2010 is a year with many outstanding events in the activities of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities: the 65th anniversary of the University's tradition and the 26th Party Congress of the University's Party Committee. This is also a year that marks many major changes in the development orientation of the University to continue to affirm its leading position in the system of Vietnamese universities, meeting the new needs of society for higher education. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh - Party Secretary, Rector of the University - discussed with reporters about the opportunities and challenges awaiting the University in the new decade.
- Currently, social and humanities majors are competing with many other “hot” majors, so they receive little public attention. How has the school recognized and resolved this issue, Professor?- This is indeed a reality that the School has had to face in recent times. Social Sciences and Humanities are the sciences of humans and social life, through research and assessment of social reality to serve as a basis for policy makers and managers to develop strategies and long-term development plans. With such a great role, the benefits that Social Sciences and Humanities bring are not easily seen right away. Besides, the strong development of economics and science and technology in recent times has made the fields of economics, technology, foreign trade... have great appeal to learners. Therefore, those who do research and training in Social Sciences and Humanities must clearly identify this reality so as not to be discouraged by the passion they have chosen. As a leading training and research institution in Social Sciences and Humanities, the School has had to be very active and creative in many aspects to best meet the needs of today's society for these fields of study. Firstly, from the initial basic majors such as History, Literature, Philosophy..., the School has researched and built new majors to serve the needs of society and learners such as: International Studies, Tourism Studies, Anthropology, Social Work, Oriental Studies, Vietnam Studies, Intellectual Property, Office Management... These new majors, because they meet the needs of society, have quickly received the attention of society, including both learners and employers. In particular, many majors that have achieved international standards have been initially implemented such as Linguistics and History, which will bring high-quality learning opportunities to students. Secondly, the training programs have been updated in the direction of modernizing content, increasing practice time, focusing on training professional skills and soft skills so that students can adapt well to work immediately after graduation. In addition, many other management measures are also applied to enhance training quality - the most important factor that makes up the brand of a university.
Many international-standard majors have been initially implemented, such as Linguistics and History, which will bring high-quality learning opportunities to students.— Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh
Third is to diversify training types, including expanding training cooperation with many foreign universities in the direction of 2+2, 3+1 to increase learning opportunities for learners; training cooperation and technology transfer with many famous universities in the world; dual degree training, short-term training... Fourth, the School has built close relationships with many organizations and recruitment agencies, including the Vietnam Association of Business Administrators to find a common voice, while helping students have more job opportunities after graduation.
- The school is considered the leading unit of VNU in implementing credit training (CTE), but the implementation is only the first steps and there are still many uncertainties in perception and practice. Could you please tell us the solutions that the school will implement in the coming time so that CTE can truly go into depth and promote the full effectiveness of this training method?- We clearly identify: Implementing well the credit-based training system at all training levels is a comprehensive and long-term solution to innovate university management methods, training management, gradually improve training quality and international integration.
A large amount of work has been completed, certain psychological obstacles of students and staff have been overcome so that the TTC becomes familiar in the thinking and activities of teachers and students.— Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh
With great efforts and determination, the University has overcome many difficulties to achieve initial successes in the conversion from the year-based training method to the credit-based training method, becoming one of the leading units of VNU in this work. These initial results have created positive changes in teaching and learning, breathing a new learning atmosphere towards dynamism, creativity and efficiency in staff and students. The University has promptly developed and adjusted regulations, guidelines and training management processes in accordance with the credit-based training method. 1,144 course outlines, 41 textbooks, 15 reference books, 106 lectures and guidance documents for undergraduate courses and 672 course outlines/topics for postgraduate courses have been compiled and converted to be in accordance with the credit-based training method. A large amount of work has been completed, certain psychological obstacles of students and staff have been overcome so that the TTC becomes familiar in the thinking and activities of teachers and students. The QH-2007-X course with 1,345 students - the first course to apply this training method throughout the entire course - had 05 students completing over 90% of the total credits, with scores sufficient to register for graduation thesis defense and have the opportunity to complete the entire study program after only 3 years instead of 4 years as usual. This is a very encouraging sign showing that students have gradually adapted to the new training method, have made efforts to take full advantage of the outstanding advantages of this training method in their study plans. In the coming time, in order for the TTC to go into depth, the School identifies the top priority task as innovating the training management in the direction of promoting the dynamism of functional departments; Increase connectivity between departments and units; increase the initiative of faculties and affiliated departments in organizing and operating training programs, designing new programs, proposing new subjects; increase the initiative and autonomy of lecturers in teaching, testing and evaluation; strictly inspect the implementation of training regulations to limit negative impacts arising from lack of testing and evaluation.
- Training quality assessment is also one of the outstanding and pioneering activities of the School in recent times. Could you please evaluate the achievements and plans of the School for this new field?- Realizing early the role of training quality assurance in improving training quality for regional integration, in 2006, the School established the Training Quality Assurance Center with the function of being the focal agency for implementing training quality assurance work within the school as well as coordinating with external units to conduct training quality assurance of the School's training programs. The School has evaluated the training program, evaluated teachers' lectures through student feedback, organized mid-term assessments and proposed effective solutions after assessment to improve teaching and learning quality. In 2007-2008, the National Quality Accreditation Council recognized the School as one of the national standard schools. The School's Training Quality Assurance Center is the first training quality assurance unit in a member university of VNU, and has been continuously evaluated by VNU for many years as a unit with good achievements in training quality assurance work, achieving 100/100 points. Many universities have come to learn from the School's experience in accreditation. The School is also a unit with many achievements in researching and building a theoretical basis for accreditation in Vietnam. In the coming time, the work of accreditation of training programs will continue to be promoted to become a regular work of the School. After the Linguistics major, the training programs of History, Tourism, International Studies, Archival Studies and Office Management will be evaluated and appraised at the institutional level and at the VNU level. By 2012, the School will evaluate training programs according to the standards of the Association of Southeast Asian Universities (AUN). Doing this will be a step closer to the goal of integration in training quality with the region and the world.
- Six state-level topics, 156 VNU-Hanoi-level topics, 123 grassroots-level topics are being implemented, 100 scientific conferences, including 34 international conferences successfully organized in the period 2006-2010 - these are very impressive numbers about the scientific research achievements of the University. But also looking back at the reality that in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities, interdisciplinary topics are not many, service-oriented research to bring in revenue sources is not high, what direction does the University have to overcome the above limitations?- Scientific research is an activity to train staff, improve training quality and affirm the reputation of the school in the scientific community. In fact, over the past time, the scale and number of topics of the school have increased. Foreign scholars and organizations consider the school as the leading address for cooperation in social sciences and humanities in Vietnam. Many international projects implemented by the School have been very successful, even playing a pioneering role in theoretical research in many new scientific fields in Vietnam such as: Social Work, Anthropology, Policy Analysis, Intellectual Property... On the other hand, the 06 State-level topics that the School has undertaken are all major topics, with clear interdisciplinary nature such as: 'Building and promoting Vietnamese intellectual resources to serve the cause of national revival in the 21st century', 'Family issues in social development and management of social development in our country during the renovation period', 'Basic characteristics of people and culture of the Vietnamese community abroad today', "Management culture: theory and practice"... These interdisciplinary topics have contributed to solving major problems of the country.
To continue to develop highly interdisciplinary topics, the school will have to continue to focus on building a team of leading experts in various fields, especially training experts capable of undertaking interdisciplinary research tasks. These must be scientists with high expertise, broad interdisciplinary knowledge, and prestige in the scientific community. In addition, interdisciplinary research is also a matter of organization and management. It requires leaders to have a broad vision and a correct understanding of the importance of interdisciplinary research in social sciences and humanities, thereby focusing on investing in large research projects with high theoretical and practical value. As for service research carried out according to social orders, social sciences and humanities are indeed at a "disadvantage" compared to many other fields. But with a strong team of scientists and with prestige and experience over the past time, we are still one of the first choices when individuals and organizations at home and abroad want to order a scientific research product. In the past time, many experts in history, sociology, and language of the school have carried out many research projects on local history and culture. Towards 1000 years of Thang Long - Hanoi, the team of history, literature, and philosophy staff of the school... have been participating in building a 1000-year Thang Long bookshelf and many other projects of Hanoi City. We will continue to expand our relationships with agencies and strengthen the promotion and introduction of our research capacity to the society.
- Could you please tell us about the major research directions of the School in the coming time?- The development of the University's future scientific research orientations is determined to ensure both comprehensive development and create preferential conditions for a number of fields of study with the ability and potential to develop outstandingly, becoming fields of study that reach international standards. Scientific orientations must demonstrate new research viewpoints and scientific thinking in the direction of building interdisciplinary and regional projects. On that basis, in the period of 2010-2020 and the following years, the University will focus on implementing the following 8 basic research orientations: One is to research theoretical issues, solve theoretical issues, theories, viewpoints, and research methods in the scope of social sciences and humanities to contribute to building a solid theoretical foundation and scientific arguments for building Vietnam's development doctrine; Second, to develop major interdisciplinary and regional research topics to analyze and establish arguments and scientific bases for the construction of management mechanisms, development strategies, and research and forecasting of social sciences and humanities issues, and socio-economic issues of the country in the first half of the 21st century; Third, to develop research topics to focus on clarifying historical, cultural, social, natural conditions, and ecological environment characteristics to further promote regional and inter-regional research, development processes, struggles for national unity and reconciliation, etc.;
Scientific orientations must demonstrate new research perspectives and scientific thinking towards building interdisciplinary and regional projects.— Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh
Fourthly, to study and clarify further the issue of cultural exchange and contact between cultures, ethnic cultural spaces, and cultural centers in our country in history; Fifthly, to study the factors affecting social change, social classes, social strata, interest groups, and social value systems; Sixthly, to focus on research on urbanization and urban governance, including urban types, issues of natural and social space in urban establishment and planning, urban management experience, and development of urban studies; Seventhly, to study the potential, cultural environment, marine economy, tradition of marine exploitation, and awareness of the sea of our people in history; Eighthly, to study and clarify further the specific development path of Vietnam in the past and in the future.
- The school aims to be in the top 400 leading schools in Asia in the next decade, which means it must integrate with international training quality. What are the basic solutions the school has to achieve that goal, professor?- It can be said that this is the number one goal of the University in the coming decade. All the efforts, intelligence, and creativity of the University's staff; all the solutions that the University proposes in the fields of training, science, staff organization... are aimed at improving the quality of training to reach regional and international standards. To achieve that goal, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities identifies three important factors that need to be focused on investing in: first, the scientific staff must be sufficient in quantity and quality must meet international standards; second, the training program and content must be updated with the world; third, the management needs to be modernized to promote the dynamism and creativity of teachers and students, and to promote proactiveness and professionalism in training and scientific research activities.
- This year there are many important events for the University of Social Sciences and Humanities: the 65th anniversary of its tradition and the 26th Party Congress. How do you evaluate the significance of these events in the upcoming development of the University?- These are two major events of great significance to the future development of the University. The 26th Party Congress will evaluate the achievements, draw lessons, and propose directions and solutions to quickly develop the University to the level and scale of a research university, with training quality and scientific research meeting regional standards, some new majors/specializations meeting international standards, and strive to have the University on the list of leading universities in Asia by the end of the second decade of this century. This will be an extremely important development stage, a turning point for the University and leave a mark on Vietnamese higher education. This year, the University will celebrate the 65th anniversary of the tradition of the University of Literature - the predecessor university of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - VNU. This will be a great festival for generations of cadres and students of the school, an opportunity for us to review and affirm the long-standing historical tradition and achievements that the revolutionary social sciences and humanities of Vietnam have achieved over the past 65 years, in order to further cultivate pride and forge strength to continue building and developing the school in the future. The history and glory of the past shines back, urging us and today's generation of students to re-examine ourselves and ask ourselves: what will we do and how will we do it to continue the glorious tradition of a university whose founding decree was directly signed by beloved President Ho Chi Minh after the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was born less than two months ago. - Thank you, Professor, for this conversation and I wish the school success in achieving its goals!
