Vietnam - University lecturers refuse to follow domestic postgraduate training courses

VietNamNet Bridge –The government has decided that Vietnam will have 20,000 more PhDs by 2020, including 10,000 PhDs to be trained domestically. However, most of postgraduates do not want to attend domestic training courses because of the low training quality.


It’s so hard to find postgraduates

A lot of universities in HCM City allowed to train PhDs admitted that they cannot find enough candidates for the training courses.

Dr Huynh Thanh Hung, Deputy President of the HCM City University for Agriculture and Forestry, said that the school had the “quota” of training 10 postgraduates in the years from 2008 to 2010, but it could only find 50-60 percent of the numbers needed. In 2011, the school found enough learners for the training courses, because candidates were admitted after the school checked their learning records, while they did not have to sit entrance exams.

The schools belonging to the HCM City National University are facing the same problem. In 2008, the HCM City University of Technology was allowed to enroll 20 learners for PhD training courses, but only 16 applied and 7 passed the entrance exams. Meanwhile, only 22 were found in 2010, though the school needed 30. 

As for the HCM City University for Natural Sciences, the number of postgraduates enrolled for PhD training courses was just equal to ½ or 1/3 of the “quota” in the last consecutive years. The University for Economics & Law found 6/10 postgraduates in 2008, 8/12 in 2009 and 6/12 in 2010.

The training quality alarmingly low

Professor Dr Nguyen Thien Tong, Deputy President of the Cuu Long University, who was the member of many PhD thesis defending councils, noted that he found a lot of postgraduates undeserved to the doctorate, but the councils still let the candidates “go through”.

“I believe that the excellent postgraduates, who really want to upgrade their knowledge, will not attend domestic training courses for the doctorate,” Tong said.

He went on to say that most of the people attend domestic training courses just because they want to obtain the doctorate. As they are not eager to improve their knowledge, the study proves to be insignificant, while a lot of topics for scientific research do not have practical significance.

“It is necessary to require postgraduates to have scientific research works published on international magazines,” he suggested.

“Postgraduates can write their dissertations in Vietnam, but the dissertations should be graded by foreign professors, which will help upgrade the training quality,” he added.

Educators also said that not all the PhDs, who finish training courses overseas, are better than those, who finish domestic training courses. However, in general, the majority of the PhDs from overseas have higher qualification. 

Lecturers have to sacrifice many things for doctorates

Dr Nguyen Hoi Nghia from the HCM City National University said that university lecturers have to experience a lot of difficulties to obtain the doctorates. “When you decide to study for doctorate, you should understand that you will have to make great efforts, spend time and give up entertainment to reserve time for your study,” he said.

A lot of PhDs also said that they had to sacrifice many things for the doctorate. Especially, they did not have time to earn money, because they had to spend most of their time on the research works.

Tran Thi Nguyet Suong, MA, lecturer of the Ton Duc Thang University, said that postgraduates in foreign countries can spend all of their time on study and research. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, postgraduates still have to fulfill their works at universities and fulfill their research works as well.

That is the reason why Dr Nguyen Thien Tong compared the PhD training in Vietnam with a kind of “in-service training”.

Educators have warned that the government’s program to train 20,000 PhDs by 2020 may be unfulfilled. If Vietnam is still determined to have enough PhDs, universities would produce the PhDs who do not have high qualifications.

Source: Tien phong


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