Vietnam is expected to have 1,200 professors/associate professors more

Tien Phong has quoted sources as reporting that most disciplinary professorship sub-councils, after completing the check of professorial candidates, affirmed that the candidates met requirements. 

Only one candidate from the chemistry professorship sub-council was found as unable to meet standards. Prof Dang Ung Van, chair of the sub-council, has confirmed that the candidate is a lecturer at a university in the south.

Before the check began as per the request of the Prime Minister, an education expert said: “I am sure that all candidates can meet standards, and they have achievements even higher to be professors/associate professors.”

However, the quality of professors/associate professors remains problematic. 

Nguyen Ngoc Chau from the Institute of Ecology and Resources said though the number of professors/associate professors in Vietnam is very high, the number of scientific research works remains modest and Vietnamese universities are not found on the lists of the top universities in the region and the world.

Do Tran Cat, former secretary general of the State Professorship Council, once commented that only 30 percent of professors/associate professors meet international standards.

The problem, according to the expert, doesn’t lie in the procedures to examine candidates’ profiles, but in the low standards.

Nguyen Ngoc Chau from the Institute of Ecology and Resources said that Vietnam sets many criteria for professor/associate professor candidates, but the quality of professors/associate professors is still low.

“Only in Vietnam is a professorship granted based on the scores that candidates get – the scores from scientific articles/books published, from number of lecturing hours and service length,” he said.

“Ironically, the professors who don’t satisfy international standards, don’t have research experience and internationally published articles, are assigned to judge the candidates meeting international standards,” he said.

Meanwhile, a university lecturer, who asked to be anonymous, said he cannot understand why many candidates can be granted professor/associate professor titles though they don’t have necessary foreign language skills.

“I can say for sure that a lot of candidates cannot speak English,” he said.

Phan Duc Chinh from the Mechanical Engineering Institute point out a problem that among the candidates for the 2017 professorship, there are many from research institutes, journals, publishing houses and state agencies.
 
In biology, for example, 20 out of 49 candidates for the associate professor title are not from universities, but they work at research institutes, museums and local agriculture departments.

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