In order to improve the circular with guidelines for the development of strong research groups and the draft proposal for developing investment policy mechanisms for the development of laboratories and research programs at several key universities, a Science and Technology Department delegation surveyed twenty universities throughout the country. The delegation visited DTU on April 20, 2019. Lecturers could use the occasion to give their opinions on the development of the advanced and multi-disciplinary research university model.
Science and Technology Department experts taking note of opinions at the work meeting
The leader the delegation, Science And Technology Department Deputy Director Ms Nguyen Hoang Lan, and the experts who came with her listened to the opinions DTU lecturers gave on the creation of policy mechanisms for the development of science and technology. Three main issues were discussed: the circular for the development of strong research teams at higher education institutions, the draft proposal for policy mechanisms for the development of key laboratories, and the guide for policy mechanisms for the development and encouragement of start-ups and innovation.
“Strong research teams can be considered the living cells of scientific research,” said DTU Vice Provost Assoc.Prof. Dr Nguyen Ngoc Minh. “As such, creating such groups requires high-quality human resources and special preferential policies. The main difficulty for nonpublic universities which has not yet been addressed concerns resources and financing. Even though the mission of educating high-quality people is the same, the capital to create and develop the institutions is different between public and nonpublic school. DTU has provided the labor market in Vietnam and abroad with about 60,000 people so far, including engineers, pharmacists, architects, and Masters, but we have not yet received much attention and investment from the state budget. In fact, recruiting talent to build strong research teams and to build key interdisciplinary laboratories requires a lot of money. Therefore, policy mechanisms need to be revised and more suitable support for nonpublic universities must be set up.”
DTU Vice Provost Assoc.Prof. Dr Nguyen Ngoc Minh giving his opinions at the work meeting
DTU Vice Provost Assoc.Prof. Dr Le Duc Toan said that, “The Ministry of Education and Training should lead the creation of model programs for innovation and start-ups for lecturing at universities. Universities can then choose from them and amend their curriculums. And when it comes to creating key laboratories, no-one has yet mentioned social sciences, humanities, and economics. The policy mechanisms should therefore contain support systems for these fields, that information can be collected for research projects.”
Many lecturers also gave ideas on the standards to establish strong research teams and on examining how state property regulations for nonpublic institutions are being managed. They also proposed new lines of thinking: converting criteria into scores to attract young people and teams to research, and combining strong research teams with key laboratories. The Science and Technology Department delegation took note of all proposals and opinions.
“I sincerely thank the lecturers of DTU for their enthusiastic opinions and contributions,” Ms Nguyen Hoang Lan said. “We would like to acquire and supplement all pertinent proposals to improve the investment policy mechanisms for laboratories and research programs and for the development of strong research teams at several higher education institutions.”
(Media Center)