Science and technology development - key factor to elevate Vietnamese universities

In order to achieve the goal of improving its position in international rankings as required by Resolution 71-NQ/TW of the Politburo on breakthroughs in education and training development, universities need to develop in the direction of quality and efficiency. In particular, having a team of good lecturers and excellent scientific research potential... are key factors to raise the level of Vietnamese universities.

Solving the big problem of teaching staff

Having a team of good lecturers and excellent scientific research potential; well-linking training, research, innovation activities with businesses and the market... are key factors to raise the level of Vietnamese universities. Illustrative photo: Thanh Tung/VNA

According to the Ministry of Education and Training , the total number of university lecturers by 2024 is about 91,300 people. Of which, the number of lecturers with doctoral degrees is about 30,000 people, accounting for 33% of the total number of lecturers. The rest are mainly masters (about 53,400 people, nearly 58%) and a few have university degrees. Each year, Vietnam has about 600 new professors and associate professors. The proportion of lecturers with the title of professor and associate professor is concentrated in large universities, where there are many postgraduate training majors.

The government has set a target of at least 40% of lecturers with PhDs by 2030. From 2030 onwards, universities offering PhDs must have at least 50% of their lecturers holding PhDs. This is a significant challenge, especially for local or newly upgraded universities, as the PhD training process takes 5-7 years and there is a brain drain (some PhDs leave the university or retire).

To achieve the goal of increasing the rate of PhDs, higher education institutions are implementing many solutions to attract domestic and foreign talents, support lecturers to study for PhDs, and improve treatment. Many PhDs who graduated from abroad have returned to work at major universities.

For example, Ho Chi Minh City National University has implemented the “VNU 350” program to attract 350 outstanding young scientists, with policies such as: Granting 200 million VND for first-year projects, 1 billion VND for third-year projects, and supporting laboratories up to 10 billion VND in the fourth year, so that they can develop their careers at the school. These bold policies aim to “retain and attract highly qualified lecturers”, because they not only teach but also lead scientific research, publish internationally and transfer knowledge to society. However, in smaller schools, recruiting good PhDs is still difficult due to limitations in research environment and income.

Mr. Vu Minh Duc, Director of the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators (Ministry of Education and Training) affirmed that in the university education system, lecturers hold a central position. They are not only the ones who impart knowledge, but also the ones who guide, advise, and inspire students; at the same time, they are scientific researchers, create new knowledge and act as a bridge between the school and society.

In recent years, the number of lecturers at higher education institutions in Vietnam has increased rapidly, gradually improved in quality, and gradually integrated into the international community. However, compared to the requirements of innovation in higher education and the trend of globalization, the teaching staff has not yet met the requirements of development and improvement of the quality of higher education and scientific research, and the remuneration for lecturers is not attractive enough.

Resolution 71-NQ/TW of the Politburo on breakthroughs in education and training development emphasized the need for special and outstanding preferential policies for teachers; building a mechanism to mobilize high-quality human resources outside of teachers to participate in teaching and training at educational institutions; encouraging experts and scientists to preside over research activities; recruiting at least 2,000 excellent lecturers from abroad.

Mr. Vu Minh Duc shared that, to concretize the goals in the Resolution, in the coming time, the Ministry of Education and Training will advise competent authorities to adjust preferential and specific policies to develop the university teaching staff.

Regarding salary policy and preferential allowances for university lecturers, the Ministry of Education and Training is developing a Decree on salary policy for teachers, in which teachers' salaries have a higher specific coefficient compared to other professions; aiming to pay salaries according to job position and work efficiency, placing teachers in the right role and position to pay salaries and have more suitable policies.

Regarding the preferential allowance for the profession, the Ministry also proposed to adjust the increase to an appropriate level for university lecturers. Some policies on better treatment, support and attraction for teachers such as allowances according to the nature of work, according to the region; training and fostering support; periodic health care support and occupational health care are specified in the documents guiding the implementation of the Law on Teachers.

Regarding the policy of recruiting and attracting talented people to become teachers, in order to concretize the Law on Teachers, the regulations will increase the autonomy of higher education institutions in recruiting teachers; regulations on co-staff lecturers for talented people working at public service units; regulations on the "State - School - Enterprise" cooperation mechanism; building a project to attract talented foreign lecturers, removing administrative barriers, simplifying procedures for inviting international experts, professors, and overseas Vietnamese intellectuals to return to work in the country, as well as creating favorable conditions for receiving international funding and aid for research and training.

Scientific research needs to shift from "quantity" to "quality"

Assessing scientific research activities in higher education institutions in recent years, Mr. Pham Quang Hung, Director of the Department of Science, Technology and Information (Ministry of Education and Training) said: The number of scientific articles in prestigious international journals increased rapidly by 12-15%/year. In the period 2018-2022, Vietnam had 76,672 Scopus articles, and from 2020 onwards, each year there were over 18,000 articles. In 2022, the total number of international articles in Vietnam reached about 18,500 (Scopus), in 2023 it increased to nearly 20,000 articles/year, and in 2024 it reached 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 and 90% on Scopus nationwide. Vietnam's international publications span 27 majors in 4 main fields (Natural Sciences, Engineering - Technology, Life Sciences - Medicine, Social Sciences).

Ho Chi Minh City National University is currently leading with more than 3,000 international articles in 2024, this is the first time a Vietnamese university has surpassed the 3,000 articles/year mark, an increase of 25% compared to 2023. Next are Hanoi University of Science and Technology and Hanoi National University, each recently had about 1,500-1,600 international articles/year. In addition, non-public research-oriented universities have also made their mark, showing the strong rise of the private sector (Ton Duc Thang University, Phenikaa University, Duy Tan University... each have several hundred international articles each year).

However, according to the Ministry of Education and Training, the growth rate of international publications is slowing down, requiring schools to shift from “quantity” to “quality”. The commercialization of research results is still limited, many products from State topics have not been brought to the market due to regulations and lack of receiving enterprises. In particular, the gap in research capacity between schools is very large, only a few top schools reach the regional level, while many other schools, with a small number of publications, have not yet formed strong research groups. Scientific research and technology transfer are still “bottlenecks” when the revenue from this activity at most schools is very low.

Ho Chi Minh City National University, which leads in terms of published articles, only achieved a revenue of VND 241.2 billion from science and technology services (as of November 2024), a figure that has decreased compared to the previous two years (2022: VND 319 billion, 2023: VND 288 billion). This partly reflects the ineffectiveness of cooperation with businesses in terms of commercialization.

Along with that, although cooperation between universities and enterprises in Vietnam has been established, it is generally not extensive, mainly focusing on some traditional forms such as internships and student recruitment. The content of cooperation is still limited, nearly 90% of schools said that they cooperate on internships for students, about 70% of enterprises sponsor scholarships and job fairs for students. Meanwhile, the rate of enterprises participating in training or research is still low, only about 30%. This shows that university-enterprise cooperation in Vietnam today is mostly supporting human resource training rather than linking research and innovation.

Mr. Pham Quang Hung said that in order to mobilize resources to promote science and technology activities and innovation in higher education institutions, it is necessary to innovate management methods and allocate budgets for science and technology activities in higher education institutions.

Currently, science and technology human resources are mostly located in higher education institutions, however, research funding for schools is too low compared to actual needs. Therefore, it is necessary to base on science and technology potential to allocate research funding to higher education institutions to carry out state-ordered tasks in priority areas, including promoting basic research, potential research, technology incubation; investing in foundational industries, key areas; investing in building and developing innovation ecosystems...

Mr. Pham Quang Hung also emphasized that, in the context of university autonomy, the most breakthrough solution to mobilize resources to promote science and technology activities and innovation in higher education is the mechanism to promote diversified revenue sources for higher education, promote the strength of funding sources from cooperation with enterprises, funding sources mobilized from society. In which, the State plays the role of creating, promulgating mechanisms, policies and supporting necessary resources for cooperation activities between the State, schools and enterprises; ensuring budget allocation from science and technology, education and training career expenditure sources, as well as national target programs to support cooperation activities; investing in infrastructure, laboratories, innovation centers for cooperation activities; prioritizing seed funding and co-financing for cooperation projects with enterprises in the Strategic Technology List. The State also needs to select a number of potential universities and enterprises to pilot and replicate effective cooperation models.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/ban-tron-giao-duc/phat-trien-khoa-hoc-cong-nghe-yeu-to-then-chot-nang-tam-dai-hoc-viet-nam-20250923121626940.htm