On September 22, 2017, Vinschool, a Vietnamese high-quality school system which is part of Vingroup, Vietnam's leading property developer, announced to raise tuition fees of all three levels of basic education.
Accordingly, from 2018 to 2023, the tuition fees of basic and advanced education systems will increase by 12.5-19.53 per cent and 8.24-6.67 per cent, respectively. This announcement has offended many people having children studying at the school as it has raised 60 per cent of its tuition fees within just four years despite a non-profit organization.
Besides, according to the school’s new plan, a number of students in Times City will be transferred to a new campus located in the Vinhomes The Harmony urban area, which has also raised a lot of controversies amongst parents.
According to General Director of Vinschool System Phan Ha Thuy, the increase in tuition fees is due to the 80 per cent increase in the expenditure on the improvement of curriculum, teachers and other facilities. She said that within next five years, the school will gain no profit. However, many parents did not agree with this explanation.
Phan Ha Thuy, General Director of Vinschool System
Lately, Vinschool has announced that since the second term of the school year 2017-2018, it will transition from a non-profit institution to another one that gains no benefit. Specifically, the difference between the two models is that the non-profit model operates and gains profit which would be reinvested and contributed to the society instead of being distributed to the shareholders.
Under the current law, non-profit companies which are also known as social enterprises only need to spend over 51 per cent of their profits to reinvest. However, Vingroup has committed to spending 100 per cent of its profits from Vinschool on reinvestment activities to develop the community.
Meanwhile, from the second semester of the school year 2017-2015, Vinschool will switch to a new model of operation in which no profit is produced. The official level of tuition fees (for new students) from the school year 2018-2019 will be calculated based on the ratio of estimated total expenditure to the total number of students of each year.
Vingroup also announced that it will invest at least VND300 billion (roughly US$13.22 million) to cover the increased fees for current students within next three years and continue supporting to maintain the level of tuition fee in the two following years.
Besides, the group will subsidize various school upgrades, including the construction a football field and an indoor swimming pool in Times City primary school, and a theater in Vinschool The Harmony.
Vinschool said that to ensure transparency, all of its revenues and expenditures have been audited annually by one of Big 4 auditing firms. The result will be submitted to the representatives of the parents.
