This afternoon (February 23), Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry held a ceremony to announce and award the decision to recognize the principal for the 2020-2025 term. Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son awarded the decision to recognize the principal of this school to Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Tat Toan. In addition, Minister Nguyen Kim Son chaired a meeting with the leaders and key staff of the school.

During the meeting, Minister Nguyen Kim Son expressed his concern about three issues: the rate of students enrolling in schools by region; the lowest income level of lecturers at present; the rate of revenue from science and technology in the total revenue of the school.

The lowest income of lecturer is 6.5 million VND/month

A representative of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry said that the school's lecturers currently have the lowest income of 6.5 million VND/month. The proportion of science and technology revenue is 3% of total revenue. The school's statistics in 2023 also show that the highest student enrollment rate is in the Southeast region with 47.7%; the Mekong Delta 32.1%; the Central provinces 16.1%; the Central Highlands 6.4% and the rest in the Northern provinces.

From the 2023 enrollment results, Director of the Department of Higher Education Nguyen Thu Thuy said that the most difficult areas of the school are only in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fishery and pedagogy, while other fields have been developing well in recent years. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, the school still had remarkable development. Corresponding to enrollment, the school's staff has developed strongly.

However, facing the figure of nearly 22% of lecturers with doctoral degrees, Department Head Thu Thuy said: "The rate of lecturers with doctoral degrees is quite low compared to the general level of the country and the region. Therefore, the level of competition of the school is relatively difficult, especially when private schools are having strong policies to attract talent".

Research-oriented universities : "The road is both long and difficult"

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Tat Toan, Rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry, said that the school continues to build a team of highly qualified, dedicated, enthusiastic, responsible and dedicated human resources, and at the same time needs to perfect the management system in the direction of comprehensive innovation to meet the requirements of becoming a research-oriented university.

Sharing at the meeting, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son suggested that the school redefine its multidisciplinary and multi-field orientation; its strengths, center and core. Expand but not stray too far from its strengths and areas of expertise.

In addition, according to the Minister, the school also needs to consider the orientation to become a research-oriented university. Minister Nguyen Kim Son said: "This path is both long and difficult and may not be suitable. Why, first of all, we should determine the orientation of the nature of a university of technology and engineering. With that nature, we are taking engineering training as an important field. No school takes engineering training as important and follows a research orientation".

According to the Minister of Education and Training, a research university needs a postgraduate training rate of up to 50%. With 1,200 postgraduate students out of a total of 20,000 students, when will the school surpass the 30% rate to reach 50% of a research university? Not to mention, revenue from science and technology also needs to account for 30-50% of the school's total revenue. The rate of lecturers with doctoral degrees at the school is currently about 22%, while a research university needs 80-100%...

The Minister of Education and Training emphasized: "For engineering training schools, invention, innovation, and transfer of science and technology are national responsibilities. Schools need to be very careful in determining their direction."

According to the Minister of Education and Training, the most urgent requirement for schools is to rearrange training programs and majors based on an analysis of which subjects and fields are being trained. "The arrangement must be based on an analysis of learners' needs, job needs, and output, not because the major has many professors or good student recruitment," Minister Nguyen Kim Son emphasized.