School year 2013-2014: success with many bright spots

Opening ceremony of the 2013-2014 school year. (Photo: Jackie Chan/USSH)

Training Activities: Steady Progress

One of the outstanding achievements of the School in the past academic year was the completion of the Project on Planning for Training Majors and Specialties for the 2014-2020 period under the guidance of VNU. Accordingly, by 2020, the School will have 38 Master's training majors and 32 doctoral training majors. Based on a specific survey of social needs and training capacity of each unit, the Project sets out a roadmap for building new training majors and specialities to ensure development on a reasonable and sustainable scale.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh (Principal) awarded master's degrees to students, first batch of 2014. (Photo: Thanh Long/USSH)

In addition, many new training programs have been built to meet the learning needs of learners such as: opening the Office Administration major and enrolling university students for the first time in 2014; building the first CLC training program in Psychology, bringing the total number of CLC training programs of the School to 5; 02 first-time postgraduate training programs are PhD in International Relations and PhD in Anthropology. On the basis of strong basic science majors, the School has been and is continuing to demonstrate its pioneering role in opening new majors and majors to serve social needs as well as the self-development of science and training majors. In the coming time, the School will complete the construction of 02 more PhD training programs in the majors of Religious Studies, Information Science - Library and 06 master's training programs in the majors of: Vietnamese Cultural History, Vietnamese Studies, Public Policy, Human Resources Management, Office Management, Clinical Psychology.

In the field of quality assessment, in addition to the assessment activities being systematic and the culture of quality becoming a criterion, the outstanding achievement in this academic year is the completion of the assessment of the bachelor's program in Linguistics according to the standards of the Association of Southeast Asian Universities (AUN) with positive assessments. With this event, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities has taken a step forward in integrating into the activities of assessing the quality of training according to regional and international standards.

In postgraduate training, the scale of doctoral enrollment increased by 236%. With the policy of maintaining the scale of university training and expanding the scale of postgraduate training, the University is gradually approaching the criteria of a research-oriented university, gradually increasing the research content in activities, promoting the connection between scientific research and training activities, especially postgraduate training.

Scientific research: Expanding the topic system, fostering internal research capacity

Continuing the achievements of previous school years, this year, the number of scientific research topics increased sharply, with 14 State-level topics, 17 Nafosted Fund topics, 03 Hanoi-level topics and dozens of University and VNU-level topics. The University not only continues to maintain its pivotal position in the key research program on sustainable development in the Northwest region but also initially implements the VNU-Hanoi Key Science Program on "Research, assessment of the current situation and proposal of solutions for the development of social sciences and humanities to promote industrialization and modernization".

The international scientific conference “From Dien Bien Phu to the Geneva Agreement: From an international perspective” was held on May 6, 2014. (Photo: Thanh Long/USSH)

Implementing the roadmap for building a research-oriented university according to the set of criteria issued by VNU, the University has had policies and solutions to encourage scientific research activities among staff, especially encouraging international publications in the field of social sciences and humanities. The number of international publications nearly doubled compared to the previous school year with 42 articles, including 06 articles published in journals in the ISI and Scopus categories. There were 03 works of staff awarded outstanding scientific works at VNU level, 01 work won the VNU Young Scientist Award, 05 published works were awarded the Good Book Award by the Vietnam Publishing Association, 02 research groups were recognized as strong research groups at VNU level. This not only affirms the strong scientific potential of the University but also shows that the staff is increasingly flexible and proactive in building and bidding for research topics, and finding funding sources to support scientific research. In addition, these results also show that the policies to encourage and motivate scientific research activities and international publications of the University have initially shown effectiveness.

The conference of young scientists and students of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in the 2013-2014 academic year was successfully held with more than 70 reports, which is also a highlight in the scientific research activities of the University. The conference is a place to announce new research results of young staff, exchange academic and research experiences, and create a network of connections between young researchers inside and outside the University. This is an annual activity, a new scientific playground that is expected to breathe new life into the scientific research movement for young staff and students of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

International partners: "reached" the 200 mark

International cooperation has been expanded and strengthened by signing and renewing 20 cooperation documents with prestigious foreign partners such as Inha University (Korea), National Taiwan University, University of Glasgow (UK), Korean Institute of Legislative Studies, University of Adelaide, etc., bringing the total number of international cooperation documents to 200. On this basis, many international research programs and projects with major universities have been and are being effectively implemented, helping to increase development resources and enhance the international position of the University.

Master's Degree Award Ceremony of Sociology in Management of Public Policy and Enterprise (MAPE), June 26, 2014. This is a joint program with Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès University (France). (Photo: Jackie Chan/USSH)

International joint training programs in Child and Adolescent Development Psychology, Public Policy Management and Business have maintained their training quality and are increasingly attracting students. These are training programs with their own identity and brand of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and are considered the most effective programs among the joint training programs of VNU as well as of the Francophone universities.

Last August, the Taiwan Education Center was established by the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and Wenzao University (Taiwan) with the following functions: Chinese language training, organizing Chinese proficiency tests, seminars and Vietnamese-Taiwanese language and culture activities... This event further affirms the international position and prestige of the University as well as efforts to diversify international cooperation activities in training and scientific research.

Opening ceremony of the Taiwan Education Center at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities on August 5, 2014. (Photo: Jackie Chan/USSH)

The quality of the staff has been improved one step further.

In the 2013-2014 school year, the School had 17 staff members successfully defending their doctoral theses, 01 lecturer was appointed as Professor, 07 lecturers were appointed as Associate Professor. The number of lecturers with a postgraduate degree was 329/365 (accounting for more than 90%), including 181 PhDs (accounting for 50%), 06 Professors and 84 Associate Professors (accounting for 25%). This is a high rate compared to other universities and compared to the standards of the Ministry of Education and Training. In addition, the Project on developing a team of highly qualified scientists and managers by 2020, with a vision to 2030, was also completed, laying the foundation for building a team of qualified staff to meet the development requirements of the School in the future.

In the past school year, the leadership of many units was strengthened, such as appointing leaders of the Faculty of Tourism Studies, Faculty of History, Faculty of Cultural and Information Technology, Faculty of Linguistics, Faculty of Information and Communications, Museum of Anthropology, Center for Anthropology, Department of Scientific Research Management, Department of Legal Inspection for the 2014-2019 term. The school completed the organization and personnel reception of the Center for Training Lecturers of International Relations and Center for Women's Research under VNU; established the Department of Specialized Document Archives under the Faculty of Archival Studies and Office Management; established the Department of Urban History under the Faculty of History; completed the project to establish the Institute of Culture and Arts. The above activities help to consolidate and perfect the organizational apparatus, enhance the potential of the staff to serve the development goals in the coming time.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Kim (Vice Principal) presented the decision to appoint Dr. Nguyen Thi Lien Huong as Head of the Department at the ceremony to announce the establishment of the Department of Specialized Document Archives, May 20, 2014. (Photo: Thanh Long/USSH)

The Fund to Support Staff and Civil Servants of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, abbreviated as the Humanity Fund, was first established with the aim of supporting staff and civil servants of the University who are in difficult circumstances and have serious illnesses. This typical activity of the University's Trade Union has practically demonstrated the spirit of mutual support and love, promptly encouraging staff and civil servants to overcome difficulties to continue to enjoy life and contribute.

Entering the 2014-2015 school year, with the theme “Continuing innovation – Pioneering – Quality – Discipline”, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities will continue to implement activities to promote the construction of a research university according to the standards of VNU, focusing on solutions to promote international publication, internationalization of training programs…; maintaining the pioneering and pivotal role in the system of universities of basic sciences and social sciences and humanities through the quality of its training products and scientific research.