(DBND) The Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities calls on lecturers "not to use the name of academia to deny innovation"

At the 2025 Advanced Model Conference and Lecturer Conference of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan analyzed the main challenges and urgent requirements to systematically innovate the teaching activities of lecturers.

Traditional depth is valuable capital
80 years ago, on October 10, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh signed Decree No. 45, establishing the Faculty of Letters under the Vietnam National University, the predecessor of today's University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Recalling the tradition and quoting Uncle Ho's teaching "Cadres are the root of all work", Principal Hoang Anh Tuan affirmed that the quality of the staff plays a decisive role in the reputation and position of a university:“If excellent specialists contribute to creating a professional university management system, it is the excellent teaching staff that creates the scientific reputation and social status of a university.”
Continuing to quote President Ho Chi Minh's teachings in the letter sent to the National Education Conference in March 1955 that“Schools must be closely linked to social reality, closely linked to people's lives... the educational motivation of teachers must be closely linked to specific goals and tasks according to the needs of society, must meet the interests of the people, for the pursuit of happiness for people”, Principal Hoang Anh Tuan believes that Uncle Ho's philosophy on the role and responsibility of a teacher is very "open" and very "dynamic", adapting to the social context that teachers need to make efforts to adjust and innovate teaching activities to be most effective. The school's teaching staff therefore needs to continuously innovate teaching and research to improve the quality of trained human resources.
College competition is increasing
In the context of increasing pressure on the domestic higher education system, Principal Hoang Anh Tuan mentioned many challenges and focused on analyzing 3 factors that are regularly affecting the School:
The first:With fierce educational competition within the university community (and within the National University itself), more and more units are opening majors and training programs in the fields of social sciences and humanities.
Monday:The restructuring of the administrative apparatus from central to local levels is creating great pressure on the labor market after graduation, directly affecting the enrollment atmosphere of most higher education institutions specializing in social sciences, humanities and arts.
“We do not discuss whether students who graduate from the university are better off working in the public sector or the private sector, because each sector has its own strengths and missions. The success of students in life is a measure of the success of the University: no one says that former students of Humanities who become university professors or research experts are more successful than those who become directors of media companies or CEOs of financial groups...
The changing context of the country today requires the School to reshape its philosophy, viewpoint, strategy, and training plan, in which innovation in teaching activities and adjustment of training programs must ensure keeping pace with the country's trends: the human resources trained by the School will be strongly oriented towards the increasingly expanding private sector in addition to the traditional public sector...", Principal Hoang Anh Tuan analyzed.

Tuesday:Technology, digitalization, and artificial intelligence have - are - and will continue to disrupt many things related to higher education and human resources supplied to the labor market.
According to Principal Hoang Anh Tuan, AI itself does not eliminate anyone, but those who know how to optimize AI will eliminate those who are lazy to use technology and slow to innovate. Therefore, teachers today need to master technology to ensure more effective teaching and research, and not be surpassed by students.
It is necessary to ensure the academic - academic - specialized foundation that has created the reputation of the Faculty of Arts - General - Humanities over the past 80 years, but at the same time it is necessary to ensure the very urgent requirements for students to succeed, including: good foreign language skills, high-level digital and artificial intelligence skills, flexible soft skills, positive and creative thinking, establishing humanistic qualities for generations of students of the School...
Teaching innovation is a natural attribute of the teaching profession.
Principal Hoang Anh Tuan called on the teaching staff to continue promoting innovation to be able to develop breakthroughs in the coming time: “The school firmly adheres to the philosophy of taking academia as the foundation, but not everything is done in the name of academia - hiding behind the academic to avoid, even deny innovation, creativity, and integration. Innovation in teaching in general is a natural attribute of the teaching profession, and is the personal responsibility of the teacher. We must continuously innovate to balance and harmonize between the Ministry's industry - the teacher's profession - the student's career. Academia is the foundation, but modernity must be the trend.
Accordingly, the innovation of lecturers in the coming time needs to be comprehensive and synchronous, focusing on 5 key points: Innovation in enrollment and training structure towards regularization; innovation in training management organization towards concentration, professionalism, progress and efficiency; Innovation in teaching and assessment methods, with special attention to real internationalization and stronger technology; Innovation in support and care for learners, in which the role of teachers in professional consulting is particularly important; Innovation in training programs.
  Principal Hoang Anh Tuan especially emphasized the urgent task ahead is to adjust the training programs. Since the large-scale adjustment in 2019, the training programs have been adjusted annually.
However, the new context of higher education and career trends requires organizing and innovating training programs according to 6 key perspectives including:
- Substantial and consistent innovation;
- Take the quality of the training program as the goal and take the logic of the training program as the principle;
- Strongly following the philosophy of "Academics as the foundation - Modernity as the trend" and taking the future - success of learners as the goal of adjusting the program in 2025;
- Balance between in-depth specialization and high connectivity for programs because in-depth specialization does not exclude the possibility of connectivity to create conditions for students to study for a double degree;
- The course structure is more compact by increasing the number of credits for each subject to facilitate teaching and learning activities;
- Special priority is given to the School's permanent teaching staff to participate in teaching, instructing, and participating in the council.
“The school's permanent staff must be given priority in arranging teaching courses, scientific guidance, and participating in councils...
Priority but not necessarily conditional: lecturers must constantly improve their expertise and update their methods, proactively adjust teaching content to adapt to the philosophy and logic of the new training program, proactively innovate teaching methods, testing and evaluation to improve teaching quality, proactively innovate care activities - scientific consultation and career orientation for students...
The school has and will continue to promote the highest authority to the faculty leaders and the faculty's scientific training council in building the philosophy, identity of the industry and training programs."– Principal Hoang Anh Tuan emphasized.

Ensuring learners succeed in their career journey
Based on 6 viewpoints on innovation of training programs and strict implementation according to Circular No. 17/2021/TT-BGDDT regulating training program standards, Principal Hoang Anh Tuan requested the Department of Training and Learner Affairs of the School to pay special attention to analyzing the restructuring into 4 main knowledge blocks: the basic knowledge block of the Ministry and the National University, the basic knowledge block of the School, the knowledge block of the field, the knowledge block of the industry (and specialized direction - if any).
“The foundational knowledge of the School of Humanities needs to be specifically established with a profound philosophy, clear principles, and covering the current requirements for the capacity of graduates, to ensure that students are successful in their career journey.”
Accordingly, the Principal requires ensuring: Foreign language proficiency, Soft skills system, Digital competency - AI competency and moving towards equipping Digital Humanities, Humanistic Entrepreneurial Spirit, Positive and creative thinking, Culture and development in the digital age.
For the block of industry knowledge and specialized orientation, the School advocates empowering the head of the department and the unit's Science and Training Council to proactively develop and submit to the School's Science and Training Council for consideration and approval.
Similarly, other specific issues such as thesis, internship, science, graduation thesis, studying abroad and credit recognition... also need to be discussed openly and democratically at the training unit to ensure compliance with the philosophy and identity of the industry and the reputation of the School.
“It is easy to maintain the old, but difficult to innovate! But if a teacher is willing to put the future of his students above his personal professional interests, knows how to harmonize his profession with his students’ careers, and is bold in innovating and being creative in teaching activities… then nothing is impossible,”Principal Hoang Anh Tuan concluded.

People's Representative Newspaper:The Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities calls on lecturers "not to use the name of academia to deny innovation"