N "HOT" DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY, WANTS TO RECRUIT DOCTORS IMMEDIATELY!

In recent years, the demand for human resources in the field of information technology (IT) is considered to be always "hot". To meet this demand and to develop trending fields of study, universities and colleges have simultaneously opened majors in the field of IT, including majors and specialties such as IT, computer science, computer engineering, artificial intelligence, software technology, programming, big data, etc.

Mr. Khuc Trung Kien, former Director of the Fast Track SE programmer training program, commented that in these fields, people like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs do not have degrees, but have excellent practical knowledge and expertise, and are completely capable of teaching students. "However, a person using a fake degree is not qualified to teach students in any subject, theory or practice, academic or practical knowledge...", Mr. Kien said.

According to Mr. Kien, with the rapid development of the IT field, schools are enrolling a large number of students, which inevitably leads to a gap in recruiting lecturers, when the requirement of the Ministry of Education and Training is to open a major, to determine the quota, there must be enough PhDs and Masters according to regulations.

"The requirement to meet the ratio of lecturers/students, while in reality PhDs in this field are very rare... may be the reason for the situation of falsifying degrees to teach. The school has a need to recruit masters and PhDs to meet the regulations, the falsifier has a need to teach... When the two sides meet, the ones who suffer are the students," said Mr. Khuc Trung Kien.

A PhD who served three terms as head of the information technology department at two universities in Ho Chi Minh City admitted: "Currently, there are many IT masters, but they prefer to work in businesses. IT PhDs are very rare. IT PhDs working in businesses earn 50-60 million VND/month, while lecturers or faculty managers at universities earn only 15-30 million VND/month. Meanwhile, universities really need this team to be able to open majors or increase enrollment targets. Therefore, as soon as a PhD applies, some schools want to recruit immediately."

However, according to this doctor, not all universities find it easy to recruit PhDs and masters. Many schools, especially public schools, have a very strict process of recruiting and evaluating the quality of lecturers before officially recruiting.

IS QUALITY FLOATING?

An officer working at the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Natural Sciences, Ho Chi Minh City National University, also said that a person without a doctorate or master's degree like Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai, if he has experience working at an enterprise in the IT field, can still guide students. "But it only stops at the level of sharing experiences outside the enterprise to expand and clarify the ideas discussed in terms of basic theory. Those shares are only considered to enrich the lecture. The most fearful thing is that if you have not been properly trained and stand in class, teaching some things correctly and many things incorrectly, it will be very dangerous to the quality of training," this officer shared.

This official believes that the person using the fake degree is at fault, but allowing a fake master's or doctorate to enter the teaching staff is a consequence of a process of letting quality slide. "That shows that some training institutions seem to be focusing on increasing recruitment sources without paying attention to the team and professional resources. The process of ensuring and controlling training quality has not been focused on," the official added.

According to this official, the recruitment of permanent lecturers is already so loose, and the invitation of guest lecturers is even looser. "In majors with many students and need guest lecturers, schools almost do not check their qualifications or quality, they just need to see that the person has taught at a certain school, is working at a certain business, or knows someone, then they can accept them as guest lecturers. The same goes for inviting lecturers to supervise graduation theses. Currently, there are departments where 100% of students do their graduation projects, so there are not enough lecturers to supervise, so they have to invite more from outside to follow the process," this official shared.

Meanwhile, Professor Le Bao Long, National Research Institute, University of Quebec (Canada), said that in Canada, the recruitment of lecturers in any field is extremely strict. "PhD candidates entering the school must submit the original degree for the school to check, that they have a PhD with a supervisor, and have scientific publications. All are checked to see if it is correct as stated in the application. In addition, there must be letters of recommendation from at least 3 famous professors. The professors who write the letters will state in the letter how they know and evaluate this candidate, how valuable the works are...", Mr. Long informed.

Professor Long said that because some schools in Vietnam need enough lecturers with master's and doctoral degrees to recruit students and do not care about quality, the incident of "fake doctor" Nguyen Truong Hai occurred.

Professor Dr. Hoang Van Kiem, former Principal of the University of Information Technology, Ho Chi Minh City National University, also raised the issue: "This is a wake-up call for recruiting lecturers and reviewing the quality of training at schools today. It is clear that the management of lecturers at some schools is very loose, especially in "hot" majors where many schools open majors, leading to a shortage of masters and doctors. Recruiting without checking degrees or assessing whether the actual teaching level meets the requirements or not, may leave consequences that are difficult to overcome."

Accordingly, Professor and Doctor Kiem proposed that the Ministry of Education and Training must inspect and review all permanent teaching staff at schools. Which cases have fake doctoral and master's degrees, which cases have "bought" or borrowed degrees, which cases have foreign degrees from schools in the US, the Philippines... but have not been recognized in Vietnam. "If we inspect, there will certainly be many problems," Professor and Doctor Hoang Van Kiem commented.