Nhan Dan – At a recent national conference, the education and training service discussed the shortcomings and weaknesses of Vietnamese higher education and ways for its development in the future.

Universities should develop standards for their lecturers and graduates, thus helping them improve the quality of their training.

Why have Vietnamese universities yet to be in the top regional universities?

Despite having made efforts over the past few years, the quality of Vietnamese higher education remains low with no universities named in the regional or global rankings. In the latest world university ranking compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (Transport) University’s Institute of Higher Education for more than 2,000 universities worldwide in 2007 based on their study and research, no Vietnamese universities could be found in the top 500 universities in the world and top 100 universities in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Researcher/ Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan also evaluated and ranked the scientific paper performances of the top 500 universities worldwide. The performance measures were composed of nine indicators to assess a university’s overall scientific paper performance based on three criteria: research productivity (accounts for 20%), research impact (30%), and research excellence (50%). And no Vietnamese universities were named in the council’s rankings in 2007.

In the Webometrics Rankings in February, 2007, Vietnam had seven universities in the top 100 universities in Southeast Asia and Vietnam ranked only above Laos and Cambodia.

In Vietnam, it was the first time the evaluation of the quality of universities has been included in legal documents of the Ministry of Education and Training in December 2004. In 2005, 20 universities selected from State-run and private-owned universities in the north, south and Central Vietnam which were evaluated on a pilot basis. By June 2007, the evaluation results show that no universities reached level 3 (all-round evaluation), 16 universities reached level 2 (meeting between 80 and 91% of criteria) and four universities reached level 1 (meeting between 69 and 76% of criteria).

After two years of piloting the evaluation of local universities, the Ministry of Education and Training said that even though the evaluated universities were top ones in Vietnam, they would have to overcome many difficulties to catch up with universities regionally and globally.

The quality of Vietnamese higher education remains poor due to a lack of clear standards. Concretely, Vietnam lacks concrete regulations on knowledge and skills for each level of training as well as standards for lecturers.

It was difficult to evaluate the quality in the initial stage as Vietnam did not have enough experienced experts in that field.

Furthermore, there was no mechanism that encouraged Vietnamese and foreign experts to join the evaluation.

In addition, Vietnam lacks independent evaluating agencies.

At the same time, research activities in universities have yet to be focused on. Research works and studies are theoretical and their results have yet to be applied.

Another reason is a shortage of leading researchers and qualified managers, not to mention other shortcomings and difficulties in finance and research facilities.

Vietnam will have universities in top 500

At a the national conference, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan said that as Vietnam lacked the necessary mechanisms and has yet to consider quality as the highest target in management. According to Mr Nhan, a change for the better would only be seen in universities if State investment went along with the quality of education and training.

Specially, universities should develop standards for their lecturers and graduates, thus helping them improve the quality of their training. The Ministry of Education and Training has set a target that by 2018, Vietnamese universities will have to announce their output standards. Lecturers will be evaluated at the end of each academic year and students can give their evaluation on lecturers.

In addition, directors of universities should be given with the right to decide wages of each lecturer based on their capability. Universities should have enough facilities, especially Internet connection and online libraries to help students access information.

It is necessary to identify where universities stand now. The education and training service should have a long-term vision and strategy.

It can be seen a good sign that the service has set a target of having a university in the top 200 in the world and several universities in the top 500.

Professor and Dr Banh Tien Long, deputy minister of education and training, said that to improve the quality of higher education, right in 2008, the Ministry of Education and Training will develop concrete standard in the selection and recruitment of lecturers.

At the same time, the evaluation and ranking of universities will be piloted based on quality criteria. Universities will be responsible for taking part in the evaluation.

Notably, the Ministry of Education and Training plans to build research universities and will strive to have 20 universities of the kind in 2020.

Additionally, the two newly-established universities, the Vietnam-Germany University and the Hanoi University of Technology will be organised as internationally-standardised universities.

In 2008, a programme on training of 20,000 doctorate holders will begin. In early months of this year, the State sent 500 people abroad to study for their doctorates. Vietnam hopes to have improved the quality of its lecturers and managers by 2020, with 30% of lecturers in universities and 15% in colleges holding a doctorate.

Some other tasks, which have been discussed by the education and training service, are as follow: to perfect the higher education system and network, to renew training method and content, to promote investment in training and learning facilities, to evaluate and rank universities.

These are necessary for the development of Vietnamese higher education, meeting the requirement for human resource development when the country is accelerating its industrialisation and modernisation and international integration. 

Phan Huy Hien