Looking back at 50 years of Vietnamese Archival Studies

The workshop was jointly organized by the Faculty of Archival Studies and Office Management (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU) and the Department of Archival Studies - Office Management (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU-HCM).

The workshop was attended by Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga (Deputy Director, State Records and Archives Department), Ms. Do Thi Thanh (Director of Administrative Department, Office of the National Assembly), Ms. Tran Viet Hoa (Director of National Archives Center III).

Also attending the workshop were representatives from the Archives Department of the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Vietnam Archives Magazine, and the Archives Departments in provinces and cities.

On the School side, there was the participation of Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thi Minh Hoa (Vice Principal of the School).

The workshop aims to summarize the achievements in research and training of Vietnamese Archival Studies. Experts also analyze, forecast and suggest directions for the development of Vietnamese Archival Studies in the context of regional and international integration.

In 50 years of formation and development, the field of Archival Studies in Vietnam has achieved proud results: Archival training institutions in Vietnam have trained tens of thousands of bachelors and hundreds of masters. In particular, the first 3 PhDs in Archival Studies were successfully trained at the Faculty of Archival Studies and Office Management, University of Social Sciences and Humanities. This is also the only institution in Vietnam to date assigned to train PhDs in Archival Studies. The training program at the Faculty is regularly updated and supplemented to closely follow the practical needs of Vietnam and learn from the world's Archival Studies training experience.

Dr. Dao Duc Thuan - Head of the Department of Archives and Office Management, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU delivered the opening speech.

The workshop also mentioned the limitations and shortcomings in Archival research activities in Vietnam such as: the approach to Archival Studies has not been expanded, practical research is still heavily descriptive; professional research still accounts for a large number, new research achievements of World Archival Studies have not been updated in Vietnam... These limitations need to be properly recognized to help those working in this field strive to improve and further promote the development of Vietnamese Archival Studies in the future.

Associate Professor Vuong Dinh Quyen is one of the prestigious teachers who laid the foundation for the formation and development of the field of Archival Studies in Vietnam.

Vice Principal Tran Thi Minh Hoa spoke at the conference: The legacy that the generation that laid the foundation for the Archival Science industry left to this day is not only in establishing a theoretical system suitable for practice, contributing to the archival activities of agencies, organizations or businesses, but also in contributing to building and developing a system of university training institutions in this field in Vietnam. Half a century of research and training in Archival Science in Vietnam is not a very long journey compared to the history of Archival Science in the world. This is an important time to review the achievements of the industry as well as identify the major challenges that the Vietnamese Archival Science industry has, is and will have to face.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thi Minh Hoa, Vice Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU, spoke at the Workshop

The conference also took time to acknowledge the contributions of the first generations of students and lecturers in the field of Archival Studies such as: Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Tham, Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Van Ham, Dr. Phan Dinh Nam, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Phuong, Assoc. Prof. Vuong Dinh Quyen... Thanks to studying and researching at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, with the help of the National Archives, the lecturers have made continuous efforts to build and lay a solid foundation for research and university training in Archival Studies in Vietnam.

Paying tribute to generations of teachers in the field of Archival Studies

Dr. Pham Tan Ha, Vice Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU-HCM, spoke at the Conference

In the future, along with the development of information technology and in the context of increasingly strong regional and international integration, the field of Archival Studies will promote a number of new research directions on: electronic document archiving; archiving specialized, professional, and specific documents; marketing in archiving; people's archives, private archives, business archives; archiving interview documents, memoirs, diaries, personal letters, etc.

The workshop was divided into two sub-committees. Sub-committee I discussed the topic “Evaluation of research and training activities in Archival Studies” with typical presentations:Report on Archival Studies and the Formation of Archival Studies in Vietnam(Assoc. Prof. Vuong Dinh Quyen),Some opinions on issues that need to be researched in Vietnamese Archival Studies in the coming time(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Minh Phuong),Contribute some opinions on the issue of Theory and practice of archival work in Vietnam over the past 50 years”,Scientific research on office, documents and archives of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City-Achievements and development orientation(Dr. Nghiem Ky Hong, MSc. Nguyen Thi Ly),PhD training in Archives in Australia-Some comparisons with Vietnam(Dr. Nguyen Thi Chinh),Training orientation for Archival Science at the University of Home Affairs in the context of regional and global integration(Dr. Chu Thi Hau, MSc. Nguyen Thi Loan),Quality of human resources in the Party archives sector and some solutions to improve the quality of human resources in the Party archives sector(Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Quy).

Subcommittee II discussed the topic “Orientation of research and training in Archival Studies in Vietnam in the period of integration and development”. The main presentations included:Report on innovation of training programs towards training digital archiving experts in Vietnam to meet the needs of the digital age(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bui Loan Thuy, Dr. Pham Tan Ha),Training knowledge for electronic document archiving and skills for publishing and introducing archives in the era of industrial revolution 4.0(Journalist Nguyen Van Ket),Business document storage-Issues for training institutions and management levels(Dr. Nguyen Van Bau, MSc. Pham Thi Phi Yen).