Trends in multilateral cooperation in training and scientific research

As 2009 comes to an end, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities continues to achieve success in many areas of its activities, including the field of International Cooperation.In the past year, the University increased the number of international partners including universities, research institutes, educational organizations, international organizations... to more than 110, of which about 70% have regular exchanges and cooperation. The number of foreign staff and students coming to exchange, cooperate, research and study at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as many other joint training programs in 2009 also exceeded 700 - the highest ever. The number of staff and students studying, researching, exchanging science and teaching abroad reached 150; in particular, many of the University's staff went to study and research at the postgraduate level. International research and joint training projects are increasingly expanding in scale and form. However, the most prominent trend is multilateral cooperation in training and scientific research. Multilateral cooperation is simply understood as the participation of at least 3 partners or more, different from the form of bilateral cooperation between the University and another international partner which is very popular. In fact, multilateral cooperation of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities has started for a long time, but in 2009, this form emerged clearly. Firstly, the development of science and technology has helped the exchange of communication information, travel and exchange; especially the process of exchange and work combination via the Internet is carried out easily. Partners in different countries can contact and work with each other to move towards cooperation in training and research more conveniently without the need for direct meetings. Secondly, the trend of interdisciplinary training and research is increasingly being interested and developed. Many partners with different strengths and expertise want to cooperate to supplement, support expertise and create an academic exchange network for their staff and students. Cooperation between partners with strengths in the fields of natural sciences and social sciences and humanities is increasingly common. This also stems from the fact that many issues require interdisciplinary research and approaches. Third, the global economic crisis in 2009 forced educational and research organizations to cooperate multilaterally to share financial costs in international cooperation. Typical multilateral cooperations of the University in recent times include: cooperation with Samyung University, Korealang Company, with the Center for Korean Language and Korean Studies (HSK); Master's program in Psychology in cooperation between Toulouse II University (France), the Francophone Agency (AUF), the French University Agency in Hanoi (PUF) and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. In addition, the School also cooperates with San Jose State University of California (USA) and UNICEF-Vietnam in developing and implementing training programs to improve knowledge of Social Work in the development plan of the Postgraduate Social Work major. In addition, the School has been exchanging and coordinating with the Australian-Korean Research Center of the University of New South Wales (Australia), the Central Institute for Korean Studies (AKS) to move towards establishing a Korean Research Center in Southeast Asia with headquarters at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. [img class="caption" src="images/stories/2010/01/03/091208_5731_0040.jpg" border="0" alt="Conference on Interdisciplinary Research in Social Sciences and Humanities: Experience and Prospects, December 8-9, 2009. (Photo: NA/USSH)" title="Conference on Interdisciplinary Research in Social Sciences and Humanities: Experience and Prospects, December 8-9, 2009. (Photo: NA/USSH)" width="580"/>
Multilateral cooperation is helping us to improve the quality of research and training, on that basis, it will enhance the scientific reputation and image of the School in the world. Our training and research programs that meet international standards have the opportunity to be widely recognized by the world. Multilateral cooperation also goes hand in hand with interdisciplinary research, complementing and supporting each other between partners with different professional strengths. This is also a special direction of interest of the School in building an interdisciplinary training center at the postgraduate level, most clearly demonstrated through the International Scientific Conference "Interdisciplinary research in social sciences and humanities: Experience and prospects” was just held in early December 2009. Multilateral cooperation will help us have favorable conditions in expanding the scale of high-quality training, having the opportunity to build a large-scale network of researchers. We are gradually preparing to build and establish strong research groups and excellent research centers, creating favorable conditions for meeting and exchanging expertise for researchers from many countries and many different specialties. This connection will help create a research network on an international scale. Another opportunity from multilateral cooperation is sharing the financial burden with each other to have financial contributions from many partners, helping the gathering of scientific teams from many countries to be done at a lower cost, students of the partners can participate in internship programs, practical programs, cultural exchange programs in many different countries at a lower cost. This is extremely useful. meaning when the financial capacity for international cooperation activities of the University is still limited and the global financial crisis has not ended. Despite such advantages, multilateral cooperation also poses inevitable major challenges. Besides the challenges of improving the quality of research and teaching to meet international standards and enhance international reputation, there are challenges in terms of management and finance. Firstly, multilateral cooperation requires different management than bilateral cooperation. The process of negotiation, cooperation and implementation of activities requires higher management capacity because cooperation activities are more complicated. Secondly, multilateral cooperation is no longer as simple as bilateral cooperation in the past, where one side sponsors - one side receives funding and organizes implementation or one side has a request and the other side responds. The combination of professional issues with management issues becomes a challenge of multilateral cooperation. It requires the international cooperation team to not only be good at management but also have certain professional knowledge. Third, multilateral cooperation with a number of partners from many different countries also requires those working in international cooperation to face many different foreign languages. Being fluent in a foreign language seems not enough in the current conditions of multilateral cooperation. Of course, all partners can use English as the main language of communication, but using the partner's native language will bring about higher understanding and cooperation efficiency. Finally, multilateral cooperation poses certain difficulties in terms of facilities and finance. Many long-term training and research programs and projects require us to have stable facilities to be able to take on the role of the brain of regional connections, with equal financial contributions to partners. We must have certain financial preparations to participate in multilateral cooperation. Multilateral cooperation in training and research is an emerging trend and will certainly develop in the coming time with certain advantages and difficulties. Careful and comprehensive preparation will help us take advantage of this trend. Such preparation includes improving the quality of research and teaching, the management team, and improving facilities and finance. With specific strategies set out in the field of international cooperation expressed in the documents and action programs of the University, we need to proactively prepare for this inevitable cooperation trend.