Ministry of Education and Training: Improve the quality of doctoral training, not follow the quantity

In recent days, social networks and newspapers have had many reflections related to quality doctoral thesis, quality doctoral training; Regarding this issue, VTV News discussed with the Director of the Higher Education Department (Ministry of Education and Training) Nguyen Thu Thuy.

In recent days, social networks and newspapers have shared about doctoral thesis titles that, if you just read the names, you will not see the scientific content or practical significance. From here, many questions arise about the professional quality of doctoral theses. What can you say about this issue?

Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy – Director of the Higher Education Department: The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) always aims to perfect the system of policy documents to ensure training quality, enhance transparency, and increase the supervisory role of stakeholders in the training process. PhD in the spirit of realizing university autonomy and improving the accountability of training institutions, especially lecturers and scientists according to the Law on Higher Education and the Law amending and supplementing a Articles of the Law on Higher Education. In particular, the Ministry of Education and Training highly appreciates the critical and supervisory role of the scientific community on the quality of doctoral theses.

According to the provisions of the Regulation on doctoral training of the Ministry of Education and Training, the requirement for a doctoral thesis must be a report summarizing the study and research results of the PhD student, showing that the PhD student has independent ability. research, create new valuable knowledge to increase scientific knowledge of the research field or propose new ideas and solutions to solve problems posed in the research field in different circumstances. specific practice.

The thesis evaluation must follow a 3-step process as follows: evaluate the thesis at a specialized unit, send comments on the thesis of independent reviewers and defend the thesis at the university council. /institute. Thesis reviewers are scientists and experts in Vietnam or abroad (at least some people do not work at training institutions), have scientific research experience and expertise relevant to the topic. thesis research. Thesis evaluation council members must be qualified scientists as instructors, in which the chairperson of the council must be a professor or associate professor in a discipline relevant to the subject’s expertise. Requirement to publish research results of the thesis topic in journals, professional reference books, scientific conferences at home or abroad; Posting information about the thesis defense session, the full content of the thesis on the website of the Ministry of Education and Training, and the training institutions before and after the thesis defense has added a public and transparent channel. information to receive the feedback and criticism of the society and those who are interested in the thesis topic. In addition, the regulations also stipulate that the Ministry of Education and Training will organize the appraisal of the content of a number of doctoral theses when there are reflections, complaints or denunciations or at the request of management, inspection and supervision. Regarding the organization of implementation, the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training stipulate that training institutions must be responsible for formulating, promulgating and organizing the implementation of their own regulations on the basis of concretizing these regulations. regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training with the same or higher requirements, but not contrary to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Thus, the regulations on assessing the quality of theses and the scientific content of each thesis are transparent, clear, and first of all, the responsibility of the training institution, the instructor, and the professional unit. and of scientists participating in the evaluation steps of the thesis, in which the role of the facilitator is the most important. This is also associated with the reputation of the instructor, the evaluation board and the training institution. These regulations also set requirements for training institutions, scientific instructors, scientists who are trusted with the responsibility of weighing and criticizing the thesis, etc. to always uphold scientific ethics, strictly, honestly, objectively, without regard for leniency during the training and evaluation process in order to improve the output quality of the trained products; Raising awareness about information transparency, preserving the reputation of professional quality is the guarantee for the sustainable development of each doctoral training institution.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy – Director of Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training

For theses with reflections and opinions of the public, the Ministry of Education and Training will conduct the appraisal in accordance with current regulations.

Although there has not been a specific assessment of the content of the dissertations being circulated, it can be seen that ensuring the quality of doctoral training is still a matter of discussion. What recommendations does the Ministry of Education and Training have for training institutions?

Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy: In terms of system, the Ministry of Education and Training performs the function of state management of higher education and performs the role of supervision, inspection and examination. The Ministry of Education and Training always requires training institutions to be proactive and accountable in the training process; at the same time, it is suggested that stakeholders and the whole society continue to strengthen supervision, reflection, and consultation… in order to improve the quality of training at all levels of higher education, including doctoral training.

For doctoral training, which is the highest level of education in the system, is the training of highly qualified human resources, so training institutions must focus on improving quality, not chasing quantity.

Along with that, it is necessary to pay attention to the transparency of the process of selecting and assigning thesis topics to graduate students. In fact, the evaluation of the thesis is not only in the title of the thesis but also in the content and the scientific value and practical value of the thesis which is accepted by the scientific community in that research field. However, the review boards and instructors need to be serious and serious, not to approve the topic titles that are too narrow in scope, not enough for a doctoral thesis, causing public opinion as being spread. communication, especially for theses in the field of social sciences and management.

Implementing Vietnam’s National Qualifications Framework, the Ministry of Education and Training has developed and promulgated standards for training programs for higher education qualifications, in which the core of the structure and content of the doctoral training program is research. scientific research and doctoral thesis with the volume of study accounting for 80%. The training programs of doctoral training institutions must comply with this standard and meet the output standard level 8 according to the National Qualifications Framework of Vietnam. This is one of the grounds for the instructor to consider and agree to allow the PhD student to submit his/her thesis for further evaluation steps, and members of the committees must adhere to these requirements when evaluating them. PhD thesis price.

Enhance autonomy and accountability in academic expertise, continue to increase transparency about the doctoral training process to take advantage of receiving and synthesizing social criticism and feedback from stakeholders. concerned about the quality of doctoral training, fully exploiting the advantages of information technology in reviewing the copying of theses and theses and well implementing scientific integrity;

In addition, raising awareness and the role of supervision and criticism of the scientific community in the evaluation of doctoral dissertations, preserving scientific ethics, and avoiding condescension and permissiveness to ensure the scientific value of each thesis, contributing to increasing scientific knowledge of the research field or proposing new ideas and solutions to solve the problems posed in the research field in specific practical situations.

Recent public opinion has also stirred about the Government Inspector’s conclusion to the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, including violations related to master’s and doctoral training in the period 2015-2019. Have these violations actually been resolved at the present time?

Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy: Notice of Inspection Conclusion No. 638/TB-TTCP dated April 29, 2022 of the Government Inspector on financial management, public assets, implementation of investment projects; Organization of cooperation in research, training, joint training, granting master’s and doctoral degrees in the period 2015-2019 of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, including many contents.

Regarding training at the master’s and doctoral levels, the Notice pointed out: “The recruitment, training, and training management from 2017 to now have basically followed the State’s regulations. ” and “Before 2017, the training of masters and doctors still had many shortcomings and mistakes (from 2017 to now, it has been basically overcome)”. However, the Government Inspector still recommends: “Require the Academy of Social Sciences to fully supplement the training process”.

In this regard, in 2021, the Ministry of Education and Training has promulgated the Regulation on enrollment and training at master’s level together with Circular No. 23/2021/TT-BGDĐT dated August 30, 2021 and Regulation on enrollment and training Doctorate degree attached to Circular No. 18/2021/TT-BGDDT dated June 28, 2021. Training institutions at master’s and doctoral levels in general and the Academy of Social Sciences in particular are responsible for developing training regulations and procedures based on these two guiding documents, and at the same time ensuring the following guidelines. minimum requirements specified in the regulations.

From 2017 to now, the Academy of Social Sciences has been inspected and inspected by 03 authorities: the Ministry of Education and Training, the State Audit and the Government Inspectorate; Therefore, the recruitment and training work of the Academy is regularly directed and adjusted in the direction of ensuring compliance with regulations and increasingly improving quality. The Ministry of Education and Training will continue to review, correct, and work directly with the Academy of Social Sciences and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences to clarify relevant contents.

In parallel with the inspection and examination of the competent authorities, the Ministry of Education and Training still performs the state management function and together with related parties supervise the implementation and accountability of higher education institutions. learn. The Ministry of Education and Training always appreciates the process of supervision, reflection and criticism of the society and the scientific community.

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