Associate professor candidate found to be unqualified

On the afternoon of February 27, the State Council for Professor Titles held its eighth meeting on the results of reviewing all candidate profiles for professor and associate professor titles recognized in 2017.

On the evening of February 26, a member of a Council of Professors said that after reviewing the number of people recognized as professors and associate professors, they discovered a case of a candidate who was recognized as an associate professor but did not meet the required standards.

This “disqualified” associate professor is a candidate at a university. This case has been reported to the State Council for Professor Titles.

The number of associate professors and professors increased dramatically in 2017, leaving many questions in public opinion. Graphic source Thanhnien.vn

At the Council of Professors in Economics, Professor Dinh Van Son, chairman of the council, said that the council had carefully reviewed each case, and found that all met the standards as initially recognized.

Mr. Son said that most of the candidates in the economic council are from universities and research institutes. There are only two cases where they are working in management, one is the Director of a Department, the other is the Principal of a school, but they all meet the standards because they used to be lecturers but when they joined management, they still participated in guest lectures and have full records to prove it.

According to Professor Son, the economics professorship council has been strict from the first round of reviewing applications, specifically, more than 92% of professor candidates and nearly 40% of associate professor candidates were eliminated. The total number of candidates recognized as professors and associate professors by the economics council this year is 78 people (1 professor, 77 associate professors).

“If we consider the number of candidates applying for economics, the number this year increased by 35-37%, but if we consider candidates recognized as professors and associate professors, the rate only increased by 5% compared to 2016,” said Professor Son.

According to the direction of the Chairman of the State Council of Professors, Phung Xuan Nha, sent to the Chairmen of the Councils of Professors of the sectors and interdisciplinary sectors, requesting the organization to thoroughly review the profiles of the candidates for professorship and associate professorship who met the recognition standards in 2017. During the review process, if any candidate is found to not meet the standards of professorship and associate professorship according to current regulations, the Standing Committee of the Council of Professors of the State must report to the Council of Professors of the State.

"In these cases, the CDGSNN Council will resolutely not recognize them. The Chairman of the CDGS Sector Council must be responsible to the Chairman of the CDGSNN Council for the results of the candidate review," Mr. Nha emphasized.

Previously, the reason the Prime Minister requested a review of the recognition of the titles of professor and associate professor in 2017 was that after the State Council for Professorship announced the list of candidates meeting the standards for the titles of professor and associate professor in 2017, there was a lot of information (including on the mass media) reflecting that the number of candidates meeting the standards for professor and associate professor had increased dramatically compared to previous years.

Besides, there are many concerns about quality such as not having enough books or scientific articles, not having enough time to teach, do scientific research... Some council members have very few (or even no) international scientific research publications compared to the candidates.

There is a lot of information that there are signs of abnormality when the application submission period is extended as a "sweep" before the new regulations on standards for professors and associate professors are issued and some candidates have to submit their applications directly to the Office of the State Council for Professor Titles...

Therefore, the Prime Minister requested the Minister of Education and Training and Chairman of the State Council for Professor Titles to seriously consider and thoroughly review to ensure quality according to regulations.