Scientific conference "Research and training in Vietnamese studies and Vietnamese language: theoretical and practical issues" organized by the Faculty of Vietnamese Language and Literature on October 19, 2013.
According to statistics, in the 2013-2014 school year, there were 85 colleges and universities nationwide enrolling Vietnamese students with more than 6,000 quotas, including 3,000 university quotas and 3,000 college quotas. The distribution ratio of the number of schools and quotas is also evenly distributed in both regions, the Northern region has 43 schools (with 3,000 quotas), the Southern region has 42 schools (with 3,000 quotas). In terms of quantity, the school with the largest enrollment quota in the Northern region is Hanoi University of Industry with 330 quotas, the school with the largest enrollment quota in the Southern region is Ho Chi Minh City University of Culture with 330 quotas. Of the remaining schools, about half have an enrollment quota of 80-150 students/year; the remaining half have an enrollment quota of 30-60 students/year. The school with the lowest enrollment target is Yen Bai College of Culture, Arts and Tourism with 25 students/year.
In terms of training experience, the first university to train Vietnamese studies was Dalat University, training 19 courses from 1994 to present, with thousands of students graduating. Most recently, since 2009, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (VNU) has started training Vietnamese studies at the undergraduate level with 2 majors, major A for Vietnamese and major B for foreigners. This is also one of the few training institutions currently training Vietnamese studies for both Vietnamese and international students.
However, the current training of Vietnamese studies has many problems such as: training institutions have not correctly identified the research subjects and training requirements of the Vietnamese studies sector, there is no strict control over training quality, training does not really come from the practical development needs of the field of study, many schools do not have clear training goals, do not have enough conditions for teaching resources, do not have research to serve training, and have limited international exchanges...
According to Prof. Dr. Dinh Van Duc (former Head of the Department of Vietnamese, now the Department of Vietnamese Studies and Vietnamese Language, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU), the opening of the Vietnamese Studies training program in our country began spontaneously and spontaneously, causing "domestic Vietnamese studies" to be fragmented and encounter many difficulties in the understanding that "whoever understands it, does it that way" even though there is a framework program of the Ministry of Education and Training. Each training institution has positioned its own program subjectively, sometimes very willfully. Regarding the training goals, most schools, although on the surface, train Vietnamese studies, in fact, train in the direction of majors: Tour guides, Culture - Tourism or majors in Tourism Studies, Ethnic Culture.
Also sharing the above viewpoint, Associate Professor Dr. Le Quang Hung (Faculty of Vietnamese Studies, Hanoi National University of Education) said that the Vietnamese studies training programs at universities and colleges are currently "diverging" quite a bit. This reality is due to the fact that the starting point for building this training program is very different in each school. Most Vietnamese studies training institutions build training programs from a certain root field of their own and rely on their existing professional staff. In addition, the building of the curriculum is often based on job needs, that is, the "output" in each locality.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quang Ngoc (former Director of the Institute of Vietnamese Studies and Development Sciences, VNU) emphasized that many training institutions do not conduct any research or training in social sciences and humanities but still train Vietnamese studies. He said that the number of more than 80 colleges and universities training Vietnamese studies is alarming, because it does not reflect the development of this field of study but reflects the "distortion" of Vietnamese studies. There are training institutions that state on their graduation certificates that they are bachelors in Vietnamese studies but in fact they are training people to work in tourism to serve local and social needs because the Tourism Studies industry currently does not have an official training code from the Ministry of Education and Training.
According to Associate Professor Dr. Tran Le Bao (Faculty of Vietnamese Studies, Hanoi National University of Education), the above phenomenon originates from the "hot" development of Vietnamese Studies, which has led to an incorrect view of this science. In practice, the perception of Vietnamese Studies is diverse and complex. On the subjective side, we must mention the different perceptions and different concepts of the drafters of the project to open the Vietnamese Studies major code at the Ministry of Education and Training. Moreover, those who open the major code are not "born" from the Vietnamese Studies major but often switch from other narrow majors to study Vietnamese Studies, so their concepts of Vietnamese Studies are different and have limitations.
To solve the above situation, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quang Ngoc (former Director of the Institute of Vietnamese Studies for Development Sciences, VNU) believes that it is necessary to start with a correct understanding of the concept of Vietnamese studies and the development process of this science itself to meet practical needs. In fact, all scientific fields that research the country, people, and culture of Vietnam to find the typical values of Vietnam belong to the field of Vietnamese studies. Vietnamese studies, according to its development law, all start from specific majors such as: history, culture, language, economics, society, etc. Specialized sciences are increasingly developing, creating strengths in perception but also causing limitations, because when research is too deep, too detailed, the overall view is weak. On the foundation of that specialized science, gradually due to the need for complete and comprehensive perception, specialized sciences tend to link back. Comprehensive and interdisciplinary research has become an urgent need, so Vietnamese studies has gradually shifted from specialized Vietnamese studies to interdisciplinary Vietnamese studies. Therefore, Vietnamese studies today must be considered an interdisciplinary science, on the basis of integrating and linking specialized sciences to find common cognitive values, common characteristic values of culture and society.
With a correct understanding of the concept, Vietnamese Studies will be able to identify its own research objects and methods. Schools will set out the right training goals for the field of study based on the characteristics and identity of each training institution. On that basis, management agencies such as the Ministry of Education and Training will make the necessary "adjustments" to eliminate training institutions that are not qualified to train in this field of study.
Also emphasizing the “interdisciplinary” nature as a distinct feature of Vietnamese studies, Associate Professor Dr. Le Quang Hung (Hanoi National University of Education) said that interdisciplinary is not simply teaching about many areas of the country and people of Vietnam. The true nature of interdisciplinary is that each specific problem needs to be analyzed, explained, and evaluated from many perspectives and with the knowledge of many subjects. And to develop Vietnamese studies sustainably, it is necessary to raise the issue of building a standard program for this field of study, in which the training goal is clearly defined as training Vietnamese studies bachelors with relatively comprehensive and systematic knowledge about the country and people of Vietnam, and at the same time must have the skills to operate in a number of specific areas in society.
Author:Thanh Ha
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