Only accept international language certificates for PhD 'entry'

This is a new point in the Draft Regulations on Doctoral Training just announced by the Ministry of Education and Training.

The Ministry of Education and Training said the draft Circular promulgating regulations on doctoral training was developed with the aim of rectifying and improving the quality of doctoral training.

The Ministry of Education and Training also determined that raising standards in doctoral training may force the whole system in general and universities in particular to reduce their scale, but this must be done to improve quality, and doctoral training is only for those with real talent and ability, and with clear learning goals.

Illustration photo.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phung, Director of the Department of Higher Education, doctoral training is the highest level of training in higher education, training researchers. Therefore, it is necessary to standardize the input quality, ensure the elimination mechanism during the training process and meet the output quality standards.

“For a long time, we have had the notion that Vietnam’s conditions are unique, so we need to have specificities. But in the context of increasingly deep regional and global integration, the trained human resources must be compatible with the world to be able to compete in the labor market,” said Ms. Phung.

Must have TOEFL, IELTS or TOEIC

Accordingly, the draft clearly stipulates that in addition to those who graduated from university or graduate school abroad (with the language used during the study process being a foreign language), those who have a university degree in a foreign language, candidates for doctoral training must have a TOEFL iBT English certificate of 45 or higher or an IELTS certificate of 5.0 or higher or a TOEIC certificate of 500 points or higher issued by an internationally and Vietnamese recognized testing organization (within 24 months from the date of application) or have another foreign language certificate at an equivalent level.

The research results of the thesis must be published internationally.

This is also the condition for graduate students to register for thesis evaluation at professional units.

The draft stipulates that if a doctoral student wants to defend his/her thesis, the content and research results of the thesis must be published in at least 2 articles, of which at least 1 article must be published in a scientific journal in the ISI/Scopus journal list.

In case the doctoral candidate does not meet the above criteria, he/she must have 2 reports published in the proceedings of international conferences with peer review or 2 articles published in other foreign scientific journals with peer review.

Along with this provision, the draft also raises the standards of instructors compared to the current regulations by using the “measure” of international publications.

The PhD supervisor must have the title of Professor or Associate Professor. If he/she has not yet achieved the title of Professor or Associate Professor, he/she must have at least 5 years of research and teaching experience since being awarded a Doctor of Science or PhD degree.

In particular, the instructor must also be the author or co-author of at least 1 article published in a journal listed in the journals/Scopus or reference books of foreign publishers with an international standard ISBN code.

In case the above criteria are not met, the supervisor must have 2 articles published in international conference proceedings or foreign scientific journals with peer review in the research field related to the doctoral student's thesis topic.

As for independent supervisors who are PhDs but do not have the title of professor or associate professor, they will have to have an additional article/scientific work published in an ISI/Scopus journal or in a reference book with an international standard ISBN code issued by foreign publishers.

Two implementation options

For courses enrolled before the new Regulations take effect, training facilities will still apply the old regulations (Circular 10/2009/TT-BGDDT and Circular No. 05/2012/TT-BGDDT).

However, for new admission courses after the regulations take effect, the draft proposes two options for applying the regulations so that education experts, learners, training institutions and society can discuss and contribute ideas.

In option 1, the Ministry of Education and Training plans to apply the standard that supervisors must have international publications to courses enrolling from 2019 and the requirement that doctoral students must have international publications to defend their theses to apply to courses enrolling from 2020.

In option 2, the Ministry of Education and Training plans to apply the new regulations comprehensively to all admission courses from 2020 onwards. However, PhD students and thesis supervisors in the fields of natural sciences, engineering and technology must fully comply with the standards prescribed in the new regulations (including international publication standards) with an earlier deadline as soon as the regulations come into effect.

As for the supervisors of topics in the remaining fields, they only need to be the author or co-author of at least 1 report published in the proceedings of a peer-reviewed international conference or 1 article published in another peer-reviewed foreign scientific journal (applicable from the time the regulations take effect until the end of 2018).

Regarding doctoral students, from the time the regulations take effect until the end of 2019, doctoral students not in the fields of natural sciences, engineering and technology only need to meet the requirement of publishing the content and research results of their thesis through at least 1 report published in the proceedings of a peer-reviewed international conference or 1 article published in another peer-reviewed foreign scientific journal.

According to TTO