Getting a PhD is a paid job.

Many argue that to achieve quality postgraduate training, doctoral studies should be viewed as a profession, and students should be paid to dedicate their full time to truly high-quality research.

Doctoral enrollment at major universities has dropped sharply.

During a seminar on postgraduate training jointly organized by Vingroup 's Big Data Institute and Hanoi University of Science and Technology last weekend, Associate Professor Hoang Minh Son, Rector of Hanoi University of Science and Technology, stated that if only considering universities in natural sciences and engineering, the scale of postgraduate enrollment and training (especially at the doctoral level) has decreased significantly in recent years. The number of master's students and doctoral candidates at the top 15 natural science and engineering universities currently accounts for only about 7% of the total postgraduate training scale nationwide.

“As Thanh Nien newspaper has previously reported, the larger the university, the more difficult it is to recruit doctoral students. Take Hanoi University of Science and Technology, for example. In 2011, the university recruited over 2,000 master's students, with a postgraduate training scale of 5,000. In 2018, the number decreased to just over 500, a reduction of three-quarters. The current postgraduate training scale accounts for less than 5% of the university's total training scale,” Associate Professor Son shared.

Associate Professor Mai Thanh Phong, Rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, also stated that a similar situation is occurring at his university. Previously, the university trained approximately 1,300-1,400 postgraduate students annually, but now that number has dropped to only 600. According to Associate Professor Phong, the demand for postgraduate studies exists, but the current focus is somewhat misguided.

"The reality is that our top students all go abroad for postgraduate studies, due to the disparity in the quality of education between domestic and international institutions. Many people study domestically simply to get a degree, so they choose to study part-time at smaller universities instead of larger ones," Associate Professor Phong observed.

According to Mr. Bui The Duy, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology , the reason for the decline in the number of postgraduate students in recent years is the reduced demand for human resources with master's and doctoral degrees in the labor market.

Learners need to be paid.

Professor Vu Ha Van, Scientific Director of the Vingroup Big Data Institute, stated: “We don't have the money to pay scholarships for students, so they have to work in another profession while studying, leaving very little time for learning. Therefore, the quality of the degrees they receive cannot compare to those from other universities. Meanwhile, postgraduate studies in the US are considered a full-time profession. During their postgraduate studies, they are completely at the university, attending classes daily and working with their professors. They need a budget to cover their expenses, just enough to live on, but sufficient to support their studies. Where does that money come from? Partly from businesses, but mostly from government funds.”

According to Mr. Bui The Duy, other countries consider doctoral candidates as an efficient and low-cost "research worker," while in Vietnam, the labor market in universities does not yet have that need. However, Mr. Duy also argues that saying universities don't have the money to pay salaries to doctoral candidates is not entirely accurate. Professors can allocate funds from state-assigned research projects to pay a small fee to doctoral candidates if they work for them.

Many schools have implemented it.

In Ho Chi Minh City, there have been many incentive programs for doctoral students recently, which not only support training costs but even provide salaries.

The most prominent example of this training model is the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, which is currently implementing several policies to support both domestic and international doctoral students. Accordingly, from the second intake of the 2017 cohort onwards, doctoral students enrolled in the full-time program are considered full-time employees and must sign a contract with the university. They will receive a 100% tuition fee waiver each year based on their academic and research performance in the previous year. In addition, they will be provided with workspace and free accommodation in the university's facilities if they live outside of Ho Chi Minh City.

During the course of their scientific research, doctoral candidates receive financial support equivalent to that of full-time university staff. Conversely, doctoral candidates must fulfill obligations to the university, such as working 40 hours per week, publishing at least one article in an ISI-Scopus indexed journal and one article in the English version of Jabes before defending their dissertation at the university level. Failure to fulfill these publication obligations will result in the student having to repay the subsidized tuition fees.

The Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City also approved a postgraduate scholarship program with a total value of 500 million VND for 2019. The scholarship value for master's students is 25 million VND per scholarship and for doctoral students is 75 million VND per scholarship.

The project aims to encourage students and doctoral candidates to focus their time on studying and conducting scientific research in postgraduate training fields at the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/hoc-tien-si-duoc-tra-luong-185836358.htm