Building a PhD training program in Anthropology

On May 23, 2012, the Department of Anthropology organized a discussion on the PhD training program in Anthropology. Attending were scientists, researchers, and lecturers from universities training in Anthropology domestically and internationally.The seminar aims to discuss and contribute ideas on the anthropology doctoral training program developed by the Department of Anthropology, USSH, under the sponsorship of the Wenner-Gren Foundation. The goal of the program is to train students to become professional anthropologists with professional competence to undertake research, teaching and activities related to administration and policy practice. At the seminar, Prof. Dr. Luong Van Hi (University of Toronto - Canada) highly appreciated the framework of the anthropology doctoral training program developed by the Department of Anthropology, USSH. He said that in order to diversify the teaching of elective subjects, the program content should be diversified and invited domestic and international guest lecturers. At the same time, the professor emphasized that for any program, subjects are an important part but teaching methods are also very important. Along with that, it requires a lot of materials and learning materials to be provided to students, which is still limited in Vietnam today. Therefore, according to Professor Luong Van Hi, when building a training program, we must take into account teaching methods and the system of documents and learning materials. Agreeing with Professor Luong Van Hi's opinion, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Tiep (Faculty of Anthropology - University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU-HCM) also said that learning materials are an important issue in building the program and suggested that the training program must be closely linked to reality and suitable for Vietnam's reality. Some other opinions suggested that the program should aim for connectivity in training, integration, high development and at the same time be practical for Vietnam to train Anthropologists with Vietnamese identity who are capable of integrating with the international Anthropology community; focus on compiling topics, translating learning materials... The Department of Anthropology was established in 2004 under the Faculty of History, in 2009 the Department began training bachelors in Anthropology. In 2010 the Department of Anthropology became a Department under the University. In 2011, the Department established a master's program in Anthropology. This year, the Department continues to establish a doctoral program to train a generation of professional Anthropology doctors capable of teaching, researching and practicing Anthropology.