PhD from Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry withdraws from the list of candidates for associate professorship

On the afternoon of March 2, Dr. Nguyen Thien Tue, Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, said that Dr. Dang Cong Trang - Head of the Law Faculty of this school - had just sent an email requesting to withdraw from the list of qualified candidates for the title of associate professor in 2017.

"Currently, Mr. Trang has personal matters to attend to so he cannot send the application in writing. When we receive this application, we will have a meeting and send a report to the State Council of Professors," said Mr. Tue.

This move by Dr. Trang took place after the 2017 school-level scientific research topic "Improving legal regulations on multi-level sales in Vietnam" chaired by him was accused of plagiarizing his master's thesis.

"The group representative admitted there were errors in citing sources.The basic science council will review the plagiarism rate and draw conclusions. Next week, we will have a review meeting with this research group and will present it to the school's disciplinary council," said Principal Tue.

In addition to Mr. Trang, the research team also included Dr. Vu The Hoai and MSc. Nguyen Thi Hai Van - both working at this university. The representative of the research team asked the university to cancel the project and return the scientific research funding that had been granted..

Send mail toVnExpress, a university lecturer said that through professional research activities, he discovered that the work of Dr. Trang's group copied the master's thesis of law "Improving the law on multi-level sales in Vietnam according to the experience of some countries in the world", majoring in Economic Law, Faculty of Law - Hanoi National University in 2014.

In addition, the subsection "1.1.2. Characteristics of multi-level marketing" in the research topic of Dr. Trang's group copied the article "Illegal multi-level marketing behavior under the 2004 Competition Law and recommendations" posted on the sectionResearch and exchangeof the Ministry of Justice's Electronic Information Portal on March 28, 2017.

The sub-section "3.3. Solutions to improve the law on multi-level sales" of Mr. Trang's group was pointed out by the above lecturer as a copy of the article "Improving the law to effectively manage multi-level sales activities" published in the magazine.Democracy and Law.

"Why can such a project pass all the strict appraisals such as the school-level Scientific Council, the Council of Professor Titles, the Law Council, the State Council of Professor Titles, to supplement the conditions for recognizing the title of associate professor for Dr. Trang?", this lecturer was indignant.

On February 2, the State Council for Professors announced a list of 1,226 candidates meeting the standards for professors and associate professors in 2017, 1.7 times higher than in 2016 and 2.3 times higher than in 2015. According to the procedure, the Chairman of the State Council for Professors will base on the council's resolution to issue a decision to recognize teachers meeting the standards for the title of professor and associate professor. The professors and associate professors will then submit their applications and be appointed by the higher education institution.

However, the decision to recognize the qualifications for the title of professor and associate professor in 2017 was stopped after many complaints about the quality of candidates. On February 8, the Prime Minister asked the Minister of Education - Chairman of the State Council for Professor Titles - to carefully review to ensure quality. On March 1, reporting at the regular meeting of the Government, the Ministry of Education said that 94 candidate profiles were reported to be unqualified and were being verified.