THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING _____________ No. 20/2020/TT-BGDDT | THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM Independence - Freedom - Happiness ________________________ Hanoi, July 27, 2020 |
CIRCULAR
On the working regimes of lecturers in higher education institutions
___________
Pursuant to the Law on Education dated June 14, 2019;
Pursuant to the Law on Higher Education dated June 18, 2012; the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education dated November 19, 2018;
Pursuant to 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;
Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 84/2020/ND-CP dated July 17, 2020, detailing a number of articles of the Law on Education;
Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 69/2017/ND-CP dated May 25, 2017, defining the functions, tasks, powers and organizational structure of the Ministry of Education and Training;
At the proposal of the Director of the Agency of Teachers and Education Administrators;
The Minister of Education and Training promulgates the Circular on the working regimes of lecturers in higher education institutions.
Chapter I
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1. Scope of regulation and subjects of application
1. This Circular provides the working regime of lecturers in higher education institutions (hereinafter referred to as lecturers), including: duties of lecturer titles; regulations on working time, standard teaching hours and scientific research hours; conversion of professional activities into standard teaching hours and working regime for lecturers whose performance exceeds their assigned labor productivity norms.
2. This Circular applies to lecturers teaching at multidisciplinary universities, academies, specialized universities, and related organizations and individuals.
Article 2. Duties of lecturer titles
1. Duties of lecturers shall comply with the provisions of Joint Circular No. 36/2014/TTLT-BGDDT-BNV dated November 28, 2014, of the Minister of Education and Training and the Minister of Internal Affairs, on codes and criteria for professional titles of public employees teaching in public higher education institutions;
2. Duties of teaching assistants
a) Assisting lecturers with higher titles in teaching activities, including lecture preparation, tutoring, providing instruction in exercises, discussions, experiments, practices and grading;
b) Heads of higher education institutions shall detail the assignment of teaching assistant activities, tasks, rights and regimes offered to those participating in teaching assistant activities.
3. Lecturers holding professor or associate professor titles shall perform their duties in accordance with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 37/2018/QD-TTg dated August 31, 2018, promulgating the Regulations on standards and procedures for consideration of recognition of accreditation and appointment to professor or associate professor title; procedures for cancellation of recognition and removal of professor or associate professor title, and the duties specified in Clause 1 of this Article.
Chapter II
WORKING TIME, STANDARD TEACHING HOURS AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH HOURS
Article 3. Working time, standard teaching hours and standard teaching hour norms
1. Lecturers shall work for 44 weeks (equivalent to 1,760 office hours) in an academic year to fulfill their teaching, scientific research and/or community service duties and other professional duties, which shall be determined based on each academic year exclusive of leaves as prescribed.
2. Standard teaching hour refers to a time unit converted from the amount of labor hours necessary to complete a certain amount of work under a lecturer's duties and equivalent to an in-class (or online) university-level theoretical lecture, including labor hours necessary before, during and after the lecture.
3. Teaching time in an academic year plan shall be calculated by standard teaching hour, in which a 50-minute in-class (or online) university-level theoretical lecture is equivalent to one standard teaching hour and specified in Clause 1, Article 6 of this Circular.
With regard to peculiar teaching contents, heads of higher education institutions shall convert in-class (or online) university-level lecture that are longer than 50 minutes as appropriate.
4. Standard teaching hour norm of a lecturer in an academic year shall be from 200 to 350 standard teaching hours (equivalent to from 600 to 1,050 office hours), in which, in-class (or online) standard teaching hours must account for 50% of the assigned norm. Based on the development strategies and objectives of each unit; characteristics of each subject and major, and actual capacity of each unit, heads of higher education institutions shall decide on standard teaching hour norms of their lecturers in each academic year as appropriate.
5. Special cases
a) Apprentice lecturers and lecturers on probation shall meet a maximum of 50% of their assigned standard teaching hour norms and may be exempt from scientific research duties to attend classroom observations and participate in internships and fieldtrips.
b) Lecturers who are on leave entitled to social insurance benefits and leave in accordance with the current regulations of the Labor Code shall be reduced or exempted from their assigned standard teaching hour norms in amount in proportion to their leave time.
Article 4. Standard teaching hour norms for lecturers appointed to leadership posts or assigned managerial/Communist Party/mass organization duties on a part-time basis
1. Minimum teaching norms (demonstrated as percentage of the standard teaching hour norm provided for in Clause 4, Article 3 of this Circular) for lecturers appointed to leadership posts or assigned managerial/Communist Party/mass organization duties on a part-time basis (excluding national defense and security lecturers):
No. | Lecturers appointed to leadership posts or assigned managerial/Communist Party/mass organization duties on a part-time basis | Minimum norm |
1 | Chairperson of the board and Director of multidisciplinary university | 10% |
2 | Deputy Director of multidisciplinary university, Chairperson of the board and Rector of specialized university and equivalent | 15% |
3 | Deputy Chairperson of the board and Vice Rector of specialized university, Head of functional department of multidisciplinary university and equivalent | 20% |
4 | Deputy Head of functional department of multidisciplinary university, Division Head and equivalent, Secretary of the University Board | 25% |
5 | Deputy Division Head and equivalent | 30% |
6 | Dean, Vice Dean and equivalent | |
a) | For faculties with at least 40 lecturers or at least 800 learners | |
- Dean | 60% |
- Vice Dean | 70% |
b) | For faculties with fewer than 40 lecturers or fewer than 800 learners | |
- Dean | 70% |
- Vice Dean | 80% |
7 | Department head | 80% |
8 | Deputy Department head, supervisor, academic advisor | 85% |
9 | Party Executive Committee Secretary of higher education institution | 15% |
10 | Deputy Party Executive Committee Secretary of higher education institution | 30% |
11 | Party cell secretaries, heads of people’s inspection boards, heads of working women boards, chairpersons of veterans associations | 85% |
12 | Deputy party cell secretaries | 90% |
13 | Lecturers in charge of national defense and military tasks on a part-time basis provided for in the Government’s Decree No. 168/2018/ND-CP dated December 28, 2018, on national defense tasks in ministries, central authorities and local governments. | 80% |
14 | For lecturers who are in reserved forces or self-defense forces and called up for annual training and/or drills, one day of such training and/or drills shall be equivalent to 2.5 standard teaching hours. |
15 | Lecturers in charge of youth union, student union and/or youth federation tasks shall comply with regulations of the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 13/2013/QD-TTg dated February 06, 2013, on benefits for officials of Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Vietnam National Union of Students and Vietnam Youth Federation in educational institutions and training institutions. |
16 | Lecturers in charge of trade union tasks on a part-time basis shall comply with regulations of Circular No. 08/2016/TT-BGDDT dated March 28, 2016, by the Minister of Education and Training. |
Based on the specific conditions of each unit, the head of the higher education institution shall specify the standard teaching hour norms mentioned in this Clause, and standard teaching hour norms for lecturers in charge of other tasks on a part-time basis (if any) as appropriate.
2. Standard teaching hour norms for national defense and security lecturers appointed to leadership posts or assigned managerial/Communist Party/mass organization duties on a part-time basis in higher education institutions are specified in Article 5 of the Joint Circular No. 15/2015/TTLT-BGDDT-BLDTBXH-BQP-BCA-BNV-BTC dated July 16, 2015, of the Minister of Education and Training, Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Minister of National Defence, Minister of Public Security, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance.
3. Standard teaching hour norm for a lecturer appointed to multiple posts on a part-time basis shall be the lowest norm applicable to an appointed post provided for in this Article.
Article 5. Regulations on scientific research
1. Lecturers must spend at least 1/3 of their total working hours in one academic year (equivalent to 586 office hours) on scientific research duties.
2. Lecturers shall be assigned and fulfill scientific research duties appropriate to the scientific potential, capacity and development strategies of their higher education institutions and their professional capability.
3. Lecturers shall complete the scientific research duties assigned in accordance with their current titles or positions on an annual basis. The results of their scientific research shall be evaluated via scientific and technological products, and technology transfer and research activities, which must be equivalent to at least a grassroots-level scientific research project of which results are deemed at least satisfactory after commissioning or an article published in a scientific journal with the international standard serial number (ISSN) or a scientific report at specialized scientific seminar.
Heads of higher education institutions shall assign scientific research duties to lecturers and stipulate number of scientific research hours converted from scientific and technological products and technology transfer and research activities.
4. For lecturers who fail to complete their scientific research duties as prescribed by regulations, depending on specific circumstance and failure level, heads of their higher education institutions shall take such failure into consideration upon evaluation of fulfillment of their duties in the academic year, emulation ranking and provision of relevant benefits; concurrently, these lecturers may make up for missing scientific research hours with standard teaching hours.
Chapter III
CONVERSION OF PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES INTO STANDARD TEACHING HOURS AND WORKING REGULATIONS FOR PERFORMANCE EXCEEDING LABOR PRODUCTIVITY NORMS
Article 6. Conversion of professional activities into standard teaching hours
1. Teaching activities
a) One in-class or online theoretical lecture period for maximum 40 students shall be equivalent to 1.0 standard teaching hour; one national defense and security lecture period spent teaching theory and giving demonstrations at a training ground or one physical education period shall be equivalent to 1.0 standard teaching hour. For classes with more than 40 students, depending on the actual working conditions for each class of each major, one in-class or online theoretical lecture period may be multiplied by a conversion factor that is under 1,5. Heads of higher education institutions shall specify the conversion of teaching activities into standard teaching hours mentioned in this Clause.
b) One lecture period of subjects or theory for master's and doctoral training classes or one lecture period in a foreign language for a subject other than a foreign language shall be equivalent to from 1.5 to 2.0 standard teaching hours.
2. Other professional activities
a) Heads of higher education institutions shall provide the conversion of time for other professional activities into standard teaching hours as appropriate;
b) For duties whose remunerations are covered by other funding sources, time spent on these duties shall not be converted into standard teaching hours; however, these duties shall be considered to be incorporated into total standard teaching hour norm to evaluate duty fulfillment in an academic year for lecturers whose performance does not exceed their assigned labor productivity norms.
Article 7. Working regime offered for performance exceeding labor productivity norms
1. In an academic year, if the performance of a lecturer, including teaching activities, scientific research, community service and fulfillment of other professional duties, exceeds their assigned labor productivity norm, they are entitled to regimes offered upon such exceeding as prescribed by the law provision. According to the current regulations of the state and actual capacity of each unit, heads of higher education institutions shall decide on such benefits as appropriate.
2. A lecturer’s working time above their assigned norm in a year shall not exceed the amount permitted by labor laws.
Chapter IV
ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION
Article 8. Responsibilities of heads of higher education institutions
Heads of higher education institutions shall, based on the provisions of this Circular, development strategies and objectives of each unit, characteristics of each subject and major, and actual capacity of each unit, promulgate a document detailing the working regime of lecturers at the unit, ensuring that each lecturer must fulfill both teaching and scientific research duties.
Article 9. Implementation provisions
1. This Circular takes effect from September 11, 2020.
2. This Circular replaces Circular No. 47/2014/TT-BGDDT dated December 31, 2014, of the Minister of Education and Training, on the working regime for lecturers.
3. In cases where the documents referred to in this Circular are amended, supplemented or replaced, the new documents shall prevail.
4. The Chief of the Ministry Office, the Director of the Agency of Teachers and Education Administrators, heads of relevant units under the Ministry of Education and Training and heads of higher education institutions shall implement this Circular./.
For the Minister
The Deputy Minister
PHAM NGOC THUONG
Vietnamese
Circular 20/2020/TT-BGDĐT DOC (Word)
Circular 20/2020/TT-BGDĐT PDF (Original)
