The Regulation consists of 10 chapters and 46 articles regulating doctoral training at Hanoi National University, including: general regulations; admission; training programs; training organization and management; dissertation and dissertation evaluation; recognition of degrees and granting of doctoral degrees; standards, responsibilities, and powers of individuals and units participating in doctoral training; finance during the doctoral training process; inspection, examination, settlement and handling of violations.
This regulation applies to units and individuals participating in the doctoral training process at Hanoi National University.
Regarding admission requirements. Regarding qualifications, candidates must have graduated from a master's or regular university with a good grade or higher, or an equivalent level of level 7 in some specific specialized fields. The graduated major/specialization must be a suitable major. There are 2 types of suitable majors/specializations: (1) suitable without additional knowledge and (2) suitable with additional knowledge, as determined by the training unit. Candidates who are required to supplement knowledge must complete it before registering for admission.
Regarding research experience, candidates who have graduated from a master's degree program with a research orientation will have their master's thesis considered as proof of this requirement if the training institution does not have additional regulations. Candidates with an applied master's degree or a master's degree in a relevant field/specialization but must take additional courses or candidates applying from a bachelor's degree must be the author or co-author of at least 01 scientific publication related to the field or research topic recognized by the council of professors and associate professors of the field/interdisciplinary field.
Regarding foreign languages: As stipulated in Clause 8, Article 10 of QC 4555 but with the following new points: Accepting both degrees issued by branches of foreign training institutions in Vietnam; PhD students do not need to study fully abroad. Regarding foreign language certificates: Certificates must be within 2 years from the date of the foreign language certificate exam to the date of registration for admission, issued by institutions accepted by the Ministry of Education and Training and Hanoi National University, including: international certificates and certificates issued by Vietnamese institutions equivalent to level 4 or higher according to the 6-level Foreign Language Competency Framework for Vietnam. Late submission of foreign language certificates is not allowed as stipulated in QC 4555.
Monday, the training program includes a minimum of 90 credits for doctoral students with a master's degree and 120 credits for doctoral students with a bachelor's degree. Doctoral students without a master's degree must take at least 30 additional credits. The remaining parts are common to all doctoral students, including: Courses in the doctoral training program with a maximum total of 16 credits, doctoral topics, overview essays and scientific research with a maximum total of 10 credits, participation in professional activities, teaching assistantship and training support (not counting the credits in the training program) and doctoral thesis.
Tuesday, on output standards. VNU issued new regulations with higher requirements than the current regulations of the Ministry. Specifically,
PhD students during their training must have international publications and be the main author of scientific publications with a total score of 2.0 or higher, calculated according to the maximum score set by the State Council of Professors for each type of work.
International publications must be written in a foreign language, articles published in domestic specialized scientific journals must be on the list prescribed by the State Council of Professors with a minimum score of 0.75 points and must meet one of the following criteria:
- Have at least 01 article published in a scientific journal listed in the Web of Science or Scopus category (hereinafter referred to as the WoS/Scopus category);
- Or have 01 granted invention/utility solution certificate and at least 01 international article/report in one of the following publications: (i) reference book chapter published by reputable international publishers, or (ii) monograph published by reputable international publishers, or (iii) report in the proceedings of an international conference with peer review, with ISBN code, or (iv) article published in a reputable foreign scientific journal with peer review, with ISSN code;
- Or have at least 02 international articles/reports in one of the following publications: (i) reference book chapters published by reputable international publishers, or (ii) monographs published by reputable international publishers, or (iii) reports in peer-reviewed international conference proceedings with ISBN codes, or (iv) articles published in reputable foreign scientific journals with peer-review and ISSN codes.
Wednesday, Doctoral training is organized in a regular, centralized form. PhD students must register and complete 30 credits in one academic year. The doctoral training period is calculated from the effective date of the decision to recognize the doctoral student to the time the thesis is approved by the professional unit. The standard training period for those with a master's degree is 03 years; for those without a master's degree, it is 04 years. Doctoral students are allowed to extend their training period when there is a legitimate reason, but the total training period does not exceed 06 years (72 months). Doctoral students with excellent research results may have their thesis defended earlier than the standard training period, but not more than 01 year (12 months).
Thursday, Training units are organized to teach and evaluate courses online or a combination of online and in-person.
but must ensure that the quality of these classes is not lower than the quality of direct classes.
FridayThe full-time study and research plan of the doctoral student is approved by the head of the training unit and issued together with the decision to recognize the thesis topic and thesis supervisor for the doctoral student.
Saturday, changes during the training process: PhD students and supervisors are allowed to propose to the training unit about changing the thesis topic, adding or changing supervisors and transferring training units. This new regulation does not specify the time allowed for change, however, when changing, the study and research plan for the entire course must be adjusted and the training time must be ensured in accordance with regulations. The regulation specifically stipulates cases where PhD students are forced to drop out of school and also stipulates cases where learning and research results are reserved, considered for recognition and conversion. In case of transferring training units or being a new PhD student, the recognition and conversion of learning and research results must not exceed 50% of the total volume of the training program.
Wednesday, Thesis and all scientific research works must be checked for copying and duplication before being submitted for publication, announcement or defense.
9th,Overall evaluation of the thesis at the professional unit: The head of the training unit issues a decision to establish a professional subcommittee to evaluate the thesis, consisting of 05 to 07 scientists who meet the same criteria as the main supervisor. The thesis is approved at the professional unit level if at least 3/4 of the scientists in the professional subcommittee agree to submit the thesis for evaluation at the Doctoral Thesis Evaluation Council.
10th, Independent thesis review
Independent reviewers must meet the same standards as the main thesis supervisor. If the thesis does not pass the independent review process, the doctoral student is only allowed to resubmit the application for organizing a seminar to evaluate the overall thesis no sooner than 3 months and no later than 6 months from the date the thesis is returned. After revision, the thesis must continue to undergo the independent review process for the second time, without needing to ask for the opinions of the independent reviewers who did not approve the thesis the first time.
11th, Special exemption from independent review for PhD students who are the main author of at least 03 articles published in WoS journals or 01 patent/utility solution and 02 articles published in WoS journals with published results consistent with the research topic of the thesis.
12th, Thesis Evaluation Council
The doctoral thesis evaluation council consists of 07 members, of which the number of members from the training unit must not exceed 03 people and the number of independent reviewers must not exceed 01 person. The research capacity standards of the Council members are the same as for the main supervisor, except that the Council Secretary must meet the regulations as for lecturers teaching at the doctoral level.
13thThe training unit can organize online thesis evaluation but must ensure that at least 3 Council members are present in person with the doctoral student;
Wednesday 14,Regarding the recognition of degrees and the granting of doctoral degrees, the Regulations stipulate a number of specific time frames: PhD students complete the revision and supplementation of their thesis/thesis summary according to the resolution of the Thesis Evaluation Council within 01 month; Publish the full text of the thesis and thesis summary on the training unit's electronic information page (except for theses evaluated under confidential mode) within 03 months from the time the PhD student sends the training unit the final complete thesis;
The training unit shall grant doctoral degrees to graduate students within 30 working days from the effective date of the decision to recognize the degree and grant the doctoral degree.
Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan (Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities) awarded Certificates of Merit to graduate students with excellent achievements in study and scientific research.
Thursday 15, Standards for lecturers teaching at doctoral level:
Within 05 years (60 months) from the time of being assigned to teach, PhD-level lecturers must have published publications related to their teaching expertise as the main author as follows: 02 articles, scientific reports in publications with a score of 0.75 points or higher according to the maximum score prescribed by the State Council of Professors; or be the author or co-author of 01 monograph published by domestic and international publishers or of 01 chapter of a reference book published by international publishers.
For lecturers with a doctorate degree (without the title of professor or associate professor), they must have at least 01 year (12 months) of teaching experience at the university or master's level since obtaining their doctorate degree;
16th,Research supervisor standards:
The requirements of VNU are higher than those of the Ministry, only professors, associate professors, and PhD students are allowed to directly supervise doctoral students.
The supervisor with a doctoral degree (without the title of professor or associate professor) who is the main supervisor of a doctoral student must have excellent achievements (continuously for 3 consecutive years, each year the main author of 1 Wos/Scopus article) and have at least 01 year (12 months) of scientific research and teaching work since the decision to grant the doctoral degree.
Within 05 years (60 months) from the date of the decision to recognize the PhD student's guidance, the main supervisor, independent supervisor, and co-supervisor (no distinction between main supervisor and secondary supervisor) must have additional research results in the specialized field related to the supervised thesis topic as follows: Being the main author of a scientific conference report, a scientific article published in publications in the WoS/Scopus list or a reference book chapter issued by reputable international publishers, or an article published in domestic scientific journals with a score of 0.75 points or higher prescribed by the State Council of Professors, or a monograph issued by reputable domestic and international publishers; the publications must achieve a total score of 4.0 points or higher calculated according to the maximum score prescribed by the State Council of Professors for each type of work (no points are divided when there are co-authors);
17thNumber of PhD students supervised: Professors are allowed to independently supervise up to 07 PhD students; Associate Professors or PhDs are allowed to independently supervise up to 05 PhD students; PhDs are allowed to independently supervise or sub-supervise (in case of meeting the main supervision criteria for those with excellent publications) up to 03 PhD students. In case of co-supervising 01 PhD student, it is equivalent to independently supervising 0.5 PhD students;
Supervisors with excellent research capacity (being the main author of at least 03 scientific publications in the WoS/Scopus list/year, continuously for the last 3 years) can request the Director of Hanoi National University to consider allowing an increase in the number of PhD students they are allowed to supervise;
18th, Handling violations
This regulation adds provisions for handling cases where applications are not submitted within the prescribed time limit:
- If the deadline has passed but the graduate student is still within the allowed time of the course, the graduate student must have a written explanation, confirmed by the relevant competent parties (working agency or local government and supervisor) requesting the training unit to consider and resolve;
- After the doctoral student's thesis is approved by the professional unit, the submission of documents for independent review or after the results of independent review are available, the submission of documents for thesis defense is 06 months or more late compared to the prescribed deadline, the unit receiving the documents (member training unit for doctoral students of its unit or Training Board for doctoral students of affiliated training units) stops processing the documents and terminates the training process of the doctoral student; The permission for the doctoral student to continue to carry out the independent review process or defend the thesis is only considered in cases with objective reasons, force majeure and the training unit requests the Director of Hanoi National University to consider and decide;
- If the completion of the thesis and submission of documents after defending the thesis to the Council is 3 months or more late, the training institution will not consider recognizing the degree and awarding the degree to the doctoral student. In this case, the doctoral student must explain and defend the thesis again before the Thesis Evaluation Council.
19th,Terms of implementation:
This regulation takes effect from the date of signing and applies to admission courses from 2022 onwards.
Those are the important new points of the Doctoral Training Regulations of VNU just issued.
PV: Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc, how do you evaluate the effectiveness of this new Regulation?It can be seen that the newly issued Regulations of VNU pay special attention to output standards, quality of doctoral theses and international publications.
The quality of the thesis, the quality of the graduate students, and the quality of the thesis supervisors are the most important factors.
In addition, the new Regulations are also more open and transparent, giving initiative to departments and instructors, creating opportunities for excellent young PhDs and lecturers and postgraduates in professional activities; at the same time, attaching importance to quality assurance factors and sanctions to maintain discipline and quality in training.
According to our statistics, more than 90% of international publications are related to doctoral training. Doctoral training is important and vital for advanced research-oriented universities, for elite universities like VNU.
Only by training PhD students systematically, carefully, seriously and qualitatively can we have a team of qualified PhDs, and from there, a team of qualified professors and associate professors. Especially with VNU, it also plays a role as a central machine - training PhDs who are the teaching staff of many other universities in the country.
Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Thi Thu Huong (Vice Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities) took a souvenir photo with the new Doctor at the Degree Award Ceremony held at the school last November.
With this Regulation, I believe it will be an important breakthrough factor, continuing to promote research and innovation activities, international integration and the formation of many new research groups at VNU. The new Regulation is a lever to promote international publication and thereby enhance the scientific and technological potential and rankings of the industries/fields, as well as of the training units and VNU.
Thank you very much Professor!
