Hue University is on its way to a National University
Satisfying eligibility
Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Quang Linh, the President of Hue University, said that the development of Hue University into the national university was confirmed in the Politburo’s Conclusion 48-KL/TW dated May 25, 2009.
It was more than four years overdue owing to obstacles related to legal changes and Higher Education policies by the Government and Ministry of Education and Training. Despite this, it was determined in the announcement No 38/TB-VPCP regarding the conclusion of the meeting between the Prime Minister and Hue University in 2018 that the university will continue to invest and develop, until 2030, into a leading research and training institution in Vietnamese educational system and in South East Asia that meets national and regional criteria.
The focus on investment in key universities is also confirmed in the conclusion No 51-KL/TW on May 30, 2019 by the Secretariat Committee regarding the implementation of the Resolution of the 8th Plenum of the 11th Party Central Committee on basic and comprehensive innovation of education and training to meet the requirements of industrialization and modernization in the context of socialist-oriented market economy and national integration.
According to Hue University leaders, the university has acquired the eligibility to become a national university. In addition to the assurance of the facilities and high-quality academics compared to other universities nationwide, Hue University has also had more prominent features in teaching and training.
In particular, the University of Education, Hue University specializes in training teachers while other universities of education all over the country also offer courses in a variety of fields including science and foreign languages.
Among the five national and areal universities, only Hue University has training programs in Fine Art. Hue University has all disciplines of agriculture, forestry and fishery, while Thai Nguyen University and Thu Duc University offer courses related forestry only. Hue University is the only institution in the country to offer programs at all levels of studies in Tourism, providing important human resources for the development of tourism in the country.
In the field of medicine, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Hue University, is one of the best three universities of health science in the country, playing the leading role in healthcare technology. The University of Foreign Languages, Hue University, specializes in modern languages including English, French, Chinese, Russia, Japanese, Korean, German and Vietnamese for foreigners, as well as Vietnamese Studies and International Studies. These contribute a variety of fields and disciplines at Hue University, which cannot be found in any other universities.
Dr. Hoang Kim Toan, Director of the Center for Innovation and Startup, Hue University, said that the center is now one of the three units in the country to offer training courses for teacher startup and establish the innovation and startup environment under the direction of the Prime Minister via the national programs No. 844 and No. 1665.
Regarding research, Hue University has an average of 300-400 ISI- and SCOPUS-indexed journal articles per year. Data from Web of Science in August 2019 showed that there were 225 ISI-indexed articles in 2018 and 157 ISI-indexed articles within the first seven months of 2019, coming seven in the top ten training and research institutions in Vietnam in terms of ISI journal articles.
Hue University students experienced making Sinh Village paintings
Favorable conditions for development
Hue University has now completed the proposal to develop Hue University into a national university, and had a survey for the opinions from scientists, experts, intellectuals as well as the public before submitting to MOET in September 2019. “Hue University will promote the proposal to all levels for appropriate policies,” affirmed Assoc. Prof. Nguyen Quang Linh.
According to Hue University leaders, if approved to be a national university, it will have opportunity to pioneer new courses and carry out key research projects that meet the social demands and the requirements of the 4.0 industrial revolution.
In that case, Vietnam National University (VNU), Hue, together with VNU Hanoi and VNU Ho Chi Minh City, plays the leading role in training, research, technological transfer and international relations and attracts resources for related activities, contributing to the research proportion as well as international ranking.
The first goal after becoming a national university is that Hue University will develop a leading high-quality system of higher education that have strong influences on socio-economic changes of the country, especially the Central and Central Highland.
In addition, it attempts to gain high ranking among Asian and World universities. It is planned to be in the top 250 of Asian universities and top 1,000 World universities in 2027. These rankings will, supposedly, be in top 200, 150 and 100 Asian universities, and top 900, 800 and 700 World universities in 2037, 2047 and 2057, respectively.
Story and photos: Huu Phuc