Many experts have offered their explanations for the fact that Vietnam
is falling far behind on the world scientific ladder following the recent
release of a global ranking of the research performance of higher education
institutions and research-focused organizations.
According to the SIR World Report
2012, recently published by Spain-based research organization SCImago Research
Group, Vietnam contributed four institutions – which are among the country’s
most prominent – and all of them ranked in the bottom third of the total 3,290
listed participants.
In particular, the Vietnam
Academy of Science and Technology ranked 2,058th, while the Vietnam National
University – Ho Chi Minh City was 716 notches below that.
The Vietnam National University –
Hanoi and Hanoi University of Science and Technology were pushed near the
bottom, at 3,155th and 3,160th, respectively.
Confirming that the report was
prepared by an internationally accredited organization, Dr. Nguyen Van Tuan,
with Australia’s New South Wales University, compared Vietnam to its neighbor
Thailand to show how far the former is falling behind.
Dr. Tuan pointed out that the
neighbor now outperforms Vietnam in terms of research performance, adding that
the former authors about 50 percent of quality scientific works, while the
latter’s number is a mere 10 to 20 percent.
He recommended that Vietnam focus
on building research facilities and completing a proper funding policy to
improve its research activities.
Dr. Nguyen Huu Duc, deputy
director of the Vietnam National University – Hanoi, the Southeast Asian
country has so far failed to implement its policies for research activities.
“We have acknowledged that
investing in research is investing for development,” Dr. Duc said. “But we are
still unable to invest as we intend to.”
Pham Bich San, vice general
secretary of the think tank Vietnam Union of Science and Technology
Associations, said he was not surprised at the report that measures many areas
of the participating institutions’ research activities, including the quality
and quantity of scientific papers.
San blamed these pessimistic
rankings on education and macrocosmic organization.
He elaborated that research and
education should not be separated, as is done in Vietnam, which steals good
lecturers from universities as they often choose to work for institutes where
money tends to flow in large amounts for research purposes.
In return, research institutes
will have much less contact with college students who serve both as the
inspiration and high-quality resource for future researches, San further
explained.
Researchers are poorly compensated
at the moment, he complained, protesting that their salaries are calculated by
financial personnel who lack the necessary expertise to judge the value of
scientific work.
“Intellectual labor is equated
simply in this way,” the expert said. “As a result we do not really have
science, but quasi-science instead.”
TUOI TRE
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