Postgraduate Training - Identifying Difficulties, Continuing to Develop

Other related information

Master's Program

PhD Training Program

Announcement of Postgraduate Admissions, Round 2, 2015

Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Quang Minh, Vice Principal of the School, took a souvenir photo with the new Masters during the second Master's degree award ceremony at the end of 2014.

Don't be complacent about the results achieved.

Last academic year, the school enrolled 443 master’s students (including 7 foreign students) and 139 doctoral students (including 6 foreign students). Compared to previous academic years, the number of master’s students has decreased slightly, but the number of doctoral students remains high.

The management and organization of training at the units have been rectified and put into order, ensuring that the training plan and schedule are implemented according to the prescribed time. 876 master's students and 46 doctoral students have successfully defended their theses and dissertations and been awarded degrees.

In the 2014-2015 school year, the School completed the adjustment of 30 research-oriented master's degree training programs and 3 application-oriented programs; 3 new postgraduate training programs were approved and put into training: PhD in Religious Studies, Master of Vietnamese Studies and Master of Vietnamese Cultural History.

The total number of current postgraduate training programs of the University is 61, including 31 master's programs and 30 doctoral programs. The University is promoting the development of 3 doctoral training programs: Information Science - Library, Tourism and Social Work and 4 master's training programs: Public Policy, Human Resource Management, Office Management and Clinical Psychology.

The school has completed and been approved by VNU for the Industry Plan and training majors until 2020. Accordingly, by 2020 there will be 69 postgraduate training programs, including 38 master's degree training majors and 31 doctoral training majors.

Despite the results achieved, the School Board, leaders of the Graduate Student Affairs Department, and leaders of the Faculties and Departments still do not take the promotion, enrollment and training process lightly. The work of enrollment, management and training at the graduate level always faces difficulties, challenges, competition and changes every day, Associate Professor, Dr. Quyet shared.

The school regularly organizes seminars to discuss methods of writing and publishing scientific research works for young staff and postgraduate students of the school.

Identify the challenges

In the summary report of the 2014-2015 academic year, the number of postgraduate students has decreased compared to previous years. Associate Professor Pham Van Quyet identified this as a general trend when many regulations in postgraduate work of VNU were changed, which is posing many challenges for the university's postgraduate recruitment.

Discussing these challenges, Associate Professor Pham Van Quyet shared: The downward trend is due to adjustments in a number of regulations and guidelines in the recruitment and management of postgraduate students. Specifically, the regulation on eliminating the transfer of good and excellent students to study for a master's degree, the regulation on not allowing schools to train postgraduate students by address... These regulations have caused a large decrease in the number of students studying for a master's degree at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in particular and other member schools of VNU in general. In addition, some regulations in the entrance exam guidelines for foreign languages ​​​​like last school year also caused some reactions from candidates.

As a leading center for training and research in social sciences and humanities in the country, a unit that is always a pioneer in opening new majors and pilot programs, attracting a large number of candidates to register and study. These advantages only last for one or two years, after which they are competed by other training institutions, with criteria and regulations that are somewhat more flexible than those of VNU.

“Like the Social Work major, when this major started enrolling, the number of candidates registering was very large, the competition was very high. But after only 2 years, this major quickly appeared in many other institutions, sometimes with more favorable regulations. This put direct pressure on the school's enrollment in the major,” Associate Professor, Dr. Pham Van Quyet shared.

PhD student Phan Van Kien (Faculty of Journalism and Communication) is presenting a paper at a scientific conference for young cadres, postgraduate students and PhD students of the School, which was held in May 2015.

Solutions

Faced with difficulties caused by changes in regulations and rules, the School Board, together with relevant Departments and Offices, have proactively proposed short-term and long-term solutions, aiming to continue to maintain and develop the School's postgraduate training level.

In addition to proposals and recommendations to remove or adjust regulations that are not suitable for application to social science practices of VNU, the University's Graduate Training Department also proposed many major directions in its activities.

Promote and enhance the role of Faculties, Departments and assistants in training and student management activities. Decentralization of management is implemented, the University Training Department plays the role of receiving, managing, processing records and focusing on performing the professional work of the department. Work directly related to students is transferred to the Faculties. This will make the training process, file processing... transparent and effective.

In addition, students' contact with assistants of faculties, deans of faculties and departments enhances the connection factor in both administrative procedures and professional research work. Guidance notices are quickly and promptly communicated to students.

In addition, the school always promotes the connection of training activities with scientific research activities, seminars, and research seminars. Every year, the school has dozens of domestic and international seminars, hundreds of exchanges, discussions, and meetings with domestic and foreign experts. This is an extremely valuable environment for scientific exchange and learning for students studying at the school.

In addition, the School also organizes a Young Staff Scientific Conference every year, which is a playground for postgraduate students as well as young staff of the School to publish research related to their work.

The school also finds many measures to support students' difficulties in foreign languages. The school has a foreign language center to support students' foreign language training activities. The center regularly opens review classes, training and exams to grant B1, B2 certificates for the school's students. In addition, the school also regularly and closely coordinates with the University of Foreign Languages, VNU in training, exams and granting foreign language certificates.

Continue to discover, propose, and develop new training majors in the direction of meeting social needs and pilot training programs. Analyze and evaluate training programs with high practical elements to develop application-oriented training programs, suitable for implementing training by address, training staff for difficult areas such as the Northwest, Central Highlands and Southwest.

With the solutions and expectations set out, in the coming time, the University's postgraduate training activities will continue to have steady steps, commensurate with the position and stature of a leading research university in the country.