Improving the quality of scientific research is a key task in 2025

On March 14, at Can Tho University, the Ministry of Education and Training held a conference to deploy science and technology activities in 2025.

At the conference, Dr. Vu Thanh Binh, Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Information Technology (Ministry of Education and Training), said that the Ministry of Education and Training is directly managing 43 units; including 3 regional universities (with 21 universities and affiliated units), 34 universities, academies, 3 pedagogical colleges and 3 research institutes. As of December 2024, the research team under the ministry has 256 professors, 2,143 associate professors, 8,563 PhDs, and 14,314 masters.

In the context of decreasing state funding, scientific publications of universities still achieved many outstanding results. In 2024, there were 7,640 international scientific publications and 9,249 domestic scientific articles. Many research works and products were transferred technology and effectively applied in practice. Meanwhile, the proportion of students participating in scientific research accounted for 30 - 35% of the total number of university students, mainly concentrated on students from the third year onwards.

However, scientific and technological activities are still not commensurate with the potential and requirements, especially for large educational institutions. Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training considers improving the quality of scientific research as one of the key tasks in scientific, technological and innovation activities in 2025.

Accordingly, the Ministry will promote international publications in prestigious scientific journals in the Web of Science/Scopus system, in order to contribute to enhancing the presence of Vietnamese science on the international level. Along with that, it is necessary to innovate the method of building science and technology plans in the direction of taking output results as a measure of research results and as a basis for input consideration, promoting applied research into practical life, production and business...

The dual missions of higher education

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Van Phuc, Deputy Minister of Education and Training, said that this year's conference was held in a very special context, when the Party and State had just issued new breakthrough policies, resolutions, policies, and regulations in the fields of science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation. Among them, there were many important documents, contents, and strategies related to the education and training sector.

Currently, important and new industries are lacking high-quality human resources. To have high-quality human resources, science and technology must develop. Therefore, the education and training sector has two very important dual tasks: training high-quality human resources and scientific research. These two tasks must develop quickly and go hand in hand.

According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Van Phuc, previously, the Ministry of Education and Training was assigned about 200 billion VND for implementing and guiding scientific research topics. Of the 200 billion VND, the Ministry divided about 40-50 billion VND for 3 institutes, the remaining amount was divided among more than 30 schools under the Ministry nationwide. Currently, the Ministry has more than 20,000 lecturers, nearly 10,000 PhDs. In reality, the above budget is relatively small compared to the scientific research needs of the industry.

However, the new context is opening up great opportunities for educational institutions across the country when macro policies and mechanisms are in place. The Deputy Minister of Education and Training shared: "There have never been such important and open policies and in the near future, there will be large investment resources. Schools must think immediately, if they are allocated more funds, what programs and topics will be effective in researching. What laboratories should be invested in properly and accurately so that scientific research can produce clear results."

In that spirit, the opinions and discussions at the conference are meaningful as a basis for the Ministry of Education and Training to issue policies to encourage, promote and develop scientific and technological activities and innovation in higher education institutions in the coming time. Thereby contributing to the overall successful implementation of the resolutions issued by the Party and the State.