Planning undergraduate teaching and distance delivery

Circular 56/2026/TT-BGDĐT · Undergraduate training

The detail

1. The rule and its status

Vietnam's undergraduate training regulation combines academic, delivery-method and quality requirements, with cohort-specific transitions. Issued and effective July 7, 2026, Circular 56 replaces Circular 08/2021 on undergraduate training and 28/2023 on undergraduate distance education. Its attached regulation is not an offshore online-provider licence. Official register and dates · Signed circular, Article 2; attached regulation, Articles 1–2.

2. Who it affects and what it means for a US school

It applies to institutions authorized to provide undergraduate education and related organizations and people. Regular and continuing education are forms; direct, distance and combined delivery are methods within those forms. Regular education must retain more than half of total program workload as actual, simultaneous, direct daytime teaching at the institution. Distance work, domestic-partner teaching and recognized/transferred credit cannot together reduce that actual institutional teaching below the required proportion. This is not the same test as Circular 07's online-workload categories for foreign-linked programs. Regulation, Article 5(1)–(3), signed pp.4–5.

Foreign-issued programs remain governed by the foreign-cooperation/investment/linkage legislation, lawful agreements and compatible provisions of this regulation; their input and outcome standards must not fall below its requirements. Article 7 also addresses foreign-provider/program quality, equivalent awards, foreign-institution teaching participation and responsibility. A US accreditation or a distance platform alone does not settle Vietnamese authorization. Articles 2(7), 7, signed pp.3, 6–7.

3. What to do, by partnership model

• Recruitment: identify the issuer, form, method, locations and applicable cohort before making claims. Article 5(5) requires public information before recruitment, including the distance-teaching proportion, program plan, learning resources, assessments and quality conditions; Article 26(3) separately requires specified public documents no later than 45 days before training begins.
• 2+2 / 3+1: assess actual learning and equivalence rather than promising automatic transfer. Article 16 requires academic assessment of outcomes, workload, content, assessment equivalence, quality and authenticity; the institution publishes credit-recognition conditions and limits. For regular Vietnamese undergraduate education, account for transferred credit in Article 5(1)'s actual direct-teaching test. The US receiving institution's credit decision is separate.
• Dual degree / joint program: map both issuers, learning requirements and lawful authority. Apply Articles 2(7) and 7 alongside Circular 07/2025 and the temporary Resolution 66.18 approval route, subject to later intervening instruments. Article 7(6) requires foreign-institution lecturers to participate directly in teaching at least 25% of program workload and meet stated qualification/language requirements; Circular 07 Article 4(5) also specifies academic responsibility. Neither is a foreign-passport staffing quota.
• Online / blended: document LMS, digital materials, identity authentication, progress traces, assessment records, personal-data/security controls and academic/technical support. Apply the technology rules as well. Article 12(2)'s remote-assessment contribution of no more than 50% of a course grade is an assessment-weight rule, not an online-teaching allowance. Remote thesis/project defense has additional panel, consent and recording conditions. Article 10(3)(e) excludes the specified health practical/clinical/professional components and core arts practice/direct-interaction components from distance delivery; check the actual module.
• Branch campus: establish the institution's licensed scope under Decree 361 before applying undergraduate operating rules. Circular 56 does not replace establishment or operating permission.

Sources for the duties above: Articles 5, 7, 10, 12, 16 and 26, signed pp.4–10, 15–16, 22–23. Recognition of a foreign qualification is a separate Circular 65/2026 question.

4. Change history and transitions

Circular Article 2 replaces 08/2021 and 28/2023 from July 7, 2026. The attached regulation's Article 27 determines which rules apply to a particular cohort; replacement is not a direction to rewrite every existing learner's course immediately. Signed pp.1, 23–24.

• Article 27(1) applies the new regulation to the 2026 admission cohort beginning training in academic year 2026/27 onward.
• Article 27(2) preserves the training regulations effective at the recruitment announcement for the specified earlier-announced/not-yet-started cohorts, ongoing regular/work-study/distance cohorts, distance programs already announced/recruiting/operating, existing signed/recruited linkages and already-recognized learning/credits/certificates. Keep the actual dated announcement and program records.
• Article 27(3) preserves the specified foreign-language certificates/evidence from the cited master's/doctoral appendices through December 31, 2027; this is not a general postponement of the whole regulation.
• Article 27(4) requires institutions to review/amend/issue compatible internal training rules before December 31, 2026. During transition they continue published rules for ongoing cohorts/programs, except where they elect learner-beneficial new provisions while ensuring quality and accountability.
• Article 27(5) addresses foreign-language outcome standards and the interim position where the corresponding field/program standard has not yet been issued.

Historical source: official Circular 28/2023 signed text. Historical 08/2021 and 28/2023 requirements must be identified as saved-case rules, not the current default. Circular 56 is undergraduate regulation; do not automatically apply its domestic form/method taxonomy to a foreign-linked master's or doctoral program.

5. Sources and verification

Official Vietnamese signed text · Government register

Last verified: October 30, 2026. English explanation; the official Vietnamese text controls.

6. Related rules, institutions and cases

Online and Distance Delivery · Foreign-linked delivery: Circular 07 · Recognition: Circular 65 · Technology: Circular 49 · Joint programs · University Atlas · Keuka case. A profile or case is not certification of a particular online program's authority.

7. Briefing and legal note

Prepare a Vietnam Partnership Briefing with the intended issuer, field, level, recruitment announcement, start date, locations and teaching/assessment plan.

For general information only, not legal advice. Confirm requirements with qualified counsel and the relevant Vietnamese authorities before acting.