New move of Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine after the scandal about the 24-year-old doctoral candidate

The working group consists of 7 members, led by Dr. Pham Quoc Dung - Vice Principal of the school. The working group will work for 30 days, starting from October 28 and will conduct a review according to the provisions of the Law on Science , Technology and Innovation 2025 (Article 8) and Decree 262/2025/ND-CP (Article 4, Article 6) within the scope of training and research.

This decision was made after a series of questions arose surrounding the case of candidate Au Nhat Huy (born in 2001) who was admitted to the doctoral program at the school. The school confirmed that the candidate's application was valid and he met the admission score according to the regulations.

According to the regulations on doctoral training and recruitment, staff and lecturers whose relatives are involved in recruitment are not allowed to join the council. In this case, Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thi Khanh Tuong - mother of candidate Huy - was confirmed not to participate in any activities of the 2025 recruitment period, ensuring the principle of eliminating conflicts of interest.

Regarding research capacity, candidate Au Nhat Huy submitted 8 articles for scoring, including 5 domestic articles and 3 articles in international journals in the Scopus category. The initial converted total score was 11, but due to the regulation "maximum score is 10", it was finalized at 10 points, helping the candidate achieve an average total score of 88.8.

However, after the scores were announced, an article in the list that Au Nhat Huy co-authored and submitted to the school for scoring was unexpectedly withdrawn from the journal by the main author. When adjusted, the candidate’s “research experience” score was reduced from 10 to 9.5 and the average total score was reduced from 88.8 to 88.3.

The school said this change does not affect candidates' admission results.