Demanding a shift from 'quantity' to 'quality' of international publications in universities

The Ministry of Education and Training said that scientific research activities in higher education institutions have developed significantly in recent years. The number of scientific articles in prestigious international journals has increased rapidly by 12-15% per year.

In the period 2018-2022, Vietnam had 76,672 Scopus articles, of which from 2020 onwards there were over 18,000 articles each year.

In 2022, the total number of international articles in Vietnam will reach about 18,500 (Scopus), in 2023 it will increase to nearly 20,000 articles/year, and in 2024 it will reach over 22,000 articles.

Thanks to that boost, Vietnam's international publication rate, although still modest compared to the major powers (only about 1.8% compared to China, nearly 2.7% compared to the US in 2023), has doubled compared to 2018.

Most of our country's international publications come from the university education system, contributing about 70% of the articles on WoS (database of the Institute for Scientific Information, USA) and 90% on Scopus (database of Elsevier publisher, Netherlands) of the whole country.

Vietnam's international publications span 27 fields in four main areas (Natural Sciences , Engineering-Technology, Life Sciences-Medicine, Social Sciences).

Higher education institutions play a key role in scientific research. Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City National University leads with more than 3,000 international articles in 2024. Followed by Hanoi University of Science and Technology and Hanoi National University, each school has about 1,500-1,600 international articles/year recently.

For example, in 2020, Hanoi University of Science and Technology had 491 articles (leading the list of schools under the Ministry of Education and Training), and by 2023-2024, it had approximately 1,500 articles.

Hanoi National University also grew steadily by about 15% per year, from 1,160 articles (2020) to nearly 1,600 articles (2024). Can Tho University reached over 1,000 articles in 2024.

In particular, non-public research-oriented universities have also made their mark (such as Ton Duc Thang University, Phenikaa University, Duy Tan University... with several hundred international articles each year), showing the strong rise of the private sector.

Despite remarkable achievements, scientific research activities at many schools still face challenges. The Ministry of Education and Training commented that the growth rate of international publications is slowing down, requiring schools to shift from “quantity” to “quality”.

Commercialization of research results is still limited: many products from State projects have not been brought to market due to regulations and lack of enterprises to receive them. Financial resources for science at universities have increased but still need to be used effectively.

In particular, the gap in research capacity between schools is very large. Only a few top schools reach regional level, while many other schools have few publications and have not yet formed strong research groups. Scientific research and technology transfer are still "bottlenecks" when the revenue from these activities at most schools is very low.

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/doi-hoi-chuyen-tu-luong-sang-chat-ve-cong-bo-quoc-te-trong-truong-dai-hoc-post749631.html