He made the remark at a national conference held in HCM City on January 5 with the participation of representatives of 17 ministries and branches as well as universities and institutes nationwide.

The Ministry of Education and Training put forward nine key tasks to improve tertiary education quality from now until 2020.

By 2020, the country plans to have 450 students in every 10,000 people and 30 percent of lecturers at universities and 15 percent of lecturers in colleges own doctoral degrees. Vietnam plans to have one university listed among the world’s top 200 and a number of universities among the world’s leading 500.

The conference singled out two demanding requirements of verifying tertiary education quality and improving the quality of English language teaching and studying at universities.

Deputy PM Nhan said that it is compulsory for all universities to announce their criteria, especially graduation standards, in December this year.

He said that the ministry will take measures to improve secondary education quality, expand international cooperation, encourage enterprises and companies to open their own training establishments and implement training programmes in accordance with the demands of key economic sectors.