Vietnam has made modest investments to purchase machines and equipments to develop basic scientific research, which has shown little results. Meanwhile, the country has not paid attention to training a homegrown force of scientists.

Professor Dr. Nguyen Huu Du, Deputy President of the University of Natural Sciences under Hanoi National University, related that his university has been allocated 55 billion dong to purchase a nuclear accelerator. However, 55 billion dong is just equal to three million dollars, just enough to buy a small machine. The university does not dare dream of purchasing a large modern one like some foreign universities possess.

“If we want to conduct research and find solutions to a certain issue, we need very expensive machines that cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars,” Du calculated.

He went on to say that spending more money on machines and equipment has been cited as a way to develop basic sciences in Vietnam. Yet, there have been no policy shifts to develop a larger force of scientists.

The University of Natural Sciences is the leading school in basic sciences. Yet the lecturers do not enjoy any preferences like those at economics and finance schools. Meanwhile, students who study basic sciences do not enjoy any special policies.

The university has many times proposed that government agencies apply special privileges for the students, such as exempting or reducing tuition and increasing scholarships. Yet no big change has occurred.

In fact, students studying basic sciences once enjoyed benefits through a talent grant. In their first years in the program, students did not have to pay tuition and they got scholarships. This ended over the last 5-7 years.

Excellent students, including those who win gold medals at international Olympiads, do not want to study science. The winners return to Vietnam to study economics, considered a “hot” study branch.

Du stressed that Vietnam must create favourable conditions to conduct scientific research. The conditions should be good enough to make scientists feel that they do not need to go abroad to do research. Vietnam will fail to retain talented people if it sets rigid regulations.

“I know a lot of Vietnamese people will ch