Achievements of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in 70 years of tradition - 20 years of construction and development: University training

1. University training

Undergraduate training at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in the period 1995 - 2015 took place in the context of many changes in the socio-economic environment and international integration in general, and in Vietnamese higher education in particular. The most prominent feature of that context is the requirement for innovation in higher education to adapt and meet the human resource needs of society and the globalization process of higher education taking place very strongly.

A series of new issues of higher education have appeared in universities in Vietnam in general and in the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in particular, such as accreditation and quality assurance, university rankings, international publications, university networks, credit-based training, internet and ICTs application in higher education, training to meet social needs, output standards of higher education programs, competency-based training, etc., which have changed the "annual activity list" of universities and strongly impacted the awareness and professional values ​​of the community of lecturers, students and the University.

Another unique feature of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities over the past 20 years of development is the development within the development process of a new model in Vietnamese higher education: the National University Model. From that context, the training structure of the University has also changed, the development strategy is also placed in the general framework in accordance with the mission and development strategy of Hanoi National University, the philosophy and specific policies in university training are also closely linked to the development roadmap of a multidisciplinary, multi-field, high-quality and advanced university in innovation and integration of international higher education.

With those common and specific characteristics, over the past 20 years, the strategic development plan of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities has always been concretized by action programs in each specific stage, in which training is always placed at the center of the development process.

Through the above programs and action plans, training has always been one of the two most concerned areas (along with scientific research) with the goals, plans and implementation solutions in the training field being implemented synchronously in all aspects, from training programs, teaching staff, enrollment, training organization and management methods and training facilities with the goal of the first years being to develop the training structure of the School (from 11 majors in 1995 to 22 majors in 2015) to the goal of developing training majors to reach international standards.

In that context, university training at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in the period 1995 - 2015 has achieved the following basic results:

2.1. Building and developing training programs

In September 1995, when the School began operating, it was also the beginning of the new school year, with the task of organizing training in 9 bachelor's programs (Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, Literature, Han Nom, Linguistics, History, Journalism, Vietnamese).

The development and adjustment of the training program is carried out according to a strict process, with the principles of quality and feasibility, based on the contributions of the Scientific-Training Council, alumni, lecturers, recruitment units, experts, and reference to training programs of countries with advanced education in the world. Through new constructions and 3 complete adjustments in 1998 (within the framework of the training method according to the year system), 2005 (to conform to the higher education framework program of the Ministry of Education and Training), 2007 (converting to the training method according to credits), 2012 (building training programs according to output standards).

The basic result of those constructions and adjustments is that currently the University of Social Sciences and Humanities has 22 undergraduate training majors with 22 standard training programs, 6 high-quality training programs, and 1 international standard training program. The training majors of the school are developed in 3 groups: 1) Basic science majors; 2) Applied science majors; 3) Interdisciplinary science majors. By 2014, the proportion of applied science majors reached 58.33%, showing the right direction in developing the training majors of the school, which is to focus on developing basic science majors and interdisciplinary science majors to carry out the leading mission of higher education in the field of social sciences and humanities in Vietnam; and to appropriately develop applied science majors to meet the direct needs of society that the school's academic foundation and human resources are best able to meet. According to the university training plan until 2020, the University will have 28 training majors, including 8 basic science majors, 2 interdisciplinary science majors and 15 applied science majors (accounting for 50% of the total number of training majors of the University).

2.2. Ensure reasonable training scale

The scale of the school's regular university training has remained stable over the past 20 years. If in 1995, excluding the Economics and Law majors, the training scale was about 4,200 students with 9 training majors, then in 2015, the number of training majors increased to 22 majors (with 29 training programs), the training scale reached 6,050 students. Thus, on average over the past 20 years, each year the training scale increased by about 90 students.

This rate of increase in training scale will be truly meaningful when viewed from the perspective of the School's development strategy and from the perspective of ensuring training quality by comparing it with the growth rate of the teaching staff. In 1997, the School had 326 lecturers, including 15 professors, 47 associate professors (accounting for 19%) and 115 PhDs (accounting for 34%). In 2015, the School had 370 lecturers, including 97 professors, associate professors (accounting for 26.07%), 199 PhDs (accounting for 53.8%). In addition, the School also has a policy of inviting part-time lecturers (with contracts with the School, with monthly remuneration in addition to teaching remuneration) with 131 people, including 11 professors, 54 associate professors, 46 PhDs and a number of foreign lecturers.

2.3. Strengthening learning resources

One of the important conditions to ensure training quality is that learners are able to exploit and use rich and modern learning materials. Therefore, the task of "Modernize and update training content, based on building a system of textbooks and reference materials to ensure national and modern characteristics, fully meeting the teaching and learning needs at all levels, including textbooks and monographs that are commonly used for domestic training programs and introduced abroad." has been persistently implemented by the school over the past 20 years.

In addition to the learning resources added to the Information Center - Library invested by VNU, from 2000 up to now, the learning resources compiled, translated and published by the University have played an important role in organizing training in various fields of study.

Details of the number of types of learning materials in each 5 years are as follows:

At the beginning of 2011, the rate of subjects with official textbooks and lectures of 26 training programs was still low, reaching only 38.31%. By 2015, the rate of subjects with official textbooks and lectures of 29 training programs had reached 55.38% (509/919 subjects). If including the number of subjects using textbooks and lectures from other compiled sources, the rate of subjects with textbooks and lectures had reached 91.29%.

2.4. Innovation in teaching methods

Since 2000, a campaign to innovate teaching methods has been implemented after thematic conferences at the faculty, school and Hanoi National University levels.

In the 2001-2002 school year, the first school year the school had a high-quality training program, the student classes of this type of training program were considered a breakthrough in innovating teaching methods with comprehensive investment, from selecting lecturers to remuneration for lecturers and incentives for students to create motivation for teaching and learning. Importantly, the results of innovating teaching methods in high-quality classes also had a direct impact on the remaining classes because they were all implemented by the same team of lecturers.

Especially since the 2006-2007 school year, when the School switched to the method of organizing and managing training based on credits, the requirement for innovation in teaching methods has received even more attention. Since organizing credit training, the School has implemented many activities to promote innovation in teaching methods, testing and evaluation such as:

- Compile course syllabuses suitable for credit-based training, which creates an important change in teaching methods, in which lecturers design their teaching from the central role of transferring knowledge to students to the role of coordinating students' learning activities. 100% of courses must have course syllabuses.

- EditedCourse study guideThis document is intended to guide students in performing self-study tasks, how to prepare to adapt to the schedule and teaching methods, how to advise on subjects, and how to evaluate self-study content that the lecturer will deploy.

- To diversify teaching methods, since the 2011-2012 school year, the School has piloted a number of subjects using subject websites. This is one of the important steps to more strongly apply the achievements of information technology into the teaching activities of the School. By the 2014-2015 school year.

- In 2012, 2013 and 2014, with the support of the Singapore International Foundation, the School organized a training course on “Course Design and Teaching Methods” for 42 young lecturers.

These indicators show that student satisfaction with the quality of teaching has been continuously increasing. More importantly, students have increasingly improved their evaluations of the contents related to the transformation of training methods, such as the amount of knowledge acquired has increased steadily each year (this is something that many lecturers were concerned about due to the reduction of direct teaching time in class), the subject objectives and the actual teaching content in class have a high consistency and have been improved each year (this reflects the effect of the new tool in credit-based training, the subject outline, as well as the seriousness and efforts of lecturers).

2.5. Standardize training organization and management

Based on the practical implementation of the operating procedures according to the provisions of legal documents that have been in place since the years of training under the following year system, the content of standardizing and modernizing the organization and management of training of the school has been integrated into the document.Regulations on management decentralization and management operation procedures in the University of Social Sciences and Humanities(2006 and 2015).

However, when switching to the credit-based training method, the structure and organization and management of training must also change accordingly. Survey trips and learning experiences in organizing credit-based training at some domestic universities (University of Construction, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology) and especially at some advanced universities in the region (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore) have helped the School build a reasonable conversion roadmap. From a training management model in which most of the regular work is delegated to faculties, now it is the division and coordination between functional departments and training units. That situation has created conditions to improve professionalism in the organization, management and training service of the whole school; build and perfect organizational and management procedures; improve students' initiative in learning and scientific research as well as proactively apply information technology in the management and operation of training activities.

The core activities of the new training organization process such as course registration, exam organization, academic management, graduation assessment... are deployed on training and learner management software. Basically, the specialized software "Training management and learner management" has helped to update and fully store records, learning results, tuition fees, emulation and rewards, scientific research of learners, thereby establishing a rich database of learners, convenient for evaluating learners after graduation. In addition to this specialized software, the School also uses a webmail system @sv.ussh.edu.vn to ensure regular communication between students and the School.

In general, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities is not only the first unit in the Vietnam National University, Hanoi but also one of the few schools in the whole industry to systematically, authentically and successfully convert to credit-based training methods. This is the basic premise for the modernization and internationalization of the University's training activities.

2.6. Training to meet social needs

Socialization is one of the global trends in higher education. More specifically, it is the trend of strengthening the connection between the government, universities and socio-economic organizations to create fundamental changes in the methods of operation, management organization and resource structure, towards the ultimate goal of quality of training products.

According to the results of the 2014 survey of the University on the employment of students after graduation from 2 courses (2013, 2014), the rate of students having jobs in the first year after graduation was 87.5%, of which the rate of students having jobs in the right field of study was 39.1%. In reality, there is still a certain "gap" between the training of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the requirements of economic and social life. To overcome that gap, it is necessary to first understand correctly the needs of society. Social needs need to be understood as including both immediate and long-term needs, current and future needs, domestic and international needs. If we only focus on training to meet immediate needs without considering training to meet needs in the coming stages, it will not create sustainable development. Only by correctly understanding social needs can we build a strategic development plan for the State.

Therefore, based on feedback from domestic employers and alumni, forecasting and understanding social needs (including the needs of foreign partner universities and foreign enterprises in Vietnam), the School has made strong adjustments and developed training programs. The "2+2" training models (first 2 years at a partner university in China, the next 2 years at the School or vice versa) are applied to the majors of Language, Tourism, Journalism, Management Science, the "1+3" model (first 1 year at the School, the next 3 years at a partner university in Korea) and the dual degree model are widely applied to/between the School's training majors; new training programs at the undergraduate level such as Public RelationsMajors such as Social Psychology in the Work Environment, Public and Business Management (in collaboration with French partners), Theory, History and Criticism of Film and Television, Anthropology, etc. are included in training; new subjects with the participation of business people in teaching, etc. are some specific manifestations of approaching CDIO standards to create standard, flexible and adaptable training programs to meet social needs.