Scholarships to support PhD students and post-doctoral trainees - a pioneering breakthrough of VNU

>>>Download Decision No. 3688/QD-VNU dated November 19, 2021

VNU aims to become a multidisciplinary, multi-field research and innovation university by 2045, among the leading universities in Asia and the world with core values: Innovation - National responsibility - Sustainable development.

Dear Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc, how do you evaluate the significance and impact of Decision 3688 that the President of VNU has just signed and issued?

Decision No. 3688/QD-DHQGHN dated November 19, 2021, which VNU President Le Quan has just signed and issued, is a historic decision. This is something we have cherished and pondered for a long time, but it has only now become a reality. This decision will have great significance and impact, creating breakthroughs in improving the quality and efficiency of training and scientific research activities of VNU.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc - Head of Training Department, VNU with students of University of Technology

This decision supports scholarships of up to 100 million/year for graduate students and 120 million/year for young doctors with excellent research and international publication capacity. With this scholarship, plus other sources of support from teaching and scientific research activities, graduate students and interns can rest assured and wholeheartedly devote themselves to research.

As you know, young PhD students and PhDs are a large, young and enthusiastic source of science and technology human resources, playing a key role in implementing science and technology tasks under the leadership of professors, leading scientists and leaders in the school.

This is a bold decision and a great effort and determination of the President of VNU. This is the first time VNU has granted such a large scholarship to a doctoral student and it is also the first time in the country that a public university has pioneered in establishing and granting scholarships for post-doctoral trainees.

Through this decision, many excellent graduate students and doctors will be attracted to VNU to study and research, and therefore, the position and potential of science and technology will be enhanced, the influence and ranking of VNU in the Vietnamese and international higher education system will certainly be maintained and increased strongly in the next few years.

So what are the requirements and responsibilities of candidates receiving this scholarship, Professor?

With scholarships for graduate students:Candidates must be a PhD student of VNU, not over 40 years old, with a high school GPA of 2.8 or higher at undergraduate or master's level to apply for the scholarship.

With interns, applicable to all PhDs from training institutions inside and outside VNU (including candidates living abroad; Vietnamese and foreigners) under 45 years old, who want to return to VNU for post-doctoral internship, for a period of 1-3 years.

When submitting applications for VNU to consider granting scholarships, candidates for doctoral studies and internships must have a research outline, along with evidence of achievements and research capacity; be accepted by a VNU scientific staff to do research or internship in a research group and sponsor the candidate, and have the consent of the training institution. The procedures for considering and granting scholarships are quick and simple.

For PhD students, to maintain the scholarship continuously for 3 years, VNU requires that during the training period, PhD students must meet the output standard of being the main author (first author/corresponding author) of at least 02 articles on the research results of the thesis published in specialized scientific journals in the list of ISI/Scopus journals, of which at least 01 article is published in a journal ranked Q1 (for the field of natural sciences and technology) or at least 01 article is published in a journal ranked Q2 or higher (for other fields).

For interns, each year, at least 01 article on research results is required to be published in a specialized scientific journal of Q2 rank or higher, in the list of ISI/Scopus journals.

In addition, graduate students and interns are considered an important force participating in scientific research activities at VNU, are arranged to participate in teaching and receive funding from teaching activities according to the regulations of the training institution.

Through this activity, on the one hand, training institutions have more young, excellent lecturers, on the other hand, postgraduates and interns can also participate in strong research groups at VNU, improving their qualifications and teaching and research skills.

How does the Professor evaluate the feasibility of this Regulation in attracting graduate students and interns?

This regulation is not only feasible but also meets the long-standing desire of teachers at VNU, who want to have funds to recruit good students. And young PhD students and researchers from places with conditions come to VNU to participate in research in strong research groups, improving their professional qualifications.

According to statistics from the Training Department, the current number of PhD students at VNU is 1,084. Of these, 350 are from engineering and technology fields, and 90% of them have international publications, meeting the requirements to receive and maintain scholarships.

In addition, VNU has the largest and strongest team of highly qualified scientists in the country with 66 professors, 398 associate professors and 1,100 PhDs. VNU has nearly 100 research groups with 29 strong research groups at VNU level; in terms of facilities, there are 61 laboratories, of which 17 are key laboratories (including 1 national key laboratory). 5 fields of VNU: Computer Science, Mechanics, Mathematics, Physics, Business and Management Studies have been ranked 501-600 in the world QS rankings. Recently, in October 2021, 2 fields: Computer Science and Engineering of VNU ranked 601-800 in THE WUR rankings, a highly prestigious ranking of world academics. Those are the reasons why I believe that this Regulation is a very wise, effective and timely decision of the President of VNU, and will certainly attract many young PhD students and researchers to gather at VNU in the near future.

As a leading professor of VNU in the field of advanced materials and structures, in addition to the scholarship policy to attract excellent young PhD students and researchers, what other wishes do you have to enhance the influence, reputation and ranking of VNU?

I would like to emphasize once again that Decision No. 3688/QD-DHQGHN dated November 19, 2021, which was just signed and issued by VNU President Le Quan, is a great decision, meeting our long-standing expectations. My research group alone, on a rough calculation, can attract dozens of excellent domestic and foreign graduate students and interns to work. This decision will make breakthroughs in enhancing the reputation, brand, and ranking of VNU.

If you ask me what else I wish for, I would suggest that in addition to this policy, we should invest more directly and appropriately in strong research groups - because they are the cells in the training - research and technology transfer activities of a university. On that basis, strong research groups not only attract graduate students and young doctors, but also have the opportunity to attract excellent professors from abroad to work at VNU, participate in training and research, publish common results, as well as give Vietnamese scientists in the research group the opportunity to exchange and practice in laboratories and leading training institutions abroad, thus VNU will train excellent scientists, have many excellent publications, and access the newest and most modern research directions in the world. That is also the lesson that many countries around us have applied very successfully.

Thank you Professor!