Two famous scientists have expressed their concern about the new standards for PhDs set by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), warning that they will affect the quality of Vietnam’s higher education.

Many candidates have been excluded from the list of scientists for professorship title this year because they have had a high numbers of scientific articles published. One candidate published 40-50 articles within half a year.

The measures Vietnam is taking to cope with the nCoV epidemic are based on the experience and scientific research results that have been accumulated for many years, since the time it faced SARS epidemic in 2002-2003.

Born in the Year of the Rat, Dao Van Duong, Dean of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Environmental Engineering at Phenikaa University, 36, has been listed among the world’s top 100,000 scientists.

Vietnam has proactively integrated into the world at various levels and in diversified forms by embracing global market principles and standards.

After the ‘PhD incubator’, which produced PhDs en masse, was discovered, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) released a new circular to tighten training quality.

Associate Prof Nguyen Thoi Trung, one of 10 Vietnamese scientists who are among the 100,000 scientists in the world with the highest number of scientific citations, was a poor student at general school.

Vietnam is the fastest growing country in the region in terms of articles in scientific publications, while Singapore, India and Pakistan have the highest output.

VietNamNet Bridge - The absence of research-oriented training and paltry budget for scientific research have been cited to explain the low number and quality of internationally published articles in social sciences in Vietnam.

Vietnam now has 10,543 professors and associate professors, publishes 1,000 scientific articles a year. 

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam hopes to have 60 scientific research organizations of regional and international stature by 2020.