Scholarships to support PhD students and post-doctoral internships – VNU’s pioneering breakthrough

VNU aims and vision to 2045 to become a research and innovation university, multidisciplinary, multi-disciplinary, in the group of leading universities in Asia and the world with core values: Innovation innovation – National responsibility – Sustainable development.

Dear GS. Nguyen Dinh Duc, how do you evaluate the meaning and impact of Decision 3688 that the President of VNU has just signed and promulgated?

Decision No. 3688/QD-ĐHQGHN dated November 19, 2021, signed by VNU President Le Quan, is a historic decision. This is something that we have cherished and pondered for a long time, but only now have become a reality. This decision will have great significance and impact, will create breakthroughs in improving the quality and efficiency of VNU’s training and scientific research activities.

This decision supports scholarships up to 100 million/year for PhD students and 120 million/year for young doctors with excellent international research and publication capacity. With this scholarship, plus other sources of support from teaching and research activities, PhD students and interns can rest assured, wholeheartedly for research.

As you all know, young PhD students and PhD students are a large, young and enthusiastic human resource of science and technology, playing a key role in performing science and technology tasks under the leadership of professors. , leading scientists in the field, leading in the school.

This is a bold decision and great efforts and determination of the President of VNU. For the first time, VNU has granted such a large scholarship to PhD students and it is also the first time in the country that a pioneering public university has established and provided scholarships for post-doctoral trainees.

Through this decision, it will attract many excellent PhD students and PhD students to VNU to study and research, and therefore, the position and potential of science and technology will be enhanced, influenced and ranked. of VNU in the Vietnamese and international higher education system will certainly be maintained and increased strongly in the next few years.

So, what are the requirements and responsibilities of these scholarship recipients, Professor?

For scholarships for PhD students:  Candidates must be doctoral students of VNU, and not over 40 years old, with a GPA of 2.8 or higher at the undergraduate or master’s level, can apply for the scholarship .

For interns, applicable to all PhDs of training institutions inside and outside VNU (including candidates who are abroad; Vietnamese as well as foreigners) who are not older than 45 years old, want to Post-doctoral internship at VNU, duration from 1-3 years.

When applying for research students and trainees to VNU to consider granting scholarships, they need to have a research outline, accompanied by proofs of research achievements and capacity; was accepted by a scientific staff of VNU to do research, practice in the research group and sponsor the candidate, and with the consent of the training institution. Quick and easy scholarship application process.

For PhD students, in order to maintain the scholarship continuously for 3 years, VNU requires that during the training period, the PhD student must achieve the output standard as the main author (first name author/contact author) of at least 02 articles on research results of the thesis published in specialized scientific journals on the list of ISI/Scopus journals, of which at least 01 article is published in Q1-rated journals (for fields of natural science and technology) or at least 01 article in a journal ranked Q2 or higher (for other fields).

For interns, it is required to publish at least 01 article on research results each year in specialized scientific journals of class Q2 or higher, on the list of ISI/Scopus journals.

In addition, PhD students and trainees are considered as an important force participating in scientific research activities in VNU, are arranged to participate in teaching and receive funding from teaching activities according to the regulations of the institution. train.

Through this activity, on the one hand, training institutions have more young and excellent lecturers, on the other hand, PhD students and interns can also join strong research groups at VNU and improve their qualifications. , teaching and research skills.

How do you evaluate the feasibility of attracting PhD students and trainees of this Regulation?

This regulation is not only feasible but also meets the long-standing desire of the teachers at VNU, who wish to have funds to recruit good students. And young doctoral students and doctoral students from places with favorable conditions to join VNU to participate in research in strong research groups, improve their professional qualifications.

According to the statistics of the Training Board, currently the size of PhD students of the whole VNU is 1084. Among them, 350 are PhD students from engineering – technology majors and 90% of these have international publications, enough conditions for receiving and maintaining the scholarship.

Moreover, VNU has the largest and strongest scientific staff in the country with 66 professors, 398 associate professors and 1100 doctorates. VNU has nearly 100 research groups with 29 strong research groups at VNU level; In terms of facilities, there are 61 laboratories, of which 17 are key laboratories (including 1 national key laboratory). VNU’s 5 fields of Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Business and Management Studies have been ranked 501-600 in the QS world rankings. Recently, in October 2021, VNU’s 2 fields of Computer Science and Science (Computer Science) and Engineering (Engineering) ranked in THE WUR ranking at position 601-800, a ranking has a very high academic reputation in the world. Those are the reasons why I believe this Regulation is a very wise, effective and timely decision of the President of VNU, and will surely attract a lot of young PhD students and PhD students to gather at VNU in the future. next time.

As a leading professor of VNU in the field of advanced materials and structures, in addition to the scholarship policy to attract excellent young PhD students and PhD students, what else do you aspire to improve your influence? , prestige and ranking of VNU?

I once again emphasize that Decision No. 3688/QD-ĐHQGHN dated November 19, 2021 that VNU President Le Quan has just signed and promulgated is a great decision, meeting our long-standing expectations. Particularly for my research group, the simplicity can attract dozens of excellent PhD students and interns at home and abroad to work. This decision will make breakthroughs in improving the prestige and brand and ranking of VNU.

If you ask me if I have any other wishes, I would suggest that besides this policy, more direct and worthy investment should be made in strong research groups – because that is the cell in training – research activities. and technology transfer of a university institution. On that basis, the strong research team not only attracts PhD students and young doctoral students, but also has the conditions to attract top-notch professors from abroad to VNU to work, participate in training and participate in training and development. conducting research, publishing joint results, as well as allowing Vietnamese scientists in the research group to have the opportunity to exchange and practice in leading foreign laboratories and training institutions, such as Therefore, VNU will train excellent scientific staff, have many excellent publications, and approach the world’s most modern and new research directions. That is also a lesson that many countries around us have successfully applied.

Thank you professor!