Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung: The success of VNU contributes to creating a new momentum for Vietnamese education on the path of innovation.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung beats the drum at the opening ceremony of VNU.

Also attending the ceremony were Minister of Education and Training Pham Vu Luan; Head of the Government Office Nguyen Van Nen; Head of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children Dao Trong Thi; and leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and Investment, a number of central agencies and Hanoi City. Also attending were ambassadors from the Republic of Ireland, Japan, the Russian Federation, etc.

At the Opening Ceremony, VNU President Phung Xuan Nha, on behalf of the Party Committee, Board of Directors, scientists, teachers, staff, students and trainees of VNU, reported to the Party and State leaders on the outstanding activities of VNU in the past school year.

Thanks to drastic innovation in organization and implementation of the school year's task plan in the spirit of important Resolutions of the Central Committee, in the 2013-2014 school year, VNU has achieved important results: completing phase 1 of the Project on adjusting, rearranging and developing the organization in VNU; completing the Project on developing a team of highly qualified scientists and managers by 2020 and vision to 2030 to synchronously deploy solutions for human resource development according to regional and international standards; making breakthroughs and innovations in many training activities such as: implementing industry and major planning, promoting domestic and international training quality assessment, pioneering piloting innovation in enrollment according to the method of assessing learners' capacity...; continuing to promote the tradition of basic research, promoting applied research to create science and technology products that approach international science and technology levels and serve practice; Restructuring science and technology activities, from the model of independent research scientists in departments, to a centralized model with strong laboratories and research groups; promoting international publication activities and technology transfer to localities and businesses...

The position and prestige of VNU have been constantly enhanced. In 2014, VNU made remarkable progress when it was ranked by the prestigious QS World University Rankings as one of the top 170 universities in Asia, ranking first among Vietnamese universities.

The Director of VNU affirmed that the 2014-2015 school year is the year VNU promotes the implementation of Resolution 6 of the 11th Central Committee on science and technology development, and Resolution 8 of the 11th Central Committee on fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training.

Accordingly, 5 key task groups are identified as:

One is,Continue to implement phase 2 of the Project to adjust, reorganize and develop organizations at the member and affiliated unit levels of VNU.

Two is, continue to effectively implement the strategic task of building and developing a number of international standard majors and specialties in accordance with the practical situation and conditions of the units; complete and widely implement the Project on innovation in enrollment according to the method of assessing learners' capacity; focus on doing well the work of investigating and forecasting the labor market to ensure the connection between training and social needs, improving the employability of learners after graduation.

Third,Focus on investment to develop strong research groups, associated with science and technology programs to develop products in line with national product orientation...

Four is,Continue to promote and further improve the effectiveness of development cooperation activities, including creating all conditions to promote the role of scientists in participating in implementing cooperation agreements with domestic and foreign partners. Closely coordinate with ministries, branches and Japanese partners to develop training and research programs and implement investment preparation work to soon start the investment project to build the Vietnam-Japan University in Hoa Lac.

Five is,Focus on developing a team of leading scientists and managers with advanced university management thinking, methods and skills.

At the same time, the Director of VNU also proposed to the Government to allow the pilot implementation of appropriate policy mechanisms to attract highly qualified lecturers, scientists, and managers from within and outside the country to work; to reward and encourage lecturers and scientists of VNU to promote their talents and devote themselves to the development of VNU.

In his speech at the Opening Ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung expressed his joy at seeing that VNU has continued to innovate and develop well towards standardization, modernization and international integration, continuing to affirm its position as a leading multidisciplinary and multi-field training, scientific research and technology transfer center in the country.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung highly appreciated the innovations and pioneering of VNU in the field of training, from proactively planning and arranging training majors and disciplines to suit social needs; maintaining a reasonable scale of regular training, increasing the scale of postgraduate training according to the ratio of research universities... to pioneering the quality assessment of many training programs according to the quality standards of the ASEAN University Network (AUN).

In particular, the Prime Minister welcomed VNU’s initiative in proactively developing an advanced enrollment plan to comprehensively assess learners’ abilities; at the same time, he requested VNU to proactively work with the Ministry of Education and Training to implement this enrollment plan.

Affirming the recognition of the Party, State and Government leaders for the contributions of VNU in science and technology activities, the Prime Minister said: “The research works of scientists at VNU have made important contributions to the preservation and development of the nation's culture and cultural heritage; provided scientific arguments for the protection of national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and made important contributions to sustainable development, environmental protection, and natural disaster prevention. VNU is one of the three leading units in the country in scientific research works published in international journals..”

These outstanding efforts have helped the position of VNU in particular and of Vietnamese higher education in general to be increasingly affirmed in the region and in the world.

The Head of Government emphasized: “The initial successes of VNU, together with the efforts of universities and colleges nationwide, are creating a new atmosphere and new nuances of Vietnamese education on the path of fundamental and comprehensive innovation according to the Party's ideology.”.

However, the Prime Minister also pointed out the limitations and weaknesses of our country's university education such as: low quality of training and scientific research, limited effectiveness in serving the cause of sustainable development and national protection; incomplete training and research structure; outdated content and methods of training and research; many shortcomings in university governance. The number of scientists with international qualifications is still low. Facilities for training and research have not met the requirements...

The Prime Minister suggested that, with the mission of training high-quality human resources, nurturing talents, developing a knowledge-based economy and higher education, VNU has the responsibility to actively contribute to the completion of the socio-economic development plan for the period 2011-2015, creating momentum for the 5-year plan 2016-2020 with the strategic goal of soon turning our country into a modern industrialized country.

Accordingly, the key tasks are identified as:

One is:To carry out fundamental and comprehensive innovation and improve the quality of university education, it is necessary to implement many synchronous solutions and measures, in which the implementation of autonomy and self-responsibility of universities is considered the decisive step and a breakthrough factor.

Second,Continue to innovate training programs, curricula, teaching methods and assessment according to output standards, promote to the highest level the initiative and creativity of learners, ensure the quality of reality to meet social needs and meet the requirements of the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country. Promote the quality assessment of training programs and training facilities according to regional and international standards. Strengthen international integration through scientific research cooperation, cooperation in implementing training programs in English, attracting foreigners to study and research in Vietnam. Focus on successfully and effectively implementing the project to innovate university and graduate admissions according to the method of comprehensive assessment of learners' capacity.

Three is, promote scientific research and technology transfer to form strong research groups, create quality scientific research products, capable of application, and solve important problems of localities and the country. Scientific and technological activities must play a leading role in developing research universities, developing resources, enhancing the prestige and competitiveness of Vietnamese universities. Closely link training with scientific research, link school activities with businesses and economic - cultural - social life, national defense - security - foreign affairs.

Four is, strongly deploy solutions to build and develop a team of lecturers and managers with high political qualities, ethics, lifestyle and qualifications, meeting the requirements of developing an advanced, humane, international-standard Vietnamese education.

Five is, step by step modernize facilities, learning materials system to meet training and scientific research requirements, ensuring necessary conditions for creative activities of teachers, lecturers, students. VNU needs to have reasonable solutions to upgrade, renovate and develop facilities in inner-city districts of Hanoi, ensure the implementation of regular plans and tasks, and at the same time need to proactively attract socialized capital sources to implement component projects and actively coordinate closely with the Ministry of Construction, the Project Management Board of VNU Construction in Hoa Lac to speed up the progress of the Project.

Emphasizing the highest goal of Vietnamese education is to build comprehensively developed Vietnamese people, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said: “I sincerely hope that in this school year, VNU as well as all schools in the national education system need to pay special attention to educating and nurturing students comprehensively in terms of morality, intelligence, physical fitness, and aesthetics, especially taking care of building morality, personality, and a beautiful lifestyle. VNU is both an educational center and a cultural center with a democratic, humane, and affectionate environment, where people are respected, loved, and are taught life skills and creative skills for lifelong development.”.

At the end of his speech, the Prime Minister called for the efforts and consensus of the entire Party and people, emphasizing the dynamism and creativity of VNU, to successfully carry out the fundamental and comprehensive reform of education, bringing Vietnamese education to new heights.

Also at the Opening Ceremony, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Tran Thi Ha presented the Prime Minister's decisions appointing Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Hoang Hai and re-appointing Professor, Dr. Nguyen Huu Duc to the position of Vice President of VNU.