Circular 28/2023/TT-BGDĐT on Regulations for Undergraduate Distance Education

On December 28, 2024, the Minister of Education and Training issued Circular 28/2023/TT-BGDĐT on Regulations for Undergraduate Distance Education, applicable to undergraduate distance education cohorts admitted after February 12, 2024, with the following key provisions:

Minimum Requirements for Providing Undergraduate Distance Education from February 12, 2024

Accordingly, the following minimum requirements must be met to provide undergraduate distance education from February 12, 2024:

– The educational institution must have a fully developed distance education system with all components specified in Clause 5, Article 2 of these Regulations.

– The educational institution may offer distance education academic programs in disciplines for which it has received approval to offer training and has admitted at least three consecutive cohorts in the full-time mode. Distance education must not be offered in health disciplines requiring professional practice certificates or in the teacher education group of disciplines.

– The distance education academic program must have been developed, appraised, and issued in accordance with the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) regulations on academic program standards and the development, appraisal, and issuance of academic programs at higher education levels; the academic program standards issued by MOET; and the provisions of these Regulations.

– The unit responsible for organizing and managing distance education must be able to manage and monitor teaching and learning; the duration of interaction between lecturers and learners and among learners; examinations, tests, assessment, and the awarding of degrees. The unit with primary responsibility for the academic content of the distance education academic program must also be the unit with primary responsibility for the academic content of the full-time academic program.

– The system for testing and assessing learning outcomes must ensure objectivity and integrity; assess the learning process and conduct end-of-course and end-of-subject assessments; and monitor and authenticate learners’ learning, test-taking, examination-taking, and completion of assigned tasks in the academic program.

– The educational institution’s regulations must comply with these Regulations and other relevant legal provisions.

– Lecturers, learning support staff, and administrative staff must be adequate in number, quality, qualifications, and composition, and must have received training in distance education teaching and management skills and methods.

+ Full-time lecturers must meet the regulations on academic program standards and relevant academic program standards issued by MOET. Full-time lecturers with doctoral qualifications who are responsible for leading the development and implementation of the academic program and leading its teaching under MOET regulations on opening disciplines and academic program standards must directly teach in the distance education academic program;

+ Visiting lecturers may deliver no more than 30% of the distance education academic program workload; this limit may be increased to a maximum of 50% if and only if visiting lecturers who are full-time lecturers at a partner educational institution as specified in Article 7 of these Regulations deliver more than 20% of the distance education academic program workload.

– Adequate facilities, equipment, a Library, and learning materials must be available to implement the distance education academic program, specifically:

+ A technical room must have sufficient space to install the distance education system’s equipment; offices must have sufficient space and equipment to accommodate the activities of administrative staff, learning support staff, and lecturers;

+ Sufficient equipment, infrastructure, and software necessary for the distance education mode must be available, along with a system for managing admissions, training, and the awarding of degrees alongside the full-time education management system;

+ A technical system supporting distance education must ensure the provision of information related to distance education; the storage and delivery of distance education academic program content to learners; the monitoring, management, and assessment of learners during their studies; the storage and protection of information on learners’ studies, participation in learning, and personal records in compliance with current laws and the educational institution’s regulations on information storage and security; and information connectivity among learners, lecturers, and administrative staff through an information technology system;

+ A Library and an electronic Library must be available with sufficient books, textbooks, reference materials, and specialized electronic databases to support learners’ learning and research;

+ Sufficient core and supplementary learning materials must be available for the first two academic years of the distance education academic program. A plan must be in place to develop core and supplementary learning materials for the remaining courses in subsequent academic years of the entire program, ensuring that all learning materials appropriate to the distance education mode are available at least one year (12 months) before the start of each new academic year.

– MOET regulations on the application of information technology in online higher education must be met.

– A distance education proposal must be developed for each specific academic program, detailing the need to offer distance education; full preparation to meet the minimum requirements for providing distance education, implementation solutions, and a roadmap in accordance with regulations; and measures to prevent and address potential risks to protect the interests of learners, lecturers, the educational institution, and relevant parties.

The University Council decides on the policy of offering distance education based on the President’s proposal and the opinions of the educational institution’s Scientific and Training Council. The President decides whether to approve the proposal and offer distance education based on the Scientific and Training Council’s appraisal and assessment of the extent to which actual conditions meet the minimum requirements for providing distance education.

New Regulations on Assessing Learning Outcomes in Undergraduate Distance Education

Accordingly, from February 12, 2024, learning outcomes in undergraduate distance education will be assessed in accordance with Articles 9 and 10 of Circular 08/2021/TT-BGDĐT.

Learners’ learning outcomes in undergraduate distance education will therefore be assessed by course, semester, or academic year, in the same way as under the current undergraduate education mode.

For example, learning outcomes are assessed by semester and academic year as follows:

(1) Students’ learning outcomes are assessed after each semester or academic year, based on the results of courses within the requirements of the academic program that students have taken and for which they have received grades, using the following criteria:

– The total number of credits for courses that students have failed in a semester or academic year, or that remain outstanding since the beginning of the program;

– The total number of credits for courses that students have passed since the beginning of the program (accumulated credits), including courses for which exemptions or credit recognition have been granted;

– The grade point average for courses that students have taken in a semester (semester GPA), in an academic year (academic year GPA), or since the beginning of the program (cumulative GPA), calculated using each course’s official grade and weighted by its number of credits.

(2) To calculate the grade point average, course letter grades are converted to numerical grades as follows, except in the case specified in (4).

Additional letter-grade levels established by the educational institution, if any, are also converted to corresponding numerical grades on a scale from 0 to 4.

A converts to 4;

B converts to 3;

C converts to 2;

D converts to 1;

F converts to 0.

(3) Letter grades not specified in Clause 2 of this Article are excluded from semester, academic year, and cumulative GPAs. Courses not required by the academic program are excluded from the criteria for assessing students’ learning outcomes.

(4) Educational institutions providing year-based education and using a 10-point scale calculate GPAs based on course grades on the 10-point scale, without converting letter grades to the 4-point scale.

In this case, the educational institution’s regulations must specify measures for addressing academic performance that are equivalent to and replace the provisions of Article 12 of the Regulations issued with Circular 08/2021/TT-BGDĐT.

(5) Students’ academic performance is classified according to their semester GPA, academic year GPA, or cumulative GPA as follows:

– On the 4-point scale:

From 3.6 to 4.0: Excellent;

From 3.2 to below 3.6: Very good;

From 2.5 to below 3.2: Good;

From 2.0 to below 2.5: Average;

From 1.0 to below 2.0: Weak;

Below 1.0: Poor.

– On the 10-point scale:

From 9.0 to 10.0: Excellent;

From 8.0 to below 9.0: Very good;

From 7.0 to below 8.0: Good;

From 5.0 to below 7.0: Average;

From 4.0 to below 5.0: Weak;

Below 4.0: Poor.

(6) Students are assigned an academic year standing based on the number of credits accumulated since the beginning of the program (N) and the average number of credits per academic year under the standard study plan (M), specifically as follows:

– First-year standing: N < M;

– Second-year standing: M ≤ N < 2M;

– Third-year standing: 2M ≤ N < 3M;

– Fourth-year standing: 3M ≤ N < 4M;

– Fifth-year standing: 4M ≤ N < 5M.

Circular 28/2023/TT-BGDĐT takes effect on February 12, 2024, and applies to undergraduate distance education cohorts admitted after Circular 28/2023/TT-BGDĐT takes effect.

Circular 28/2023/TT-BGDĐT replaces Circular 10/2017/TT-BGDĐT dated April 28, 2017.

This is an automated translation. If you notice any errors, please contact the Department of Communications, National Economics University at phongtruyenthong@neu.edu.vn.