Professor Pham Tat Dong - excellent teacher, scientist and social activist

During more than 60 years of working and participating in management related to the education sector, just counting the Department of Psychology and Sociology, Prof. Dr. Pham Tat Dong has made many contributions to the development of the sector. In 10 years, from 1991 - 2001, Prof. Dr. Pham Tat Dong was the first concurrent Dean of the Faculty. Our Faculty is very proud because the Professor - Dean of the Faculty is both a good politician, manager and a famous scientist. Knowing that Prof. Pham Tat Dong was the Deputy Head of the Central Science and Education Committee, very busy with work, the Board of Directors of Hanoi National University at that time still warmly invited him to become the concurrent Dean of the Faculty. Also in the Faculty Board at that time were 3 Vice Deans: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen An Lich, Dr. Tran Thi Minh Duc, MSc. Doan Ngoc An - the effective collaborators of Prof. Pham Tat Dong.

On December 10, 1997, the Director of Hanoi National University signed a decision to establish the Faculty of Sociology under the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU. However, the research and teaching of Sociology at the University had started about 30 years ago. From a group of the Department of Sociology under the Faculty of Philosophy of Hanoi National University, in 1991, the Faculty of Sociology - Psychology was formed on the basis of combining the Department of Sociology with the Department of Psychology and the Department of Education.

In the early 90s, the market economy developed, many social issues arose, requiring sociological research and investigation. Sociology penetrated many research fields such as economics, culture, education, population, health care and protection, urban planning, etc. Under the leadership of the Faculty Board and especially the role of Prof. Pham Tat Dong, the staff of the Faculty of Sociology - Psychology both built a curriculum and teaching plan to truly operate as a faculty, but also prepared so that in a short time, Psychology would separate into an independent faculty. After more than 5 years of active efforts, the teaching staff had enough conditions to reorganize into a faculty. The division of the Faculty of Sociology - Psychology became a major event: for the first time, Sociology became an independent faculty. From 1997 to 2001, Prof. Pham Tat Dong was the Head of the Department, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen An Lich, Dr. Vu Hao Quang were the Vice Heads. In 2000 - 2001, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen An Lich retired and added Master Trinh Ngoc Thach as Vice Head.

In 2001, Prof. Pham Tat Dong retired from the management of the Faculty of Sociology. The newly established Faculty of Sociology Board, chaired by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vu Hao Quang, inherited the achievements and valuable experiences to build and develop the faculty. However, he is currently a member of the Faculty's Scientific Council and is the Head of the Department of Social Work postgraduate program development in the Faculty of Sociology.

Since its official establishment, in nearly 25 years of operation, the two faculties of Sociology and Psychology have contributed to training many generations of students, graduate students, and researchers, with an increasingly expanding scale. Starting from the cradle of Philosophy, now the University of Social Sciences and Humanities not only has its own major in Psychology, but also builds new majors in Sociology and Social Work. Many staff trained by the Faculty have been recruited as lecturers at the Faculty and various colleges or universities. Some have worked at research institutes, radio and television stations, some cultural and social agencies, businesses, and social organizations. Wherever they are and whatever their jobs, the students of the Faculty will never forget the school that gave them wings to fly far. As for Professor Pham Tat Dong, despite being busy with many jobs, he still pays attention to all aspects of the Faculty's activities. During his tenure, Professor Pham Tat Dong visited and encouraged almost all the local internship and field trips. During the internship and field trips in the localities, the work of investigating and interviewing households was hard and quite tiring, but every time we heard that Professor Pham Tat Dong was visiting the group, we were extremely excited and proud, our passion for the profession and sense of responsibility for the work seemed to multiply.

In the work of training staff, Prof. Pham Tat Dong has encouraged and motivated all staff in the Faculty to actively train and self-train to improve their qualifications. On their path of fame and career, many staff of the Faculty always remember the teacher's merit.

In scientific research, Prof. Dr. Pham Tat Dong is a prominent name in the team of leading social sciences and humanities cadres in our country, having presided over and successfully completed many valuable scientific works with passion and a serious scientific spirit. He has presided over many scientific research topics, creating opportunities for many cadres in the Faculty of Sociology to participate in research, improving their scientific research capacity and professional qualifications. Experimental surveys and field trips of cadres and lecturers in the faculty with his advice and assistance have brought many practical results. Since then, the faculty's cadres have had the opportunity to participate in many national and ministerial level projects. Thanks to the opportunity to learn from experiences and conduct research on specific topics, we have increasingly improved our professional capacity.

In 2006, Professor Pham Tat Dong was the project manager of the KX.09.11 project on personality traits of Thang Long - Hanoi people. This project was considered difficult, but very interesting and had important significance in commemorating the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi. In the 3 years from 2007 to 2009, he successfully completed the State-level Independent Project:Building a learning society model in Vietnam. In 2013-2015, Professor chaired the State-level Project.Orientation to improve social security and social welfare policies in our country in new conditionswith the participation of the staff of the Faculty of Sociology, the results were accepted with excellence. At the same time, Prof. Pham Tat Dong directed the assessment of the learning situation of primary school students and the development of a list of occupations for people with disabilities. In addition, he also presided over many scientific research topics and state-level research programs, was the author of 32 books and co-author of 46 other books, 87 scientific articles published in domestic and international journals, 141 scientific topics for conferences and seminars at home and abroad. He also guided 25 PhD students, 30 graduate students. The graduate students and PhD students who were guided by him or read his comments all received many valuable contributions and scientific and creative ideas. I am one of the very lucky people to have my doctoral thesis guided by Prof. Dr. Pham Tat Dong. During the time working under his guidance, I have accumulated a lot of experience. From the first draft and the later writings that he read and edited, I still keep them as a beautiful memory in my life as a student and teacher. Indeed, in life and work, not everyone can easily have such teachers. As for Professor Pham Tat Dong, everyone who has ever met, worked with, and worked with him shares the same admiration and respect. He solved all tasks with intelligence and a kind heart, always encouraging and motivating us to study, research, and create.

In the very limited time, Prof. Pham Tat Dong still did not forget his duties as a member of the Central Theoretical Council and a member and Head of the General Education Subcommittee of the National Council of Education. Due to his theoretical work, the Party Central Committee assigned Prof. Pham Tat Dong to participate in the Document Committee of the Party Congresses of the 7th, 8th and 9th terms. Before the 10th National Party Congress, despite his retirement, Prof. Pham Tat Dong still participated in summarizing 20 years of national renovation.

Professor Pham Tat Dong is also Editor-in-Chief.World in us magazineHe wrote an introduction to this magazine as follows: "A pure heart is an indispensable element of human life. The greater a person's inner world is, the more their intelligence is enhanced, and their physical and mental health is more abundant and stronger. That is the ultimate goal that all economic and social policies aim for.The world within usconsider building the Mind as your guiding goal". Because of the emphasis on the wordHeart,Prof. Pham Tat Dong founded the Organization for Support and Education of Underprivileged Children in Vietnam (OSEOC), directly serving as Director, opening affiliated centers in Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Tinh, Ha Tay, Viet Tri, Quang Ninh, Hanoi... For more than 10 years, he has been Vice President and General Secretary of the Association for Promotion of Education and recently, he was appointed Director of the Center for Research on Children's Rights. The Center is implementing many activities with good results. He has made many remarkable contributions to building and developing movements to promote learning and talent, especially building community learning centers at the commune and ward levels and the movement to build studious families, contributing to building a learning society in Vietnam. Starting from 2014, he participated in directing Project 281Promote lifelong learning movement in families, clans and communities by 2020.

Appointed as President of the Vietnam - Korea Friendship Association, Professor Pham Tat Dong has tried his best to carry out the people's foreign affairs work assigned by the Party Central Committee in the best possible way. Although always busy with the work of the Association for Promotion of Education, scientific research topics, doctoral theses, master's theses, Professor Pham Tat Dong is still healthy, peaceful, and loves life. I think that, to have those things, theHeartHis is always pure. He is trulyOutstanding teacher, scientist and social activistour.