MoE proposes to allocate US$529 million to train 9,000 PhDs

By An Chi - Nov 19, 2017 | 07:07 AM GMT+7

TheLEADERAccording to Ph.D. Le Dang Doanh, the proposal of training 9,000 PhDs of the Ministry of Education should particularly focus on the quality. If the Ph.D. number is high but the quality does not live up to expectation, such a costly project is just useless.

MoE proposes to allocate US$529 million to train 9,000 PhDs
We should focus on the quality rather than the quantity. (Photo: ktar.com)

The Ministry of Education and Training has asked for feedback from related ministries, sectors, and schools on a draft project called "Capacity building for lecturers and managers of higher education institutions from 2018 to 2025, vision to 2030".

The project would aim to train about 9,000 students for a doctoral degree. Among these, nearly 5,000 will be trained abroad at prestigious universities around the world. From 2017 to 2025, 600 to 700 Ph.D. students will be selected to study abroad each year. About 500 Ph.D. students will be trained by foreign universities that linked with Vietnamese ones, while other 2,000 will be trained at tested universities in Vietnam.

The project also aims at attracting about 1,500 PhDs working abroad or not working at higher education institutions to work at universities in Vietnam. The total cost of the proposed project is VND12 trillion (roughly US$529 million).

In conversation with TheLEADER, Ph.D. Le Dang Doanh, former Director of Central Institute for Economic Management, said that training high-quality human resources for the country is crucial.

However, the question is the training prescribed in the project is worth the prohibitive cost. Vietnam currently has tens of thousands of unemployed university graduates. To some, this indicates that training practices have not brought about enough practical results.

Mr. Doanh has the same concerns about this proposal. Until now, we have actively advocated educational reforms, but the quality still does not improve much and cannot meet the needs of enterprises, he said.

"The question now is whether the Ministry of Education succeeds this time? The State will have to spend heavily on this project. I myself support the idea of improving the quality of Vietnam’s education, but we should focus on the quality, not quantity,” Doanh said.