Conference of key staff of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities took place on May 20, 2013 in Cua Lo, Nghe An.
At the Conference, delegates listened to the 2012-2013 school year summary report and the 2013-2014 school year plan; Report on the development plan for the industry and majors from 2015 to 2020; Report on solutions for building a research university; Report on the results of work at Truong Sa; Report on the project to build the Department of Urban History and Urban Studies of the History Faculty.
In the 2012-2013 school year, the School basically fulfilled the planned targets, completed the conversion of 23 undergraduate training programs and 54 postgraduate programs according to output standards; implemented the construction of question banks, exam questions, and answers for subjects in the M2 and M3 knowledge blocks; completed the project to open 1 new major and 3 new majors; piloted the use of the subject website, organized 4 training courses for 82 young lecturers on subject design and teaching methods; built 78 more dual degree training majors; the scale of postgraduate enrollment increased by 4.3%.
Regarding scientific research activities, all targets were achieved and exceeded. In the 2012-2013 school year, the School was assigned to preside over 09 national-level scientific and technological projects (an increase of nearly 200%), and organized more than 30 scientific seminars and conferences, including 14 international seminars and conferences.
With the motto of Innovation - Pioneer - Quality, the key tasks in the coming school year are identified as:
- Continue to effectively implement programs under strategic tasks, expand high-quality training, improve the quality of training in international joint programs on the basis of promoting training activities according to TC and strengthening training management.
- Focus on completing existing state-level projects, focus on developing and implementing a number of projects under the Northwest program of VNU, and completing key projects on schedule.
- Continue to implement solutions to accelerate the training and development of staff, and increase the rate of qualified staff.
- Continue to implement and expand international cooperation with partners who are prestigious universities in the region and around the world to develop high-quality international joint programs and scientific cooperation projects and topics.
- Continue to innovate management work, promote administrative reform within the entire school according to ISO standards, strengthen and expand facilities and equipment for training and scientific research.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Duc (Vice President of VNU) spoke at the Conference.
Speaking at the conference, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Duc (Vice President of VNU) affirmed that the University of Social Sciences and Humanities still maintains its position as one of the leading units in the country in the field of science and social sciences. However, on the path of development towards a research university, the University needs more breakthrough policies to be able to soon achieve its set goals.
Listening to and absorbing the contributions of VNU leaders and delegates at the conference, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh emphasized: to soon become a research university requires the efforts of the teaching staff, administrative staff, and first of all the current key staff. In addition, the University hopes to always receive support and close and effective guidance from VNU for the University's research activities in the coming time.
Building new majors: need to be proactive and creative
Regarding the requirement of having permanent staff with a doctorate degree in the right major when opening a new major, there are many opposing opinions:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Xuan Hang (Faculty of Management Science): VNU in general and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in particular should apply creativity to specific conditions in opening new majors. Currently, there are many new majors in Vietnam that do not have experts in that field. If we wait for enough experts to be licensed to open, we cannot open those majors.
Assoc.Prof.Dr. Pham Xuan Hang.
Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Thi Phung (Head of the Department of Archives and Office Management): The issue of planning majors and majors at a large university like ours needs to have a specific plan, so that the University and the faculties can always take the initiative in their development orientation. There are majors that have a long tradition, when opened, they need to have a team of experts in that field - that can be considered a mandatory requirement. But for new majors, we cannot apply the same standards on teams as majors that have a tradition. To become a pioneer in the process of building and developing the industry, the University, as well as VNU, need to be flexible in opening new majors.
Research university construction solutions
The solution to building a research university was a topic that attracted many comments and discussions from delegates at the Conference:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dang Xuan Khang (Head of Personnel Organization Department): In order to standardize the School's staff and strive to soon turn the School into a research university, the School will issue regulations for staff who are required not to register for the doctoral exam.
Associate Professor Nguyen Van Ham (Department of Archival Science and Office Management): The school should build its own scientific journal, bearing the identity of social and humanistic research. Currently, VNU has a journal, but the space for social sciences is very limited, while every year the school has hundreds of quality scientific research articles published. To move towards a research university, the school needs to soon have a scientific journal, the operation and maintenance of this scientific journal will contribute to affirming the name and position of the school.
Associate Professor Nguyen Van Ham.
Associate Professor, Dr. Vu Thi Phung (Head of the Department of Archival Science and Office Administration): Building a scientific journal will create opportunities for young staff to participate in scientific research activities early, creating a rich scientific playground for the future staff of the School.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Gia Lam (Director of Sejong Korean Language Center): The school should continue to expand cooperation with foreign partners in depth, to have commitments with foreign schools on publishing scientific research works. Expanding deeper cooperation, such as signing research cooperation documents with other prestigious universities in the world on publishing research and scientific articles in scientific journals of those schools will create conditions to affirm the name of the school.