It has been 15 years since the establishment of the Faculty of International Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. On this occasion, I would like to tell a few things about those difficult early years.At that time, in 1993, in the atmosphere of the whole country enthusiastically implementing the Renovation policy, Hanoi National University was newly established, all units in the old General University thought about expanding and developing to meet the requirements of training and scientific research in the new situation. In the History Department, the idea of opening new majors was always urged, in 1993, 3 more majors were organized: Oriental Studies, International Studies and Tourism Studies. The following year, the major of Archival Studies was added. The Head of the History Department, Professor Vu Minh Giang, assigned me - at that time the Vice Head of the Department and Head of the World History Department - to prepare a plan to build the International Studies major. Right in the 1993-1994 school year, the first class of International Studies was recruited, considered a major in the History Department, integrated into the general system of the school, called Course 38 (K38) with about 60 students. In the following school year 1994-1995, the number of candidates was overwhelming, reaching more than 200 people, and had to be divided into two classes called K39A and K39B. This showed that the opening of a new major met the demands of society, which increasingly wanted to open the door to the outside world. The class had to be rented at the University of Water Resources, then transferred to the Thuong Dinh campus for evening classes, sometimes having to study in the old cafeteria or studying in Me Tri. In October 1995, the National University officially decided to establish the faculties of International Studies, Oriental Studies, Tourism Studies, and shortly after, Archival Studies, all separated from the Faculty of History, and the first heads of the faculties were also professors and associate professors of the Faculty of History. Therefore, when students of K38 and K39 graduated in 1997 and 1998, although they "came from" the Faculty of History, they were immediately awarded a bachelor's degree in International Studies. And now there are K55 undergraduates and K7 graduate students. In that initial step, the most difficult task is to determine the training goals and programs. The question to answer is where will students go after graduation, what jobs can they do? In Vietnam at that time, there was only the Academy of International Relations (now the Diplomatic Academy) training diplomatic staff. So what will be the steps of the Faculty of International Studies, will there be any overlap? And therefore is it necessary to open this major? That is the burning question that the Faculty and the University always have to answer to the management levels of the Ministry of Education and Training as well as to explain to the questions of students and public opinion. Based on the mission of the National University and the mission of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities as a basic science school, the main direction must be to build a basic scientific foundation for international research. Of course, that research must be closely linked to the practical needs of society, and must find an "output" for students. Studying the programs of foreign International Studies majors, mainly from the United States, and applying them to the Vietnamese context, the Faculty's training program gradually took shape, both training and drawing experience to supplement, becoming increasingly complete. And the first batches of students graduating from school all had jobs related to their majors or close to their majors. And they applied the knowledge learned in school along with efforts to adapt to specific working environments, most of them were successful. That result proved that the determination of the direction and training program was basically correct, and later continued to be adjusted and supplemented to be more closely related to social needs and improve international integration capacity. An equally fierce challenge in the early days of establishment was building a team of lecturers in International Studies. This is a completely new major in our country, so no lecturers were actually trained from international studies majors. Therefore, based on the subjects in the training program, the initial teaching staff often graduated from the majors of History, Economics, Foreign Languages, etc. and relied on external collaborators in the fields of diplomacy and international relations. An urgent requirement that needs to be resolved is that the minimum standard for university lecturers must be a master's degree. Faced with that pressure, all young cadres are determined to study for a master's degree in their major and thanks to that, within 4-5 years, the lecturers have all achieved a master's degree. Since then, many have done research and achieved a doctorate. And many have been sent abroad for training, their qualifications have been significantly improved. Later, the new generation of lecturers has more advantages thanks to scholarship funds, being able to study abroad immediately after graduation, so their knowledge foundation is solidly nurtured. As a faculty of International Studies, the issue of international integration is also an urgent need. In the early days, the main focus was on researching foreign training programs. Many American professors enthusiastically collected and sent the Faculty a whole box of books including training programs from many prestigious universities in the US and the world. That was the first support to build the basic foundation for the Faculty. Later, the Deans of the Faculty, Dr. Le The Que and Associate Professor Dr. Pham Quang Minh, made many effective contributions to expanding external relations, especially obtaining funding from the Asia Foundation, Ford Foundation, KAS Foundation, etc. in training staff, translating reference books, organizing training courses, scientific seminars, etc. The participation of lecturers in scientific activities abroad as well as welcoming foreign scientists to the Faculty also became a regular activity, beneficial to the development of the Faculty's training and scientific research. Through a few preliminary strokes of that initial step, it can be said that the leading cause of success is the consensus in the entire faculty, the entire school, striving for the common goal in the task of training and scientific research. There are still many things to do in the immediate future, such as opening a doctoral training program - something that many alumni are looking forward to; improving the capacity of departments, completing the basic and specialized textbooks, etc., requiring more effort and more concentration of energy. As someone who contributed to building the Faculty of International Studies in the first steps, the Faculty has now developed steadily, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the lecturers and all the students in the Faculty - those who have truly contributed to the growth of the Faculty to what it is today. I would like to express my special respect to Dr. Le The Que, an exemplary and humble teacher, a dedicated and fair dean who laid solid foundations for the development of the Faculty. I would like to express my favor and trust to Associate Professor Dr. Pham Quang Minh - the current Dean of the Faculty, who has always demonstrated dynamism, intelligence, responsibility and a sociable style. All of these qualities have contributed to creating the image of a youthful, united Faculty, prestigious in science and with a position in society. Finally, I cannot express all my feelings during the happy days of the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Faculty of International Studies, but I hope everyone will accept from me - a retired old teacher - the most sincere and affectionate heart.
November 15, 2010
