Article by Associate Professor Vuong Dinh Quyen (Former Head of the Department of Archives - History, Chairman of the Faculty's Science and Training Council 1996-2000) on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Faculty of Archival Studies and Office Management (1996-2011).In the late 60s of the 20th century, a new major - Archival Studies was opened at the Faculty of History - Hanoi University. The training goal that the Ministry of Universities and Vocational Secondary Schools set for this major was "to train cadres with basic knowledge at university level in historical science, equipped with certain knowledge and expertise in archival studies so that after graduation they can do research and professional guidance at the Central Archives Department, work as management staff at ministries, and teach at archival secondary schools. While performing archival tasks, they can work as scientific collaborators for historical researchers". With the above training objectives, this major is considered a major of history like the majors of Ancient and Medieval Vietnamese History, Modern and Modern Vietnamese History, Ethnology, Archaeology, etc. opened at the Faculty in the late 1950s. The Department of Archival Studies was established in 1967 to carry out the task of training this major, at that time consisting of only 5 staff members. They were students of the 8th and 9th courses of the Faculty of History, including: Nguyen Van Tham, Nguyen Van Ham, Nguyen Minh Phuong, Phan Dinh Nham, Vuong Dinh Quyen. After completing the 3rd year history program, these students were selected by the Faculty of History to go to the Archives Department - Prime Minister's Office (at that time evacuated to the Safe Zone (ATK) in Son Duong district, Tuyen Quang province) to study, research on expertise, profession and write graduation theses on archiving. At first, our Department was directly in charge of Mr. Kieu Xuan Ba. In 1970, I was appointed by the Faculty as the head of the Department. In the early years of building the major with a team of staff who were still very young in terms of professional experience, with limited theoretical knowledge and practical understanding of archival expertise, our Department encountered many difficulties and confusion in building the program, compiling lectures for the subjects, organizing teaching and managing specialized classes. However, with the will and determination to learn to improve qualifications, soon taking on the training tasks of the members of the Department, plus the attention and assistance in many aspects of the Faculty's leaders, the responsible support of the Archives Department - Prime Minister's Office, typically Deputy Director Vu Duong Hoan, Head of the Professional Regime Department Nguyen Xuan Nung, the above difficulties were gradually overcome. Training work gradually became routine, training quality was also constantly improved. By the early 1990s, many basic textbooks of the specialized program had been compiled, some of which had been published and widely circulated in the archival sector. In addition, dozens of scientific monographs by the Department's staff had been published in the industry's journals and other sectors. Also during this period, 3 staff of the Department were awarded the title of Associate Professor by the State, and 1 staff successfully defended his Associate Doctorate thesis (now changed to a doctoral thesis). This was a clear demonstration of the maturity of the staff of the Department of Archival Studies. By the end of the 1995-1996 school year, nearly 500 students from the regular, part-time, and extended training systems had received bachelor's degrees in archival studies from Hanoi University of Science and then the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi. This university-educated archival human resource is an important factor contributing to the qualitative change in the work of documents and archives in our country in the early stages of the renovation period. The 1990s was also the period when the cause of renovation and industrialization of the country was promoted. In particular, the Party and the State advocated reforming the national administrative system, aiming to build a rich and strong country. Therefore, the demand for highly qualified archival and office administrative human resources - university and postgraduate - in society is very large. Not only the Party and State agencies, state-owned enterprises, but also other economic sectors have a need to use this human resource. Up to this point, compared to the human resource needs of society, the training of archival staff in the Faculty of History has revealed many shortcomings, shown in the following points: 1. Limitations in training quality For more than a quarter of a century, archival has only been considered a historical major like other subjects, so the time spent studying specialized knowledge is limited to about 1 year (2 semesters) to 1.5 years (3 semesters) according to the formula 3 + 1 (3 years studying general knowledge of the history major, 1 year studying specialized knowledge) or 2.5 + 1.5 (2 and a half years studying general knowledge of the history major, 1 and a half years for specialized knowledge of archival). With such a limited time, the time spent studying archival theory is limited to about 400 to 500 periods and the practical internship time is also limited to 8 to 12 weeks. Therefore, that time is not enough to design a broad training program including necessary subjects to equip students with knowledge of archiving, office management, state management, information technology, etc. to better meet the diverse needs of society for human resources in this field. 2. The number of students is controlled: According to the allocation quota of the School, each course in the Faculty of History usually enrolls no more than 100 students. After completing the general history program, the number of students will be divided into groups to study according to their major. Because it is only 1 of 7 specialized training departments, the number of students studying the archiving major in each course is limited to 15 to 20 people. That means: each year, the Faculty of History or more broadly, the former General University, then the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Hanoi National University only provides society with no more than 20 human resources for archiving work at the university level. This number was too small compared to the social needs at that time. The above limitations were the main barriers to improving the quality and expanding the scale of training to satisfy the social needs for human resources in documents, archives, and office management in the period of innovation, industrialization, and modernization of the country. How to remove the above barriers was a big question, and at the same time a source of frustration for each staff member of the Department of Archival Studies at that time. We were aware that becoming the only institution assigned to train archival staff at the university level for the whole country was an honor and also a great responsibility before the Party, the State and society. Through discussion, the solution that everyone agreed on was to separate the Department from the Faculty of History to establish a training unit at the Faculty level. At this time, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities was also implementing the policy of expanding the scale of diversifying training majors. Regarding the history department, there were two new departments, the Oriental Studies Department and the International Studies Department, established with the core being the staff of the Department of Ancient and Medieval Vietnamese History and the Department of World History. We presented the idea of establishing a new department to the leaders of the History Department, which was approved and included in the plan to build and develop the departments of the department. When reporting this issue to the School, at first, the School leaders were hesitant because they thought the conditions were not yet ripe. As the Deputy Head of the Department in charge of organization - staff and teaching staff of the Department of Archival Studies (at that time, Associate Professor Nguyen Van Ham was the Head of the Department) (from 1992 - 1996), we also directly presented this issue to the Principal and the Party leaders of the school. And, during a time when the Party Committee and the School's Organization and Personnel Department came down to work with the Faculty on organizational work, we had the opportunity to speak more fully and specifically about the urgent and objective need to separate the Department of Archival Studies from the Faculty of History to establish a separate training unit. With practical data, we proved that the establishment of an independent training unit on archival studies was as urgent as the opening of the Faculty of Oriental Studies and the Faculty of International Studies. Right in the afternoon after that meeting, the Head of the School's Organization and Personnel Department called to inform: The Principal asked us to make a proposal to submit to the School on the establishment of a new Faculty.
When developing the new project, the main issue discussed in the Department was the name of the Faculty and the training objectives of the new Faculty. Regarding the name of the Faculty, the Department agreed to name it "Faculty of Archival Studies and Office Management". Although there was some hesitation about whether to put "Office Management" before "Archival Studies" (Faculty of Office Management and Archival Studies), because the demand for human resources in office management of society was greater than the demand for human resources in archiving, but through analysis, it was found that putting "Archival Studies" first was more appropriate because it demonstrated the continuity of the tradition and strengths of the Department in nearly 3 decades of training archivists. However, when submitting the Project to the University, the name of the Faculty was revised by the leaders to "Faculty of Records and Archival Studies", with the reason being to easily receive approval from Hanoi National University. Because in the early and mid-1990s, the concept of "Office Management" was not commonly used in the North. Our project was presented for defense at the School's Scientific Council before being submitted to Hanoi National University for approval. In that defense meeting, many scientists who were members of the Council spoke in agreement with the policy of establishing the School's Department of Records and Archives. One hundred percent of the Council members voted in favor. And, on June 20, 1996, the Director of Hanoi National University signed the Decision to establish the Department of Records and Archives under the University of Social Sciences and Humanities on the basis of separating the Department of Archives from the Faculty of History. The establishment of the Department of Records and Archives marked a historical turning point, opening a new chapter in the career of training archivists and office administrators at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Vietnam. From being just a training major in the Faculty of History, the Faculty has now become a separate training unit with a wide open path ahead. This was a great event that excited, motivated, and encouraged the enthusiasm, passion, and sense of responsibility in teaching and learning of the teaching staff and full-time and part-time students of the Faculty of Records and Archives at that time. In December 1997, to meet the social requirements in the field of Office Administration, the Faculty of Records and Archives received the School's Decision to change the Faculty's name to the Faculty of Records and Office Administration. The training objectives of the Faculty were determined in a more expansive direction: Training bachelors with basic scientific qualifications, mastering the theory and practice of archival and office administration; capable of doing research and professional practice in document, archive, general secretarial, and office administration work at Party and State archive management agencies, National Archives Centers, Ministry offices, Party and Government agencies, provinces, districts, state-owned and private enterprises. The name change is an important milestone, creating new opportunities and conditions for development for the department in the following years. In the blink of an eye, the Department of Archival Studies and Office Administration has now turned 15 years old. For a training and scientific research unit, 15 years old can be said to be very young. However, looking back at the past, the Department has achieved many successes: The undergraduate training program has been gradually supplemented and improved; the training scale has been expanded with diverse training forms: full-time, part-time, transfer (from college to university), short-term training; postgraduate training systems have been opened, up to now, nearly 100 students have received a master's degree in Documentation and Archival Studies, over 50 students are studying in graduate classes, 9 graduate students are doing their doctoral theses under the guidance of lecturers in the Department. In training and scientific research activities, the Faculty of Archival Science and Office Management has attracted the participation of many archival scientists and other scientific fields inside and outside the school. The Faculty has also deployed and completed many valuable research topics to directly serve the training work. Many textbooks and lectures have been researched and compiled by lecturers in the Faculty, and are being used in most training institutions in the field of archival science and office management nationwide. Celebrating the 15th anniversary of its establishment, to become a strong training and scientific research center in archival science and office management nationwide, many important tasks are being set for the Faculty such as: building a strong staff; perfecting the training program, compiling textbooks for subjects in the training systems; improving teaching methods and improving training quality; promoting scientific research; Strengthening facilities for training and research... From the wise decision 15 years ago, generations of staff, students, trainees and postgraduates of the Faculty have made continuous efforts, built up prestige and brand, worthy of being a pioneer and leader in the system of training institutions in the field of Archival Studies and Office Management in Vietnam./.
