 and more.

c) Fail:

F: less than 4.0.

d) Some special cases where letter grades are used but not to calculate the grade point average:

I: Incomplete grade due to permissible postponement of the tests or exams;

X: Incomplete grade due to insufficient data;

R: Course grade is exempted, and credit is recognized.

4. Re-study, grade improvement study and test:

a) Students who fail to pass the courses must re-register as prescribed in Clauses 1 and 2, Article 3 of this Regulation, unless otherwise specified at Point dd, Clause 5 of this Article; the final grades are the official grades of the courses;

b) Students who have pass the courses may re-register to study in an effort to improve their grades in accordance with the regulations of the educational institutions.

5. Regulations of the educational institutions shall specify:

a) The organization and assessment of the student’s learning process and experience, including experimental activities, practical activities, homework, presentation of reports as part of the courses;

b) The organization of tests and exams, including regulations on knowledge review and examination time, exam preparation, exam supervision, exam marking, checking examination papers (if any), preservation of exam papers, exam postponement and exam exemption;

c) The organization and assessment of courses, projects, theses, practical activities, internships and other specific courses;

d) The requirements on the threshold of passing grades to be higher than those specified at Point a, Clause 3 of this Article; the use of letter grades other than those specified in Clause 3 of this Article;

dd) The permission to re-take the exams or re-assess a component mark to improve the course grade from fail to pass; in this case, the course grade after re-taking the exams or re-evaluating the component mark shall be limited to D or C grade;

e) The permission to retake the courses to improve grades and the official grading rules for the courses in cases where the grades of the retakes are lower and the previous ones.

6. The regulations of the educational institutions on assessment and grading of courses must be consistent with the following principles and requirements:

a) It must be carried out in a serious, objective, reliable and honest manner;

b) All students in a class and among classes, training courses and forms of training shall be treated equally.

Article 10. Assessment of academic results on the semester or academic year basis

1. Academic results of the students shall be assessed after each semester or after each academic year, based on the results of the courses required in the training programs that the students have studied and been graded in accordance with the following criteria:

a) The total number of credits of the courses that the students failed to pass in a semester or an academic year, or those they owed since the beginning of the training course;

b) The total number of credits of the courses that the students have achieved since the beginning of the training course (the number of accumulated credits), including the courses that are exempted with their credits to be recognized;

c) The average grade of the courses studied by the students in a semester (semester average) or in an academic year (academic year average) or from the beginning of the course (cumulative grade point average), calculated based on with the official score of the course with the weight value being the number of credits of such course.

2. In order to calculate the average grade, the letter grades of the courses shall be converted to numeral grades as follows, unless otherwise specified in Clause 4 of this Article. Other letter grades specified by the educational institutions (if any) shall be also converted to the corresponding numeral grades on a scale from 0 to 4.

A converted to 4;

B converted to 3;

C converted to 2;

D converted to 1;

F converts to 0.

3. Letter grades other than those specified in Clause 2 of this Article shall not be included in the semester average, academic year average or cumulative grade point average. Courses that are not required in the training program shall not be considered as criteria for assessing academic results of the students.

4. The educational institutions applying the approach of academic year-based training and using the 10-point scale shall calculate the average grades based on the 10-point scale grades of the courses without converting the letter grades to the 4-point scale grades. In this case, the regulations of the educational institutions shall specify the levels of assessment of academic results to be equivalent to and replace the provisions in Article 12 of this Regulation.

5. Students shall be graded based on their semester average, academic year average or cumulative grade point average as follows:

a) On the 4-point scale:

From 3.6 to 4.0: Outstanding;

From 3.2 to near 3.6: Excellent/Very Good;

From 2.5 to near 3.2: Good;

From 2.0 to near 2.5: Average;

From 1.0 to near 2.0: Marginal;

Below 1.0: Fail.

b) On the 10-point scale:

From 9.0 to 10.0: Outstanding;

From 8.0 to 9.0: Excellent/Very Good;

From 7.0 to near 8.0: Good;

From 5.0 to near 7.0: Average;

From 4.0 to near 5.0: Marginal;

Below 4.0: Fail.

6. Students shall be ranked of academic year level based on the number of credits accumulated from the beginning of the course (referred to as N) and the average number of credits per academic year in accordance with the standard study plan (referred to as M) as follows:

a) Freshmen level (first year): N < M;

b) Sophomore level (second year): M ≤ N < 2M;

c) Junior level (third year): 2M ≤ N < 3M;

d) Senior level (fourth year): 3M ≤ N < 4M;

dd) Super senior level (fifth year): 4M ≤ N < 5M.

Article 11. Handling of results of credit-based studying

1. At the end of each main semester, students shall receive academic warnings based on a number of the following conditions:

a) The total number of failed credits during the semester exceeds 50% of the registered study quantity in the semester, or the total number of incomplete credits from the beginning of the training course exceeds 24;

b) The semester average is less than 0.8 for the first semester of the training course, or less than 1.0 for the following semesters;

c) The cumulative grade point average is less than 1.2 for students at the freshman level, less than 1.4 for students at the sophomore level, less than 1.6 for students at the junior level, and less than 1.8 for students at the other levels.

2. Students shall be subject to expulsion from school in the following cases:

a) The number of academic warnings or the level of the academic warning exceeds the limit prescribed by the educational institutions;

b) The study time exceeds the limit specified in Clause 5, Article 2 of this Regulation.

3. The regulations of the educational institutions shall specify:

a) The selective application of a number of academic warning conditions and the limit of the number or level of academic warnings, but not exceeding 2 consecutive warnings;

b) The process and procedures for academic warning or expulsion from school; the notification of the applied forms to the students;

c) The preservation of accumulated academic results in cases where the students are subject to expulsion from school.

Article 12. Handling of results of academic year-based studying

1. At the end of each academic year, students shall be assessed as having normal academic progress and may continue their studies in the following academic year if they meet both of the following conditions:

a) The academic year average is at least 1.0 for the first academic year, from 1.2 or higher for the second academic year, and from 1.4 for the third academic year onwards;

b) The number of incomplete credits from the beginning of the training course does not exceed 16.

2. Students shall be subject to expulsion from school in the following cases:

a) The grade point average of the academic year is less than 0.8;

b) The cumulative grade point average is less than 1.2 after 2 academic years, less than 1.4 after 3 academic years, and less than 1.6 after 4 academic years;

c) The study time exceeds the limit specified in Clause 5, Article 2 of this Regulation.

3. Students other than those specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article may be placed in the classes of the following training course to improve their academic results.

4. The regulations of the educational institutions shall specify:

a) The selective application of a number of academic warning conditions similar to those prescribed for credit-based training in Clause 1, Article 11 of this Regulation;

b) The process and procedures for academic warning (if any) or expulsion from school; the notification of applied forms to the students;

c) The preservation of accumulated academic results in cases where students are subject to expulsion from school.

Article 13. Recognition of academic results and transfer of credits

1. Academic results accumulated by learners from another level of training, academic major, training program, training course or educational institution shall be considered by the educational institutions to be recognized and transferred to credits of the courses in the training programs the learners are studying at such educational institutions.

2. The professional councils of the educational institutions shall consider the recognition and transfer of credits by comparing the output standards, study contents and quantity, methods of course assessment and quality assurance conditions of the training programs at the following levels:

a) Recognition and transfer of each course;

b) Recognition and transfer of each group of courses;

c) Recognition and transfer of the entire training program.

3. Educational institutions shall publicize their regulations on the recognition of academic results and transfer of credits. The maximum quantity to be recognized or transferred shall not exceed 50% of the minimum study quantity of the training program; specifically, teacher training academic majors shall comply with the guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Article 14. Graduation recognition and granting of graduate diplomas

1. Students shall be considered for graduation recognition when they fully meet the following conditions:

a) They accumulate enough courses and credits, complete other compulsory contents as required by the training program, and meet the output standards of the training program;

b) The cumulative grade point average of the entire training course is average or higher;

c) At the time of graduation, they are not criminally prosecuted or are not being disciplined at the level of academic suspension.

2. For students who are eligible to graduate the rectors of the educational institutions shall issue a decision to recognize their graduation and grant graduate diplomas to them within 03 months since the students fully meet the graduation conditions and complete the obligations to the educational institutions.

3. Graduation ranking shall be determined based on the cumulative grade point average of the entire training course as specified in Clause 5, Article 10 of this Regulation, in which, the graduation ranking of students with outstanding or very good cumulative grade point average shall be downgraded by one level if it falls into one of the following cases:

a) The quantity of retaken courses exceeds 5% of the total number of credits required in the entire program;

b) The students have been disciplined at the level of warning or higher during the study time.

4. When their maximum prescribed study time has expired but the students are not eligible for graduation because they have not completed the courses of National Defense-Security Education or Physical Education or have not met the output standards regarding foreign languages and information technology, within 03 years since their study time expired, they shall fulfill the unaccomplished conditions and apply for graduation recognition.

5. Non-graduate students shall be granted certificates of courses accumulated in the training program of the educational institutions.

6. The regulations of the educational institutions shall specify:

a) The process and procedures for considering and recognizing graduation, the time and number of graduation consideration sessions in a year;

b) The reservation and recognition of accumulated academic results for non-graduate students;

c) The permission for students whose study time in the form of full-time training has expired to transfer to the corresponding part-time training or distance education (if any) of such educational institutions if they are still in the prescribed study time of the training form to which they transfer to.

Chapter IV
OTHER REGULATIONS FOR STUDENTS

Article 15. Temporary absence from school, withdrawal from school

1. Students may apply for temporary absence from school and have their academic results reserved in the following cases:

a) To be assigned to the armed forces;

b) To be mobilized by a competent agency to represent the country in international competitions and tournaments;

c) To be sick, pregnant or to have an accident requiring long-term treatment, certified by a competent medical examination and treatment establishment as prescribed by the Ministry of Health;

d) For other personal reasons but they must study at least 01 semester at the educational institution and not be considered for expulsion from school or academic major.

2. The period of temporary absence from school due to personal needs shall be included in the official study time as specified in Clause 5, Article 2 of this Regulation.

3. Students may withdraw themselves from school for personal reasons, except for cases of being considered for expulsion or academic major. Such students who want to return to school must apply for the entrance exams as other candidates.

4. The regulations of the educational institutions shall specify the conditions, competence, and procedures for considering temporary absence from school, re-study admission, and expulsion from school; the reservation and recognition of accumulated academic results for students who withdraw themselves from school.

Article 16. Change of academic major, study place, educational institution, and studying form

1. Students shall be allowed to transfer to another training program, academic major, or branch campus of the educational institution, or from the branch campus to the head campus of such educational institution if they fulfill the following conditions:

a) The students must not be at the freshman or final-year level, not be considered for expulsion from school and still have enough study time as prescribed in Clause 5, Article 2 of this Regulation;

b) The students must meet the admission requirements of the training program, academic major, head campus (or branch campus) in the same enrollment;

c) The educational institution, head campus (or branch campuses) must fulfill the quality assurance conditions and such training program or academic major shall not be beyond their training capacity in accordance with the current regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training;

d) The consent of the heads of the specialized units in charge of the training program or academic major, the persons in charge of the branch campuses (outgoing and incoming) and the rector of the educational institution must be obtained.

2. Students shall be allowed to transfer to another educational institution when they fulfill the following conditions:

a) The students must not be at the freshman or final-year level, not be considered for expulsion from school and still have enough study time as prescribed in Clause 5, Article 2 of this Regulation;

b) The students must meet the admission requirements of the training program or academic major in the same enrollment at the educational institution which they transfer to;

c) The educational institution which the students transfer to must fulfill the quality assurance conditions and such training program or academic major shall not be beyond its training capacity in accordance with the current regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training;

d) The consent of the rectors of the educational institution from which the students transfer and the educational institution which they transfer to must be obtained.

3. Students will be allowed to transfer from full-time training to part-time or distance-learning form of the same educational institution if they are still in the prescribed study time of the form which they transfer to.

4. The regulations of the educational institutions shall detail the competence, conditions, and procedures for transferring the training program, academic major, changing study place, transferring the educational institution, or changing the form of study; recognition of academic results or transfer of accumulated credits for students in such cases.

Article 17. Student exchange and cooperation in training

1. Educational institutions shall develop and issue the regulations on mutual recognition of training processes, training contents and the value of credits as a basis for allowing students of one educational institution to be eligible for studying a number of courses at another educational institution and vice versa (hereinafter referred to as student exchange).

2. Based on the mutual assessment and recognition, students of one educational institution may register to take a number of courses at another educational institution, if agreed by the rectors of the two educational institutions and the number of credits that the students accumulate at such other educational institution (if any) does not exceed 25% of the total quantity of the training program.

3. In training cooperation between educational institutions, the mutual assessment and recognition of the number of credits accumulated by students of one educational institution at another educational institution does not exceed 25% of the total quantity of the training program.

4. The regulations of the educational institutions shall specify the conditions for student exchange, training cooperation, recognition of learning results and credit transfer for students in the course of implementing the training program and shall be publicized on websites of the educational institutions.

Article 18. Studying two training programs at the same time

1. With respect to the credit-based training approach, students may register for additional courses of another training program or academic major if they meet the requirements of the educational institution, but they shall only officially enjoy the benefits and be considered for recognition of graduation from the second training program upon successfully registering for such second training program as prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article.

2. Students may register for the second training program at the earliest when they have been achieved the sophomore level of the first training program. At the time of registration, students must meet 01 of the following 02 conditions and other conditions of the educational institution:

a) Their academic ability figured on the basis of cumulative grade point average is good or higher, and meets the quality assurance threshold of the second training program in the year of enrollment;

b) The academic ability figured on the basis of the cumulative grade point average is average and meets the matriculation requirements of the second training program in the year of enrollment.

3. During the course of students studying two training programs at the same time, if the cumulative grade point average of the first training program is below average or subject to academic warnings, they shall stop studying the second training program in the following semester; and such students will be removed from the list of students having registered for the second training program.

4. The maximum allowable study time for students to study two training programs at the same time is the maximum time prescribed for the first training program as specified in Clause 5, Article 2 of this Regulation. When studying the second training program, the students’ results of the courses with equivalent contents and knowledge in the first training program shall be recognized.

5. Students shall only be considered for graduation from the second training program if they have met the graduation requirements in the first training program and have registered for the second training program at the latest 02 years before the time of graduation from such second training program.

 6. The educational institutions shall only organize the second training program for students when it meets the quality assurance requirements on enrollment quotas and training capacity; At the same time, they shall have detailed regulations on the process, procedures, conditions for registration and granting of diplomas for the second training program.

Article 19. Continuing education for holders of other diplomas

1. Persons who have graduated from vocational education training programs may apply for and transfer to university level in accordance with the current regulations of the Government and the Prime Minister, and the regulations of the educational institutions.

2. Persons who have graduated from universities may apply and study continuously to receive additional university diplomas of other training majors, when the educational institutions have uniformly applied the credit-based training approach (particularly, the security and national defense majors shall comply with the regulations of the educational institutions) and have enrolled at least 03 training courses of the academic majors and training forms applied by the learners.

3. Inter-level transfer students shall participate in the training program and register for their classes in line with the general study plan like other students of the same form of training. On the basis of credit recognition and transfer, students may be exempted from courses corresponding to the accumulated study quantity as prescribed in Article 13 of this Regulation.

4. The regulations of the educational institutions shall detail the conditions and procedures for receiving inter-level transfer students; the credit recognition and transfer and course exemption for inter-level transfer students shall be based on the principles of fairness and transparency while strictly ensuring the quality requirements, and such students shall be applied with the output standards as for other students.

Article 20. Handling of students’ violations

1. Students who cheat in exams, tests, and assessment of study results shall be disciplined for each violated course in accordance with the provisions of the current Regulation on high school graduation exams promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training, unless otherwise specified in Clause 2 of this Article.

2. Students who take the exams for others or ask others to take the exams for them shall be disciplined at the level of one-year suspension for the first-time violation and forced expulsion from school for recidivism.

3. Learners who use fake academic records, diplomas, or certificates to meet conditions for admission or graduation shall be subject to expulsion from school; the graduate diplomas granted to them shall be revoked or canceled.

Chapter V
ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

Article 21. Formulation and implementation of regulations of educational institutions

1. Based on this Regulation and other relevant current regulations, the rectors of the educational institutions shall:

a) Direct the development, promulgation and implementation of training regulations of the educational institution on the basis of the advice of the scientific and training councils and internal management regulations; may concretize the contents and have higher requirements, but they shall not be contrary to the provisions of this Regulation;

b) Issue decisions to organize full-time, part-time, inter-institutional collaboration and inter-level transfer (if any) training programs to fully satisfy the requirements of this Regulation; each of which must clearly state the name of the major, the training form, the objects, the enrollment criteria and methods, the training location, the training coordination institution and other relevant information;

c) Disseminate and provide guidelines on the regulations of the educational institutions and other regulations related to the study process, obligations and rights of students to them at the beginning of the course;

d) Organize internal examination and inspection of the implementation of plans, programs, regulations of the educational institutions and other tasks related to training; be subject to the examination, inspection and supervision of the Ministry of Education and Training and competent agencies in accordance with the current regulations.

2. The educational institutions shall make explanations as prescribed in Clause 4, Article 13 of the Government's Decree No. 99/2019/ND-CP dated December 30, 2019, detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education and other relevant laws.

Article 22. Reporting, archiving, and information disclosure regimes

1. Before December 31 of each year:

a) The educational institutions shall report to the Ministry of Education and Training and their directly managed agencies on the data of students who are newly admitted, have graduated or withdrawn from school, those who are studying in the year, are expected to graduate in the following year, or have graduated and get employed within 12 months; classified by objects of matriculation, academic majors, training courses and training forms;

b) The home educational institutions shall report to the provincial-level People's Committees of the localities where their host educational institutions are located on the enrollment and training situation in such localities.

2. The educational institutions shall be responsible for safely storing and preserving training-related documents in accordance with the regulations promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training.

a) Matriculation decisions, original transcripts, graduation recognition decisions, and original books on granting diplomas to students are archival documents that shall be permanently preserved at the educational institutions;

b) Other documents related to enrollment and training shall be archived and preserved throughout the training courses;

c) The destruction of documents related to enrollment and training at the end of the archival period shall comply with current regulations of the State.

3. The educational institutions shall publish on its website at least 45 days before organizing the training courses:

a) The regulations of the educational institutions and relevant training management regulations;

b) The decisions to open the academic majors and the decisions mentioned at Point b, Clause 1, Article 21 regarding the training programs to be held;

c) The quality assurance conditions in accordance with the current regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training;

d) The evidence that the training programs meet the training program standards promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training;

dd) The enrolment announcements as prescribed in current enrollment regulations;

e) The evidence that they meet the minimum requirements for inter-institutional collaboration in the form of part-time training as prescribed in Clauses 2 and 3, Article 5 of this Regulation.