2009 Postgraduate Training Conference

The 2009 Postgraduate Training Conference of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities took place on March 28, 2009, with the participation of representatives from the leadership and postgraduate training assistants of the faculties. The conference aimed to evaluate the achievements in postgraduate training from 2004 to the present, identify limitations, and propose solutions to improve the quality of training.

In line with the policy of developing the University of Social Sciences and Humanities towards a research-oriented university, postgraduate training has made significant progress in recent years in terms of scale, quality, methods, and specialized structure. Regarding staff, the University currently has a substantial number of full-time and part-time staff, with 133 lecturers out of 533 staff holding doctoral or scientific doctoral degrees, including 7 professors and 55 associate professors. In addition, the University currently has 176 part-time staff holding doctoral degrees, including 95 professors and associate professors. In terms of facilities and resources, all faculties and departments have specialized documentation rooms to support postgraduate training. Many departments have archives with large and valuable reference materials, such as the History Department, the Linguistics Department, and the Literature Department. In addition, although newly established and operational, the Museum of Anthropology has quickly become one of the interdisciplinary databases that can effectively serve postgraduate training.

Based on the university's resources, the scale of postgraduate training at the university has seen remarkable growth in both the number of students and the number of training majors over the years. Currently, the number of postgraduate students is 1,864, with postgraduate training accounting for 25.38% of the total regular training. The university is currently tasked with training 27 master's degree majors and 29 doctoral degree majors. The university's admissions process has always been rigorous and adheres to proper procedures. The admission scores and selection rates are consistently high compared to other institutions. Teaching and learning are organized efficiently and on schedule. The procedures for thesis and dissertation defense have been improved to be faster and more convenient for students.

In particular, in recent times, the integration of scientific research with postgraduate training has been effectively implemented to improve the quality of postgraduate training and strengthen the human resources for scientific research. The results of scientific research have become monographs, reference books in postgraduate training, collaborative projects and international conferences related to postgraduate training, and some postgraduate students have completed theses and dissertations within the framework of scientific research projects.

The university is also a pioneer within the Vietnam National University, Hanoi in transitioning to the credit-based training method. It has converted 27 master's programs and 29 doctoral programs to conform to the credit-based system. Course content has also been adjusted to align with the development of scientific disciplines and social practices.

The university offers international joint master's degree programs: Master of Organizational Management, Master of Child and Adolescent Developmental Psychology with the University of Toulouse II since 2007, and Master of Hotel Management with the University of Toulouse II and Taylor University since 2008. Two internationally recognized programs, the Master of Vietnamese History and the Doctor of Vietnamese History, developed by the university, have been evaluated and approved by the Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

At the conference, several limitations of postgraduate training were also pointed out, such as: the scale of postgraduate training is increasing rapidly but mainly focuses on master's degrees; some training majors are not attractive to students; the implementation of some new training programs in some units is slow; the promotion of student recruitment is not good enough to attract the attention of candidates; the organization of teaching and learning in some units is not good; many students do not have a plan for completing their theses and dissertations, and do not comply with the procedures, leading to a fairly common situation of overdue deadlines; the development of course syllabi and the innovation of teaching methods at the postgraduate level have not received sufficient attention and investment from some staff; attracting students to participate in research projects and programs of the faculty is still limited; some units are not yet bold enough to register and implement training programs under Project 16+23.

The university's postgraduate training program for the period 2009-2014 was identified as a key activity to train highly qualified human resources for the university, meeting the socio-economic development requirements of the country. Accordingly, the university will strengthen international training partnerships, internationalize training programs, actively transition to a credit-based training system, innovate teaching and learning methods, and reform the content of training programs...

Several key solutions were proposed:

• Maintain the scale of postgraduate training and expand the scale of doctoral training.
• Expedite the development and implementation of new training programs;
• Strongly innovate the curriculum, content, and methods of teaching and learning;
• Specifically, to concretize the postgraduate training schedule, and to computerize the procedures and forms for thesis and dissertation defense;
• Strengthening the role of faculties and departments in managing postgraduate training;
• Strengthening international cooperation and promoting postgraduate training linkages with leading universities around the world...