The Ministry of Education speaks out about the phenomenon of the ‘badminton doctor’ thesis

Will appraise theses of public opinion

Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy, Director of the Higher Education Department affirmed that “With the theses having reflections and opinions of the public, the Ministry of Education and Training will conduct the appraisal in accordance with current regulations”.

According to Ms. Thuy, the Ministry of Education and Training aims to perfect the system of policy documents to ensure training quality, enhance transparency, and increase the supervisory role of stakeholders in the doctoral training process. in the spirit of realizing university autonomy and improving accountability under the Higher Education Law.

“According to regulations in the Regulation on doctoral training of the Ministry of Education and Training, the requirement for a doctoral thesis must be a report summarizing the study and research results of the PhD student, showing that the PhD student is capable of ability to independently research and create new valuable knowledge to increase scientific knowledge of the research field or to propose new ideas and solutions to solve problems posed in the field of research in the field of research. specific practical situations.

The thesis evaluation must follow a 3-step process which is to evaluate the thesis at a specialized unit, send comments on the thesis of independent reviewers and defend the thesis at the university/institute level council. “- Mrs. Thuy said.

The requirements of the Regulations are that the thesis reviewers are scientists and experts in Vietnam or abroad (at least someone who is not working at the training institution), has experience in scientific research and specializes in the field of science and technology. subjects relevant to the research topic of the thesis. Thesis evaluation council members must be qualified scientists as instructors, in which the chairperson of the council must be a professor or associate professor in a discipline relevant to the subject’s expertise.

The research results of the thesis topic must be published in journals, professional reference books, scientific conferences at home or abroad; Posting information about the thesis defense session, the full content of the thesis on the website of the Ministry of Education and Training, and the training institutions before and after the thesis defense has added a public and transparent channel. make information transparent to receive feedback and criticism of the society and those who are interested in the thesis topic.

In addition, the regulation also stipulates that the Ministry of Education and Training will organize the appraisal of the content of a number of doctoral theses when there are reflections, complaints or denunciations or at the request of the management, examination and supervision. .

“Thus, the regulations on assessing the quality of theses and the scientific content of each thesis are transparent, clear, and first of all, the responsibility of the training institution, the instructor, the specialized unit. subjects and scientists participating in the evaluation steps of the thesis, in which the role of the instructor is the most important, this is also associated with the prestige of the instructor, the evaluation committee and the training facilities” – Ms. Thuy emphasized.

‘Do not browse controversial topics that are spreading’

According to Ms. Thuy, in terms of system, the Ministry of Education and Training performs the function of state management of higher education and performs the role of supervision, inspection and examination.

“The Ministry of Education and Training always requires training institutions to take the initiative and exercise accountability in the training process; at the same time, it recommends that stakeholders and the whole society continue to strengthen supervision and reflection. , consulting… in order to improve the quality of training at all levels of higher education, including doctoral training.

For doctoral training, which is the highest level of education in the system, is the training of highly qualified human resources, so training institutions must focus on improving quality, not chasing quantity.

At the same time, focus on publicity and transparency of the process of selecting and assigning thesis topics to PhD students.

In fact, the evaluation of the thesis is not only in the title of the thesis but also in the content and the scientific value and practical value of the thesis which is accepted by the scientific community in that research field.

However, the review boards and instructors need to be serious and serious, not to approve the topic titles that are too narrow in scope, not enough for a doctoral thesis, causing public opinion as being spread. transmission, especially for theses in the field of social sciences and management”.

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At the same time, Ms. Thuy said that when implementing Vietnam’s National Qualifications Framework, the Ministry of Education and Training has developed and issued standard training programs for higher education qualifications, in which the core of the structure and The content of the doctoral training program is scientific research and the doctoral thesis with the study volume accounting for 80%.

“The training program of the doctoral training institutions must comply with this standard and meet the output standard level 8 according to the National Qualification Framework of Vietnam. This is one of the bases for the instructor to consider the same. The intention is to allow PhD students to submit their dissertations for further evaluation, and members of the committees must adhere to these requirements when evaluating doctoral theses.

Training institutions improve autonomy and accountability in academic expertise, continue to enhance transparency of information about the doctoral training process to take advantage of receiving and synthesizing social criticism and feedback stakeholders’ feedback on the quality of doctoral training, fully exploiting the advantages of information technology in reviewing the copying of theses and theses, and implementing good scientific integrity.

In addition, raising awareness and the role of supervision and criticism of the scientific community in the evaluation of doctoral dissertations, preserving scientific ethics, and avoiding arrogance and permissiveness to ensure the scientific value of the thesis. each thesis, contribute to increasing scientific knowledge of the research field or propose new ideas and solutions to solve the problems posed in the field of research in specific practical situations” – Ms. Thuy emphasized the request.

Phuong Chi