At a working session with Ho Chi Minh City National University on August 5, Mr. Le Huy Nam - Director of the Department of Education, Central Propaganda Department - said: "Recently, Ho Chi Minh City National University held a seminar on the issue of considering recognition of standards and appointing the titles of professor and associate professor (GS, PGS). The leaders of the Central Propaganda Department recognized that this is an important and breakthrough proposal to promote the implementation of two resolutions 24 and 45".

Pilot to attract talent

At the meeting, the representative of Ho Chi Minh City National University said that Resolution 45-NQ/TU promotes decentralization and delegation of authority towards increasing autonomy and self-responsibility of higher education institutions in appointing scientific titles... Ho Chi Minh City National University needs more initiative in recognizing and appointing professors and associate professors internally, thereby attracting intellectuals, especially young people from abroad to work.

Furthermore, Ho Chi Minh City National University is characterized by being a complex of member universities and scientific research institutes in different specialized fields, organized at two levels, with a head appointed by the Prime Minister. At the same time, Ho Chi Minh City National University has a system of closely linked supporting specialized units, so it has the capacity to implement.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Vu Hai Quan - Director of Ho Chi Minh City National University, this university recently submitted to the Prime Minister a program to implement Resolution 24 of the Politburo on socio-economic development and ensuring national defense and security in the Southeast region until 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City National University proposed to the Prime Minister a number of outstanding policies to achieve the goal of becoming a top university in Asia, including a proposal to allow Ho Chi Minh City National University to pilot the recognition and appointment of the titles of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor.

"This pilot is linked to policies to attract, nurture and develop talents, namely young scientists and leading scientists, to develop new training and research programs to serve the country's rapid and sustainable development.

Without this breakthrough mechanism, it would be very difficult for us to recruit young scientists and leading scientists to work at Ho Chi Minh City National University," Mr. Quan emphasized.

Title of professor, associate professor associated with university

According to Associate Professor Dr. Phan Thanh Binh - former member of the interdisciplinary chemistry - food technology professor council, the process of selecting, recognizing and appointing professors and associate professors is very different between countries.

Currently in the world, there are basically two methods for selecting and appointing professors and associate professors: 1. Universities decide on the selection and appointment of professors and associate professors based on specific requirements of the unit. 2. The school implements the process of selecting professors and associate professors based on allocation quotas, required positions, national standards, and proposes the Government to appoint. Most universities in the world follow method 1 and are supervised by the state management system.

Mr. Binh analyzed that the current Law on Higher Education stipulates that the organization of personnel and staff of educational institutions is autonomous by the school. When self-examining and appointing professors and associate professors, schools will closely follow the scientific development strategy... This will overcome the situation where majors have many professors and associate professors and vice versa.

The title of Professor and Associate Professor is specific to the school. When a lecturer moves from one unit to another, he/she will be considered for reappointment according to the new unit. This helps the Professor and Associate Professor to be more attached to the unit, and at the same time requires the lecturer to pay attention to accumulating real personal scientific achievements in order to be recognized, contributing to the scientific reputation of the unit.

"Professor and Associate Professor are titles of higher education institutions, so the review and recognition should be transferred to the institution to implement according to common standards. The State Council of Professors - Ministry of Education and Training will issue standards, regulations, and procedures; monitor and handle violations and complaints during the review and recognition process of Professors and Associate Professors of the institutions. The standards of Professors and Associate Professors of training institutions must not be lower than the standards of the State Council of Professors," Mr. Binh suggested.

Ensure fairness should be done

Prof. Dr. Dang Luong Mo, Honorary Professor of Hosel University (Tokyo, Japan), said that currently, the state council confers the titles of Associate Professor and Professor only in a few countries. In many countries, the state has delegated this task to universities with clear criteria.

The title of Professor is no longer available when leaving the university (or retiring, or transferring jobs); in this case, if one is called a Professor, it is only former Professor or former Professor. Only when the university confers the title of Honorary Professor will this title be a lifelong title.

"In developed countries, professors of public or private universities all have major awards, including the Nobel Prize, which proves that their professors are very worthy.

In many universities, mostly in the US, to ensure the "authority" of the title of Professor and transparency, people also refer to the results of comments on the candidates for Professor and Associate Professor by professors from other countries who are famous in the same major as the candidates. That means people require candidates to have additional "reference letters" from those famous professors.

I think that now Vietnam has integrated internationally, anything that the world can do, we can do too, but this is a rather sensitive issue. When we feel that we can ensure fairness and accuracy in assessing lecturers' abilities to confer worthy titles, then we should do it," said Professor Mo.

Associate Professor Dr. Do Van Dung, former principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, commented that in our country, the recognition of professors and associate professors is done at two levels: the grassroots level and the state level, while the appointment is assigned to the schools.

Such a review system establishes common standards and quality regulations for all candidates nationwide through an industry council consisting of the most prestigious scientists recommended from universities.

"If considered separately, Ho Chi Minh City National University can adjust the criteria based on their specific needs and goals, allowing more autonomy in deciding who is a professor and associate professor, helping schools develop in their own professional and research directions.

Ho Chi Minh City National University can pilot different review criteria to promote innovation in teaching and research without being bound by rigid state regulations," Mr. Dung commented.