Vietnam plans to raise the ratio of university students in the country to 200 students for every 10, 000 people by 2010, local newspaper Vietnam News quoted Vietnam's Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan as reporting on Tuesday.

To this end, the Ministry of Education and Training recently launched several measures to be implemented during the 2007-2010 period.

The priority is on raising the skills of teachers. The ministry intends to make 30 percent of university lectures obtaining doctorate degrees by 2015, while presently only about 14 percent of university lecturers have doctorate degrees, said the report.

The ministry has also asked the prime minister and concerned agencies to raise the retirement age for professors, associate- professors and doctors to 65 years against the usual age of 60 for men and 55 for women, as stipulated in the Labor Code.

A 10-year national plan to improve foreign language skills, especially English, among students has been developed by the ministry, in order to prepare human resources for international integration of the country.

As a result, English is becoming the preferred language of instruction for several subjects, including tourism, information technology, finance and banking, at some senior high schools and universities, Nhan said, noting that the Vietnamese government hopes English will become one of the most common languages among Vietnamese people following the mother tongue.

In 2006, the ratio of university students was 167 students for every 10,000 people, the report said.