VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City National University said it will apply a new scheme on selecting candidates for PhD training, under which candidates will no longer be selected on the basis of their results on competitive examinations.

Students of the HCM City National University

HCM City National University now has 416 postgraduates, while it is allowed to enroll 110 every year.

Though its doctorate training programme has been enlarged in scale, HCM City National University still admits to some shortcomings in training.

According to Prof Pham Phu, the university was allowed to enroll 154 postgraduates in 2008, but it could select 85 only. Meanwhile only 37 post-grads were conferred with doctorate degrees. Meanwhile, the university, as a national university, needs to provide 200 PhD a year.

Prof Dr Le Huy Ba from the Institute for Sciences, Technologies and Environmental Management under the HCM City Industry University stressed that training quality remains problematic. Under the current regulations, candidates for PhD training do not necessarily need a master’s degree. However, no postgraduate without an MA has been enrolled so far.

Ba said that a lot of candidates fail the examinations on mathematics and foreign languages, while the requirements for specialty subjects are always lessened.

Associate Prof Dr Phan Thanh Binh, Director of HCM City National University, said that the university is planning to amend the regulations on selecting postgraduates for doctorate training. He has called for a strong renovation of doctorate training.

The Ministry of Education and Training has said it will allow the university to select postgraduates based on criteria other than their results on competitive examinations. PhD candidates may be selected based on their university marks, personal information, etc. The HCM City National University will set suitable regulations for the selection process.

(Source: Tien phong)