VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese universities in the past have not been listed in prestigious international rankings, and this year is no exception. 

Vietnamese universities did not appear in the Time Higher Education’s list of Asian leading universities in 2017. 

While this year’s list has 100 more schools than the last year’s list, and while the neighboring countries of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia saw their schools jump into higher positions, no Vietnamese school was found in the list.

The Times Higher Education's ranking is based on 13 criteria in four categories: teaching (25 percent), scientific research (30 percent), research influence (30 percent), international perspectives (7.5 percent) and knowledge transfer (7.5 percent).

Vietnamese were disappointed, but this is not a big surprise to them.

A report of the Ministry of Science & Technology (MST) showed that Vietnam has 24,000 PhDs and 101,000 MAs, with the number of PhDs and MAs increasing by 11.6 percent per annum since 1996.

A report of the Ministry of Science & Technology (MST) showed that Vietnam has 24,000 PhDs and 101,000 MAs, with the number of PhDs and MAs increasing by 11.6 percent per annum since 1996.

However, according to ISI, in the last 15 years, from 1996 to 211, Vietnam only had 13,172 scientific research works published on prestigious publications, just equal to 1/5 of Thailand’s, 1/6 of Malaysia’s and 1/10 of Singapore’s. 

Meanwhile, Vietnam’s population is 17 times higher than Singapore’s, three times than Malaysia’s and 1.5 times higher than Thailand’s.

Vietnam now has 9,000 professors and associate professors, 24,000 PhDs and 100,000 MAs, but the number of published scientific articles in the last 15 years was less than 1/5 of Tokyo University alone (69,806).

Pham Bich San, deputy secretary general of the Vietnam Union of Science & Technology Associations (VUSTA), commented that Vietnam has the highest number of professors and PhDs, but no Vietnamese universities are listed among the world’s top 500 universities. 

Also according to San, the number of internationally publicized scientific research articles is just equal to the number from one university in Thailand.

Prof Vu Ngoc Hai from Myongji University in South Korea commented that making investments in scientific research to improve their rankings is the easiest way for foreign schools to optimize profit. In Vietnam, ranking does not affect schools’ ‘rice pot’.

He also noted that while most foreign schools are multidisciplinary schools, most Vietnamese schools focus on training majors. Therefore, it would be difficult to compare the Transport University with Economics University, or the University of Water Resources with the Foreign Trade University.

Tran Xuan Nhi, a renowned education expert, and former Deputy Minister of Education and Training, agrees that Vietnam’s schools just try to enroll as many students as possible and live on students’ tuition, and don’t pay great attention to scientific research.

RELATED NEWS

Harvard University President visits Fulbright University VN

Education Ministry’s university plan a burden to accreditation organizations

Kim Chi