2021-2022 school year: Innovating the structure of training professions to adapt to social needs

A 2020-2021 school year with many outstanding results in training at VNU

VNU President Le Quan at the conference

This information was given at the Conference to summarize the training work of the 2020-2021 school year and deploy tasks for the 2021-2022 school year held at VNU, on October 1, 2021.

VNU President Le Quan attended and gave a speech.

Also attending the conference were Vice Presidents of VNU: Nguyen Hoang Hai, Pham Bao Son, representatives of the Office and functional departments of VNU, representatives of leaders and staff in charge of training of member units and affiliated units of VNU.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc reviews the results of implementing tasks in the 2020-2021 school year

The conference listened to and discussed the summary report on training work in the 2020-2021 school year and the deployment of tasks for the 2021-2022 school year. The report clearly stated that training work at VNU in the 2020-2021 school year continued to innovate, promoting all resources to successfully complete the key tasks of the school year and achieve remarkable results.

Accordingly,University training scaleof VNU has remained stable, as of July 31, 2021, it was nearly 34,500 students.Dual degree training scaleThe whole VNU is 2,056 students.Postgraduate training scaleis nearly 7,000 graduate and doctoral students. In particular, in 2021, VNU will begin implementingMany innovative policies in university admissionsand make some adjustments to support the unit in better implementing this work.

Head of the Training Department of VNU, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc also reviewed the results of implementing the tasks of the 2020-2021 school year in the following areas of work:Undergraduate and graduate admissionsThere are many breakthroughs in quantity and quality. Admission results show that the majors of VNU have clear stratification, thereby showing the attraction of the majors according to social needs;Training development workFocus on opening new and piloting training programs that are not included in the list of level IV education and training programs of the Ministry of Education and Training, interdisciplinary/inter-disciplinary training programs, expanding high-quality training programs according to the characteristics of the unit...

Activities to improve training quality and employability for students are given special attention. Training is closely linked with scientific research and research groups. Up to now, more than 90% of the PhD students of Natural Sciences and Engineering - Technology at VNU have published their thesis in prestigious international ISI journals. Last academic year, 5 majors of VNU were ranked 500 - 600 in the world in the QS table: Computer Science and Information Systems, Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautics and Manufacturing, Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, Business and Management Studies. This is the first time that Business and Management Studies have been ranked by QS.

PushInternational joint training programsFields: Economics, Business, Management, Technology with prestigious foreign educational institutions;Quality control and assessmentTraining programs from there have specific and practical solutions to improve enrollment quality and training quality;Innovation in teaching activitiesat VNU, Hanoi is implemented synchronously from high school to university and postgraduate levels and contributes significantly to the completion of the school year's tasks in the context of a complicated epidemic;Curriculum and learning materials work, computerized training managementalso implemented systematically and actively in the direction of digital transformation of education and training...

However, there are still some shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome in the coming school years, namely: The opening of high-quality training programs only focuses on some majors/specializations with high social demand and has not been focused on basic science majors; Some high-quality training programs are not really different from standard training programs; Investment in high-quality training programs is not really commensurate; Facilities are still limited, not meeting the scale of university training; University enrollment still faces many difficulties...

The theme for the 2021-2022 school year is“Continue to promote digital transformation and comprehensive innovation in teaching activities; constantly improve training quality, expand the scale and improve the quality of doctoral training and engineering and technology majors”. In the coming school year, training work at VNU will focus on the following key groups of tasks: (1) Building and implementing the Project to Organize High School Olympic Exams of VNU to select talents; (2) Promoting digital transformation, perfecting online training models and methods associated with quality assurance; (3) Innovating the structure of training program content; (4) Expanding the scale and improving the quality of doctoral training; (5) Expanding the scale and improving the quality of training in engineering and technology fields.

Director of the VNU Examination Center Nguyen Tien Thao reports the results of the 2021 National High School Examination

Regarding the Competency Assessment Test (CAT) for high school students, Director of the VNU Testing Center Nguyen Tien Thao said that the 2021 CAT achieved the goals of quality, process, results, similarity, and balance of difficulty and ease according to modern measurement and testing science. The test is highly classified, assessing students' abilities according to 3 groups of abilities of the output standards of the general education program; positively correlated with the graduation exam results but has a higher level of difficulty and classification from the assessment perspective. In 2022, the VNU Testing Center plans to organize many CAT exams during the year for about 30,000 candidates, serving large-scale enrollment.

At the conference, delegates exchanged and discussed existing limitations in the past and proposed solutions to overcome them in the coming years.

Discussing the issue of improving the quality of doctoral training according to international standards, according to Vice President of the University of Natural Sciences Le Thanh Son, the output standards in doctoral training between countries have different requirements on knowledge, skills and international publications of doctoral students. The doctoral training regulations of VNU, applied since 2018, stipulate that international publication is a mandatory requirement for doctoral students. This has created a good premise for doctoral training according to international standards. Doctoral students are encouraged and facilitated by the University to participate in research groups and international learning exchanges to increase international publications. At the same time, the University also seeks and supports doctoral students to obtain research support scholarships. Doctoral training at the University of Natural Sciences is gradually reaching international standards in terms of publication.

Emphasizing the role of basic sciences in providing high-quality human resources for teaching, research and management, Vice President of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities Lai Quoc Khanh said that the University has many policies and guidelines to encourage and support basic scientific research activities to promote training and research in this group of fields. However, in the implementation process, there are still certain difficulties. The University of Social Sciences and Humanities recommends that VNU prioritize investment in basic sciences, ensuring to meet the human resource needs of the State and society. In addition to continuing to support basic sciences with internal resources, the University proposes a number of investment and development directions from the perspective of state management for these fields: State mechanism to order basic science training fields; State has incentive mechanisms, encouraging lecturers and students in basic sciences fields...

Chairman of the Education Quality Assurance Council Mai Trong Nhuan and Director of the Institute for Education Quality Assurance Nghiem Xuan Huy both agree that training units need to develop a quality assessment roadmap for international standard training programs that society has high demand for human resources, aiming to effectively implement the VNU Development Strategy. At the same time, training units also need to identify comprehensive solutions to address factors and conditions for quality assurance that directly affect the ranking results of VNU and assess the quality of training programs such as: requirements on output standards, testing and assessment activities, training program design, facilities, etc.

According to Professor Mai Trong Nhuan, increasing the scale of training needs to go hand in hand with improving the quality of training and the employability of learners. At the same time, units need to pay attention to ensuring the ratio of lecturers/students as well as implementing solutions to promote employer engagement. Contents on quality assurance must also be flexibly integrated into the training regulations of VNU.

Prof. Le Ngoc Thanh – Rector of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy proposed that VNU should have a mechanism to increase income for staff and lecturers in specialized training fields such as medicine and pharmacy. Rector Le Ngoc Thanh expressed his hope that the leaders of VNU as well as its member units would continue to support and coordinate with the University in training, providing support in terms of facilities and financial resources so that students and trainees of the University have better opportunities to practice and intern.

The Principal of the University of Education, Nguyen Quy Thanh, expressed his views on developing training programs for teachers and educational sciences in line with the orientation of digital transformation in education and training. Professor Nguyen Quy Thanh said that it is necessary to unify policies and mechanisms to recognize the participation of lecturers as well as support lecturers in developing lectures and learning materials in online teaching and blended learning.

Delegates attending the conference also said that there should be a synchronous solution, integrating data of software and training management systems used in the whole VNU to facilitate management and operation activities.

Concluding the conference, VNU President Le Quan highly appreciated the achievements of VNU in the past school year, acknowledged the efforts of training units in developing training programs and gradually improving the scale of postgraduate training; made outstanding efforts to ensure "good teaching, good learning", and successfully completed the school year's tasks in the context of complicated epidemic developments.

Director Le Quan suggested that in the coming time, training work needs to focus on developing quality, training efficiency and occupational structure to adapt to the needs of the labor market.

The Director requested that training units need to do well the following tasks in the 2021-2022 school year and the following years:

Firstly, develop and adjust the Training Regulations in accordance with the new Decree and Regulations on VNU. In particular, priority is given to piloting training models and methods according to international standards, perfecting output standards with appropriate capacity and skills for each industry/group of industries, and maximizing the position and characteristics of VNU.

Second, enhancing skills in building learning materials using online teaching methods, helping lecturers to be more proactive in building and designing lectures, improving training effectiveness.

Third, innovation in the structure of training programs is linked to quality assessment and university governance, thereby increasing students' ability to adapt to practical problems, while reducing training costs for the unit; units need to focus on and accelerate the progress of assessment of university and postgraduate training programs.

Fourth, strengthen interdisciplinary and inter-unit training according to the a+b model in the fields of engineering and technology. This helps solve the problem of revenue associated with training quality and human resource needs of the 4.0 labor market.

Fifth, strengthen solutions to improve the quality of postgraduate training, especially doctoral training; develop and implement a project to train international standard doctoral students in the fields of Natural Sciences, Engineering - Technology and pilot doctoral training under the ordering mechanism; continue to maintain and supplement scholarship funds and reward funds and incentive solutions to increase international publications of students, researchers and lecturers of the unit.

Sixth, increase investment in talent training and basic science sectors in a concentrated and individualized direction, avoiding widespread investment.

Vice President of VNU Nguyen Hoang Hai speaks at the conference

Head of Planning and Finance Department Pham Xuan Hoan presented a report on revenue and expenditure structure by industry at VNU.