Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Van Khanh - the source of knowledge

Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Van Khanh was born in 1955 in Hai Duong. He was a lover of natural sciences and dreamed of becoming a doctor, but then "fate" brought him to the Faculty of History, Hanoi National University - a school with a tradition of training and research, a place to nurture many generations of Vietnamese intellectuals. From there, the National University ignited his passion for national history as he later confided:“CVietnamese people need to understand their national history to know the traditions, identities, and strengths of the Vietnamese people and the Vietnamese nation. Learning history is to understand oneself and others, to nurture and cultivate love for one's homeland and country, and to know national pride.

Professor, Doctor, People's Teacher Nguyen Van Khanh/Photo: Bui Tuan

After graduating from the Faculty of History in 1976, with excellent academic achievements, he was retained as a lecturer and was sent by the school to study for a doctorate in the Soviet Union. In the 1980s, in the turbulent political and social context in the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, the young lecturer Nguyen Van Khanh overcame all difficulties and temptations to remain loyal to his profession, focusing on research and successfully defending his doctoral thesis in 1990. Returning to his old school, Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh continued to work with teachers, friends and colleagues to build and develop the Department of Modern Vietnamese History, Faculty of History. With his sharp thinking, management capacity and professional working style, he not only held the role of manager of the Faculty but was also trusted to hold the position of Vice Principal, and later Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. With two terms of 10 years as Rector, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh has left a deep impression of a serious, dedicated leader, always exemplary and creative but also very close. The development journey over the past 20 years: from the difficult early days of separation from Hanoi University of Science (1995) to becoming a leading unit in the country in creating, disseminating knowledge and training high-quality human resources in social sciences and humanities of the School with many noble titles awarded by the Party and State such as the title of Hero of Labor in the renovation period (2005), Ho Chi Minh Medal (2010) ...; certainly recorded the mark of Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh as the highest leader. Since 2013, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh has taken on a new role - Director of the Institute of Policy and Management with the mission of training, developing, and providing human resources for management and experts in research, policy analysis, management; and developing the science of policy and management.

He is a leading expert on modern and contemporary Vietnamese history.

Busy with a thousand tasks as a manager, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh is always passionate about his teaching career. He is rarely absent from the scientific activities of the Department; participates in compiling textbooks and lectures; enthusiastically guides and comments on theses, dissertations and doctoral dissertations; has been and is teaching specialized topics.Socio-economic transformation of Vietnam in modern times,Some issues of Vietnamese intellectuals in historyfor students and postgraduates of the Faculty. Students who give their manuscripts to Mr. Khanh to read are always corrected for every punctuation mark, comma, spelling mistake, and even carefully noted, even in many colors of ink so that students/trainees can easily understand. The appeal in Nguyen Van Khanh's teaching style lies in his seriousness, meticulousness, and scientificity, and is also the factor that helps him achieve success in research.

For many years, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh has been recognized as an expert on modern and contemporary Vietnamese history with his own contributions. Belonging to the generation of Vietnamese intellectuals born and raised in the context of the country going through war, "struggling" in the post-war period and then struggling to find a way to innovate, the topic that Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh pursued and achieved many successes in research was about the characteristics, role and position of Vietnamese intellectuals in history, thereby finding directions and solutions to promote intellectual resources to serve the cause of national revival. In this research direction, he has published dozens of articles in specialized journals, 2 monographs, chaired 1 State-level scientific research topic (accepted in 2011 with excellent results), in which the workVietnam's Intellectual Resources: History, Current Status and Prospectsedited by him, won the award for outstanding scientific work of Hanoi National University and the silver prize for good books in 2013. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh is also particularly interested in the economic and social issues of colonial Vietnam; land, agriculture, rural areas, and farmers in the modern period. These are all core issues of Vietnamese history, with profound scientific and practical significance. The monographs of Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh such asSocio-economic structure of Vietnam during the colonial period (1858–1945),Vietnam Nationalist Party in the history of Vietnam's revolution...have been reprinted and are indispensable works when studying the history of modern and contemporary Vietnam. Up to now, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh has published (written alone, edited or co-authored) over 20 books and nearly 100 articles in specialized journals at home and abroad. The scientific works of Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh are like the person himself: always serious, careful, honest. There are manuscripts that he still requests to be redone to correct a few sentences to ensure the highest objectivity and honesty.

With two terms of 10 years as Principal, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh has left a deep impression of a serious, dedicated, exemplary and creative leader, but also very approachable. The 20-year development journey of the School certainly bears the mark of Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Van Khanh as its highest leader.

In photo: Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Van Khanh, Prof. Dr. of Science, Meritorious Artist Vu Minh Giang, Associate Professor, Meritorious Artist Pham Xuan Hang received National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the tradition of the University of Literature (2010)/Photo: Thanh Long

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh welcomed the Governor General of Canada - Mr.David Lloyd Johnston (November 2011)/Photo: Jackie Chan

His contributions in the field of research and training have been honored by the State with noble titles: Associate Professor and Meritorious Teacher (both in 1996), Professor (2007), People's Teacher (2014). In 2015, Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Van Khanh was one of the groups and individuals honored in the program "Glory of Vietnam" of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor. Another honor, not as great as a title, but extremely valuable, is the love of teachers, friends, colleagues and students for him. Whenever mentioning Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh, Prof. Dinh Xuan Lam - the common teacher of the Department of Modern Vietnamese History and one of the "four pillars" of contemporary Vietnamese history, can never hide his love and pride. Friends and colleagues admire his art of arranging time to handle many tasks at once; His students are grateful for his dedication, simple, sociable style, strict but tolerant. That affection is not because of his title or position but because of his heart for his profession and for people. As a teacher, scientist, manager, but above all, he always shines with the personality of a true intellectual. Professor, Doctor, People's Teacher is the one who inspires knowledge, contributes to an intelligent and glorious Vietnam.