Tightening PhD training: Who will face difficulties?

The higher the entry standards for doctoral training, the more difficult it is for both candidates and training institutions.

The Ministry of Education has just issued the Regulations on Doctoral Admissions and Training. The Regulations take effect from May 18, with many new points compared to current regulations.

Compared to the current doctoral training regulations, the admission standards for candidates, thesis defense conditions... of the new regulations are all more stringent and detailed, aiming to improve the quality of doctoral training in our country. These standards can be fully met by schools that offer doctoral training in Vietnam.

Tightening doctoral training to improve quality. (illustrative photo).

Associate Professor - Doctor Le Trung Thanh, Director of the Institute of Postgraduate Training, National Economics University said: "The standards in the regulations have been applied by the National Economics University, some of the entry requirements are even higher.

For example, the current entry requirement for PhD students is to have 2 articles presenting their work before being admitted. One of the barriers that PhD students face is foreign language. The foreign language entry standard as required by the Regulations is a positive direction, thereby raising foreign language standards, helping PhD students to use foreign languages ​​well during their studies through the use of international scientific data sources.

Doctoral training is to train a team of elite scientists and researchers, so doctoral students must have real research capacity to produce articles and research reports that meet international publication standards.

According to Associate Professor - Doctor Nguyen Dac Trung, Director of the Institute of Postgraduate Training, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, when setting the output standard for doctoral students to have an article on the research results of the thesis published in scientific journals in the list of ISI-Scopus journals, or reports in the proceedings of international conferences... the number of doctoral students is likely to decrease, but the quality of research works will be improved: "The Ministry's improvement of doctoral training standards also means improving the quality of training, improving the quality of research works.

In my opinion, the number of postgraduate students may decrease in the near future, but that reduction will completely meet the needs of learners, if learners want to study for research purposes, and certainly universities, through the new regulations, can completely improve the quality of training and research. Of course, the quality of research depends on both teachers and learners.

For PhD supervisors, the new Regulations add requirements such as: being the main author of articles or works published in journals listed in the ISI-Scopus journals list, or a reference book chapter with an ISBN code issued by foreign publishers, or in the proceedings of international conferences with peer review...

Professor - Doctor Dang Kim Vui, Director of Thai Nguyen University, said that the detailed regulations for PhD supervisors are reasonable, to ensure that supervisors have sufficient capacity and qualifications to support PhD students in the learning and research process. In the initial period of implementing the new regulations, there will be some difficulties, affecting both students and training institutions, but this is a necessary change to improve the quality of PhD training, gradually approaching world standards.

Mr. Dang Kim Vui said: “When the entrance standards are higher, there will be difficulties for candidates who want to study. Perhaps in the immediate future, some will not be able to prepare the necessary conditions to do a doctorate under the new regulations.

Training units will also be affected because enrollment targets may not be met immediately. We think the difficulties are only temporary, but according to the new requirements, both learners and instructors must make constant efforts to meet the new requirements.

The Ministry of Education and Training has issued a circular on regulations for doctoral recruitment and training with stricter requirements in recruitment, training and granting degrees, making it more difficult to study for a doctorate. Therefore, in the coming time, only those who truly have the desire, need and ability will study for a doctorate./.

According to VOV