Circular No. 35/2021/TT-BGDĐT on the compilation, selection, examination, approval, and use of teaching materials and textbooks in higher education

CIRCULAR

Article 24regulating the compilation, selection, examination, approval, and use of teaching materials

and university education textbooks

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Pursuant to the Education Law dated June 14, 2019;

Pursuant to the Higher Education Law dated June 18, 2012; the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Provisions of the Higher Education Law dated November 19, 2018;

Pursuant to Decree No. 69/2017/NĐ-CP dated May 25, 2017 of the Government stipulating the functions, tasks, powers, and organizational structure of the Ministry of Education and Training;

Pursuant to Decree No. 99/2019/NĐ-CP dated December 30, 2019 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of certain provisions of the Law Amending and Supplementing Certain Provisions of the Higher Education Law;

7. Components of a training program include a group of courses and other learning and research activities with common characteristics in specialized fields; clearly playing a role in achieving a set of goals and requirements of the training program. These components are used to design the overall structure of the training program (such as general education, basic sciences, core subjects, internships and experiences, scientific research, and other components).

The Minister of Education and Training issues this Circular to regulate the compilation, selection, examination, approval, and use of teaching materials and university education textbooks.

PART I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of Regulation and Applicability

1. This Circular regulates the compilation, selection, examination, approval, and use of teaching materials and university education textbooks.

2. This Circular applies to universities, other educational institutions permitted to train university levels; academies, institutes established under the Government's decision.

3. For common textbooks on political theory courses, national defense-security, the Ministry of Education and Training will organize their compilation for use as teaching and learning materials in universities.

Article 2. Interpretation of Terms

In this Circular, the following terms are understood as follows:

1. Teaching materials include: textbooks, lectures by lecturers, and reference materials.

2. Textbooks are primary teaching, learning, and research materials for a course, compiled, selected, examined, approved, and used at training institutions according to this Circular and relevant laws.

3. Lectures are materials prepared by lecturers for teaching assigned courses based on detailed outlines, official teaching textbooks, course outcomes, and training programs.

4. Reference materials include reference books, monographs, translations, guides, exercise books, and other published materials, articles, scientific works, and publications both domestically and internationally, including electronic materials used by lecturers and students during teaching, learning, and scientific research; materials that help lecturers and students understand, supplement knowledge, or further explore each part or the entire course within the training program.

Article 3. General Requirements

1. The compilation, selection, examination, approval, and use of teaching materials and university education textbooks must comply with the provisions of the Intellectual Property Law, the Publishing Law, and related laws.

2. Published teaching materials used for lecturers and students in teaching, learning, and researching a course within a training program at a training institution shall not use titles leading to misunderstanding about the purpose of using the materials.

Article 4. Requirements for Textbooks

1. Textbooks are primary materials used for a training institution for lecturers and students in teaching, learning, and researching a course within a training program. Textbooks must be published in book form and the title of the textbook must not lead to misunderstanding that it is a commonly used textbook across training institutions.

2. Textbooks must concretize requirements regarding knowledge, skills, and attitudes stipulated in each course of the training program, major, and level of training, meeting the requirements for innovation in teaching methods and assessment, ensuring training quality.

3. The content of textbooks must align with the objectives and content of the training program, ensuring knowledge and skill standards, meeting course outcome standards.

4. Knowledge in textbooks must be presented scientifically and logically, ensuring balance between theory and practice; suitable for practical application and updated with new knowledge from science, technology, economic development, and social progress that have been verified and recognized.

5. Content cited from reference materials for compiling textbooks must have clear sources and annotations; the cited content included in textbooks must be appropriate and meet the objectives of the textbooks, ensuring compliance with relevant legal provisions.

6. The language used to compile textbooks is Vietnamese or foreign languages and must be consistent with the language of the course being taught.

7. Training institutions specify the content, structure, format, and specific requirements for their textbooks, ensuring consistency, uniformity, and alignment with relevant legal provisions.

Article 5. Requirements for lecture materials

1. Lecture materials must have content that is appropriate and consistent with the detailed syllabus of the course and the official teaching textbook, meeting the course's output standards and training program requirements.

2. Lecture materials must contain specific content, include a list of reference materials, illustrative examples, review questions, discussion guidelines, practical application exercises, and be regularly updated to supplement new knowledge to ensure that the lecture materials become increasingly scientific, modern, and highly practical, meeting training requirements. Lecturers prepare lecture materials in the language of the course and are responsible for the professional content of the lecture materials.

3. Training institutions specify the content, form, and specific requirements for lecture materials according to each course in the training program, field of study, and level of training; define the rights and responsibilities of lecturers and training institutions to ensure consistency, uniformity, and compliance with relevant legal provisions.

Article 6. Requirements for reference materials

1. Reference materials must include the full name of the author, publisher, year of publication, or clear and specific source annotations, and be relevant to the field of study and training program; they should be regularly supplemented with new materials to enable lecturers and students to understand, supplement knowledge, or further explore related courses within the training program.

2. The language of reference materials should be suitable for lecturers and students to use for convenient research, teaching, and learning.

3. Training institutions specify the specific requirements for reference materials provided by the institution for each course in the training program, field of study, and level of training, ensuring consistency, uniformity, and compliance with relevant legal provisions.

Article 7. Use of textbooks and materials for teaching

1. For published textbooks, training institutions may provide, distribute, gift, lease, exchange, lend, use as shared materials, and supply to open educational resources to make publications available to users while complying with relevant legal provisions.

2. Textbooks approved by training institutions must be used as primary materials for lecturers and students in teaching, studying, and researching courses, where a single textbook can be used for multiple courses with compatible or similar content.

3. For undergraduate training, training institutions must ensure that each course has at least one textbook as primary material for lecturers and students in teaching and studying, researching courses, where the content of the textbook must meet at least 70% of the course's knowledge content.

4. For master’s degree training, training institutions must ensure that there is a textbook as primary material for lecturers and students in teaching, studying, and researching each course in the training program; in cases where a course does not have a textbook, the institution must ensure alternative teaching materials are available, where the content of the textbook or alternative teaching materials for each course must meet at least 70% of the course's knowledge content.

5. For doctoral training, training institutions must ensure that there is a textbook or teaching material (as an alternative to a textbook) for lecturers and students for each content area or topic in the training program, including monographs, published scientific works related to the teaching, studying, and researching content, meeting the training program requirements, ensuring alignment with the program's objectives, content, and knowledge and skill standards, meeting the program's output standards.

6. Textbooks put into use in training institutions must be compiled, selected, reviewed, and approved according to this Circular and relevant legal provisions. Teaching, studying, and researching materials (as an alternative to textbooks) for lecturers and students put into use in training institutions must be approved according to the institution's regulations, ensuring compliance with relevant legal provisions.

7. Based on teaching objectives, content, and program output standards, training institutions publicly disclose textbooks and teaching, studying, and researching materials for each content area, topic, and course in the training program and prioritize their use accordingly.

8. Training institutions specifically define the rights and responsibilities of units and organizations within the institution, lecturers, and students regarding the use of textbooks and teaching materials for each content area, topic, and course in the training program, field of study, and level of training.

Article 8. Use of lecture materials and reference materials

1. Lecture materials of lecturers must be provided to students before, during, or after class hours for the purpose of supporting their study and research activities. The Director, Institute President, or School Principal (collectively referred to as the School Principal) shall specify the content and format of lecture materials and the provision of such content to students.

2. Reference materials must be publicly disclosed with their title, year of publication, place of publication, or internet data source address; they should be regularly updated to ensure that lecturers and students are aware of and can use them during teaching and learning processes, while also ensuring easy and convenient access for both lecturers and students.

3. Training institutions shall specifically define the procedures for incorporating lecture materials and reference materials into teaching and learning activities at the institution; regulations on the use, supervision, rights, and responsibilities of lecturers, students, and related parties in providing and accessing lecture materials compiled by lecturers and reference materials for each course component of the training program, field of training, and level of training shall be established; regulations on the public disclosure and degree of public disclosure of lecture materials by lecturers shall also be specified.

Article 9. Budget for Compiling, Selecting, Reviewing, Approving, and Using Teaching Materials and Textbooks

1. The budget for organizing the compilation, selection, review, approval, and use of teaching materials and textbooks shall be the responsibility of the training institution, which shall allocate funds from legitimate sources of income, various forms of sponsorship, and other assistance.

2. The content and levels of expenditure for organizing the compilation, selection, review, approval, and use of teaching materials and textbooks shall be implemented according to current legal provisions and shall be specifically stipulated in the regulations of the training institution.

Chapter II

COMPILE AND REVIEW TEXTBOOKS

Article 10. Determination of Textbooks to be Compiled and Selected

1. The School Principal shall organize the determination of the list of textbooks necessary for use as official teaching and learning materials for each course component of the training program, field of training, and level of training, including existing textbooks, those that need to be compiled, and those selected to meet the needs of the training institution, and publicly disclose the textbooks to be compiled and selected.

2. The training institution shall specifically stipulate requirements and procedures for determining the textbooks to be used, the textbooks to be organized for compilation or selection, and plans for compilation and selection to meet the needs of the training institution.

Article 11. Compilation of Textbooks

1. The School Principal shall organize the compilation of textbooks that need to be compiled as specified in Article 10 of this Circular through assignment, commissioning, or tendering to units and individuals inside and outside the training institution, ensuring compliance with the regulations of the training institution and relevant laws.

2. The main author or co-author, and the textbook compiler shall undertake the task of compiling the textbook based on the detailed outline of the textbook and shall be responsible to the training institution and competent state agencies regarding the professionalism of the textbook and shall provide explanations when required.

3. The compiled textbook must meet the requirements stipulated in Articles 3 and 4 of this Circular and other requirements as specified by the training institution.

4. The training institution shall specifically stipulate the requirements, standards, and criteria for the compiled textbook and the compilation process; it shall also stipulate the standards, components, and number of participants involved in the compilation of the textbook; and it shall establish the rights and responsibilities of the training institution, authors, compilers, main authors or co-authors, and related parties in the compilation of the training institution's textbooks.

Article 12. Review and Publication of Textbooks

1. The rector of the training institution shall establish a review board to review the draft textbook that has been compiled according to the provisions of Article 11 of this Circular.

2. Members of the review board are scientists inside and outside the training institution with high professional qualifications suitable for the content of the textbook, having credibility and teaching experience, holding a master's degree or higher for reviewing undergraduate textbooks; holding a doctoral degree or having a title of associate professor or higher for reviewing master's and doctoral textbooks. Members who have participated in compiling the textbook shall not participate in the review board of the textbook they have compiled.

3. The review board shall organize the review of the draft textbook according to the regulations of the training institution and relevant laws. During the review process, the review board may invite additional representatives who are not members of the review board to attend the review sessions if deemed necessary. Opinions from non-board members are only for reference and these members do not participate in voting or deciding issues within the functions and responsibilities of the review board.

4. The review board shall evaluate and conclude specific levels of compliance with requirements stipulated in Articles 3 and 4 of this Circular, as well as other requirements specified by the training institution, and concretize them into requirements for the reviewed textbook, and propose to the rector of the training institution to organize the publication of the textbook. The review board is responsible before the training institution, competent state agencies, for the professional suitability of the reviewed textbook, and has the responsibility to explain when requested.

5. Based on the review results and the proposal of the review board as stipulated in Clause 4 of this Article, the rector of the training institution shall organize the completion of the draft textbook and publish it as a book to be used as a textbook for teaching, learning, and research in the training program at the training institution.

6. The training institution must clearly specify the structure, composition, number, and standards of members participating in the textbook review board, including members of the board who are external to the training institution; regulations on organization, operation, review procedures, working principles, review results, responsibilities, and authorities of the review board, its members, and related parties.

Article 13. Review and Selection of Published Books as Textbooks

1. Based on proposals from specialized departments and lecturers, the rector of the training institution shall establish a review board and organize the review of books compiled by groups or individuals both domestically and internationally that have been published, which are suitable for the purposes and requirements of use by the training institution to select as textbooks for teaching, learning, and research in the training program of the training institution. The review of published books to select as textbooks shall be implemented as stipulated for the review of compiled draft textbooks under Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 of Article 12 of this Circular.

2. Based on the review results and the proposal of the review board as stipulated in Clause 1 of this Article, the rector of the training institution shall decide to select published books for use as textbooks for teaching, learning, and research in the training program of the training institution.

3. The training institution shall clearly specify and publicly announce the requirements, criteria, conditions, selection procedures for textbooks; responsibilities and authorities of the training institution and related parties in selecting textbooks.

Article 14. Approval of Textbooks

1. The rector of the training institution shall examine and decide to approve the use of textbooks that have been compiled, reviewed, and published in accordance with Article 12 of this Circular or books that have been reviewed and selected in accordance with Article 13 of this Circular for lecturers and students to use in teaching, learning, and researching courses within the training program of the institution.

2. The training institution shall specify specific requirements and procedures for approving the use of textbooks that have been compiled, reviewed, and published or books that have been reviewed and selected for use as textbooks at the institution; provisions regarding the authority and responsibilities of those authorized to approve and the relevant parties in the approval and use of textbooks must ensure compliance with the institution's regulations and related laws.

Chapter III

IMPLEMENTATION

Article 15. Establishment and Implementation of Institutional Regulations

Based on this Circular and other relevant laws, the rector of the training institution shall be responsible for:

1. Directing the establishment, issuance, and implementation of internal regulations concerning the compilation, selection, review, approval, and use of textbooks, lecture materials, and reference materials for higher education levels, including joint training programs with foreign countries in Vietnam to issue higher education diplomas, based on the advice of the scientific council and training board and other internal management regulations of the institution; detailing and possibly requiring more stringent standards but not contradicting the provisions of this Circular, ensuring consistency, uniformity, and compliance with current legal regulations, particularly the prohibited contents and behaviors in the activities of compiling, selecting, reviewing, approving, and using textbooks, lecture materials, and reference materials for higher education levels must be specified and implemented to ensure compliance with the Intellectual Property Law, the Publishing Law, and other relevant legal regulations.

2. Organizing the dissemination and guidance to lecturers, students, and related units, organizations, and individuals about the institutional regulations and relevant legal regulations concerning the compilation, selection, review, approval, and use of textbooks, lecture materials, and reference materials for higher education levels; disseminating guidance to students about their rights and responsibilities to access and use textbooks, lecture materials, and reference materials from the beginning of the course.

3. Organizing internal inspections and audits of the implementation of plans, institutional regulations, and other tasks related to the compilation, selection, review, approval, and use of textbooks, lecture materials, and reference materials of the institution for each course component of the training program, training fields, and training levels; being subject to inspection, audit, and supervision by the Ministry of Education and Training and other competent state agencies according to legal regulations.

Article 16. Public Disclosure and Archiving

1. The training institution shall publicly disclose its regulations and other relevant regulations concerning the compilation, selection, review, approval, and use of textbooks, lecture materials, and reference materials in higher education on its electronic information website at least thirty days before implementing them. Publicly disclose the list of textbooks and reference materials on the electronic information website of the institution.

2. The training institution shall be responsible for archiving and safely preserving all documents related to the work of compiling, selecting, reviewing, approving, and using textbooks, lecture materials, and reference materials for higher education levels in the institution according to legal regulations.

Article 17. Effective Date

1. This Circular takes effect from January 21, 2022, and replaces the provisions concerning the compilation, selection, review, approval, and use of textbooks for higher education levels in Circular No. 04/2011/TT-BGDĐT dated January 28, 2011, issued by the Ministry of Education and Training on the regulations for the compilation, selection, review, approval, and use of higher education textbooks.

2. The Director of the Office, the Head of the Higher Education Department, the heads of relevant units under the Ministry of Education and Training; directors, presidents, rectors of training institutions are responsible for enforcing this Circular.