For a worthy University of Social Sciences and Humanities for the future!

In his opening speech at the Conference, Prof. Dr. Pham Quang Minh - Rector of the University mentioned the special context of the school year: the whole country is celebrating the 50th anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh's Testament, the 74th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day September 2. In the field of education, the National Assembly has just passed the Law on Education (amended) - an important legal document that has a great influence on the development of Vietnamese education in general and VNU, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in particular. In the 2019-2020 school year, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities will have two important events, which are the 75th anniversary of the University's tradition and the 28th University Party Congress.

In addition, the University is facing many challenges: the trend of university autonomy, fierce competition between domestic universities, the strong trend of integration and internationalization in higher education, the trend of university rankings to affirm prestige and brand in the region and the world. These trends are directly affecting the development orientation of the University, requiring the University staff to reflect, to truly innovate in thinking and action to find the right path for the University in the present and the future.

Director of VNU Nguyen Kim Son

The conference also heard Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Kim - Party Committee Secretary, Vice Principal of the School present the results achieved in the 2018-2019 school year and the key tasks in the coming school year. Accordingly, in the past school year, training activities maintained quality, had successes in enrollment activities and opened new training programs to meet social needs. There were 04 new training programs enrolled in the year including: Japanese Studies, CLC Management Science, CLC Journalism, CLC Information Management. At the master's level, 01 training program was issued and assigned the training task of Cultural Management, 01 training program was assessed at VNU level as Journalism and Communication Management, 04 training programs in conjunction with the University of Economics (VNU) are in the process of construction. The doctoral level has completed the conversion and issued 30 doctoral training programs according to Regulation 4555 of VNU.

Regarding scientific activities, the University successfully organized 24 scientific seminars and conferences, including 15 international seminars. The seminars and talks were strongly innovated in the direction of being linked to international publications or discussing issues of great significance to the historical process of the nation, the Party and State's guidelines and policies. The University's scientific staff is presiding over and organizing the implementation of 20 State-level topics, 07 topics under the National Science and Technology Fund.

Regarding staff, the number of professors/associate professors of the School increased to 108, accounting for 28.1% of the total number of scientific staff. The School has 130 staff with postgraduate degrees, of which 21 are being trained abroad. In the 2018-2019 school year, 27 staff successfully defended their doctoral theses. Currently, the proportion of lecturers and researchers with doctoral degrees reaches 66.8% of the total number of scientific staff.

The field of cooperation and development has made some remarkable achievements: signing and extending 26 cooperation documents with international partners; continuing to effectively implement international cooperation programs and projects; sending 251 students to study and exchange culture abroad and welcoming nearly 1,000 students and scientists to exchange science and research at the school. The school also successfully organized summer courses for students from many international universities such as Meiji, Senshu (Japan), Zurich (Switzerland), Chongqing (China), Prince of Songkla, Silpakorn (Thailand)...

Regarding quality assurance activities, 03 training programs have been accredited according to AUN standards and the Ministry of Education and Training. Post-accreditation work has made progress with training units actively developing plans and implementing quality improvements according to the recommendations of the assessment teams.

Speaking at the Conference, VNU President Nguyen Kim Son acknowledged the bright spots in the overall picture of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in the past school year in the following areas: enrollment, training innovation, increasing the number of qualified young scientists, scientific research has improved, and the lives of civil servants have been improved....

However, the President of VNU also suggested that there should be a thorough and comprehensive preparation of strategies and plans for a new development phase of the University in the near future. This is also the time when social sciences and humanities are facing opportunities and expectations - when issues of people, culture and development in a technological and digital society are posing big problems for the country and for humanity.

The first and foremost preparation is on the ideological and spiritual level - there must be unity and solidarity within the collective to determine a direction and a correct development philosophy. The second preparation is on the development strategy and plan, but it must be placed within an international and national vision and in the context of the great demand of society for social sciences and humanities. The third preparation is on the development model, organizational and administrative model, in which the focus is on the human issue. The preparation of the team is essential to ensure sustainable development in the coming period.

In the field of scientific research, Director Nguyen Kim Son emphasized the urgency of investing in international publications in the field of social sciences and humanities and must consider this a matter of survival for a university. To do that, the University must be determined and have breakthrough, specific solutions, even investing and placing orders to each research group and individual with potential. Currently, highly qualified human resources in the field of social sciences and humanities at the national scale are increasingly scarce, many large tasks are increasingly difficult to find people to carry out... Meanwhile, the large scientific tasks that the University has carried out in recent years have received support from the state and society. That success also reflects the abundant scientific potential that has not been fully exploited of the University.

Regarding training, the Director suggested that in the next 5 years, the School should continue to plan and orient the development of training majors, focusing on new directions to meet social needs. The School must find its place in the human resource training needs of society in the coming years. Regarding training philosophy, training activities must aim to provide basic and fundamental knowledge but must train learners' adaptability, response ability and self-adjustment to adapt to the rapidly changing labor market and society.

Among the five key tasks of VNU in 2020, teaching innovation will be a policy and a direction that needs to be widely spread among the staff. The University of Social Sciences and Humanities needs to take the lead and continue to promote this trend. Teaching innovation in VNU will be based on infrastructure, data and digital operating systems; along with the philosophy of personalized training and application of science and technology in teaching. This policy must be implemented with the strong determination of the entire staff, contributing to creating new vitality in training activities.

In the trend of university autonomy that is very close, VNU chooses and establishes the rights of expertise and science as the core value of autonomy. The rights and professional voice of scientists must be the core and highest rights reflecting university autonomy, not other administrative rights.

Based on the above orientations, suggestions and assignments, Director Nguyen Kim Son wishes the University of Social Sciences and Humanities to have breakthrough changes to build a University worthy of the role, position, potential and expectations that VNU and society have for it.