According to information on the Vietnam University Rankings (VNUR) website, the ranking was conducted within the framework of the non-profit Vietnam Education Index Company Limited, with the implementation team including: Professor Nguyen Loc, former research officer, Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences; Master Nguyen Vinh San, expert in measurement and evaluation in education, University of Education - University of Danang; Dr. Chau Duong Quang, University of Education - Vietnam National University, Hanoi and the University Education Research Program (PROPHE) at SUNY Albany University (USA); Associate Professor - Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong, expert in educational evaluation, Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences.
So how are the 100 Vietnamese universities in this ranking viewed?
VNUR Ranking
USING DATA FROM SCHOOL WEBSITES AND OTHER PUBLIC SOURCES
According to the research team, VNUR 2023 has reviewed 237 Vietnamese higher education institutions through data processing including 3 public reports, enrollment plans, data on rankings, accreditation, and rankings in 2022 of the Ministry of Education and Training, QS, THE, QS Stars, UPM, data from Web of Science in the 5-year period (2018 - 2022), data on science and technology activities and inventions of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and many selectively referenced information on related websites.
A total of 191 schools had sufficient data to conduct the ranking. The ranking was conducted through an index with 6 criteria including recognized quality (30%), teaching (25%), scientific publication (20%), science and technology tasks and inventions (10%), quality of learners (10%), facilities (5%).
Each standard has a number of criteria with a specific weight. For example, in the recognized quality standard, there are criteria for global or regional ranking (8%), accreditation of educational institutions according to regional and international standards (6%), accreditation of educational institutions according to domestic standards (4%)... In the teaching standard, there are criteria for the ratio of students per lecturer (accounting for 13%) and the ratio of lecturers with doctoral degrees to the total number of lecturers (12%). In the learner quality standard, there are criteria for entrance exam scores (8%) and the rate of graduates with jobs (2%).
Student of Ho Chi Minh City National University. This university ranked second in the VNUR 2023 rankings.
Is there any guidance for students to choose the right school?
According to the VNUR implementation team, this ranking is used to guide high school students and their parents in Vietnam and abroad to choose the right Vietnamese university to study. University leaders can also use VNUR to assess their level of competitiveness with other universities in the country, thereby making appropriate management decisions to comprehensively improve the competitiveness of the school.
It is known that this group announced the above rankings after more than 2 years of work. "The VNUR 2023 rankings are the initial results of the implementation group. The group will continue to improve and adjust in the next versions to suit the reality of Vietnamese university education," the people implementing VNUR shared.
In this announced ranking, Hanoi National University is ranked No. 1 and Ho Chi Minh City National University is ranked No. 2; No. 3 belongs to Ton Duc Thang University; followed by Hanoi University of Science and Technology (4); Duy Tan University (5); Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics (6); Can Tho University (7); Hanoi University of Education (8); Danang University (9); Hue University (10)...
It can be seen that many long-standing universities with socially recognized training quality, admissions are also in the "top" but their rankings are relatively low, such as Hanoi Medical University (29), Diplomatic Academy (49), Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy (50), Hanoi Law University (52); while many younger schools, admissions are in the middle or lower group but have higher rankings. If looking at this ranking, it is very likely that students and parents will "think" that Hanoi Medical University or Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy are not as good as the previous schools.
According to the VNUR 2023 rankings, Hanoi University of Science and Technology ranked 4th.
NEED A HIGHLY RELIABLE RANKING
Professor Nguyen Minh Ha, Principal of Ho Chi Minh City Open University, commented: "Vietnam should have a prestigious ranking, by a state-recognized organization or by a state agency directly implementing it. The standards and criteria with the weight of each criterion must be scientific, debated and verified, and cannot be subjectively followed by a group. Because the results of the ranking are extremely important, it greatly affects the reputation and brand of a school, the views of students, parents and society."
According to Professor Ha, the VNUR ranking is certainly done carefully, however, its reliability and whether the data is accurate enough need to be carefully considered because with the information that schools publish on their websites, not all schools publish 100% accuracy.
From there, Mr. Ha proposed: "There needs to be a reputable organization or a state agency that ranks based on real data from schools; at the same time, the statistical method for ranking must be accurate and scientific. In addition, there should be rankings based on different orientations, for example academic or applied orientation for easy comparison. If a ranking focuses on scientific research, then an applied-oriented school will certainly not be able to have a high ranking."
Professor Dr. Hoang Van Kiem, former Principal of the University of Information Technology, Ho Chi Minh City National University, also said that in Vietnam, it is difficult to make a complete ranking accurately, so there should be a ranking solution based on a number of criteria that parents and society are interested in, such as facilities, the number of students who enroll and graduate with suitable jobs, the number of applied projects and the total value of technology transfer contracts...
Similarly, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hoan, Rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade, also proposed that there should be a domestic university ranking conducted by a reputable organization or by the Department of Quality Management of the Ministry of Education and Training. At that time, the Department's website will publicly disclose information on the criteria and publicize rankings according to each criterion so that candidates and parents can choose a school that suits their learning goals.
2017 ranked 49 universities
Previously, in September 2017, a group of independent experts also announced the ranking of 49 Vietnamese universities. The ranking criteria of this ranking are scientific research 40%, education and training 40%, facilities and administration 20%.
The top 10 schools are: Hanoi National University (1), Ton Duc Thang University (2), Vietnam Academy of Agriculture (3), Danang University (4), Ho Chi Minh City National University (5), Can Tho University (6), Hanoi University of Science and Technology (7), Hue University (8), Duy Tan University (9) and Hanoi University of Education (10).
At that time, there were also many mixed opinions about this ranking.
A reasonable university ranking must meet 3 requirements.
When ranking universities, it is necessary to rely on 3 groups of criteria: scientific research, teaching and facilities.
A reasonable university ranking must meet three requirements: scientific, methodological and methodological, and transparent.
Any ranking must be scientific, meaning that there must be research and the research must be published. Most university rankings, including in Vietnam, have not published their methodology in any specialized journal, and this is a drawback.
University rankings must be based on appropriate analytical methods and the methodology must be built on a solid philosophical foundation.
In terms of transparency, any ranking should publish all the data for each university and how they process the data. In today’s open scientific world, transparency is very important. The rankings on the happiness index and university rankings both publish specific data so that readers can evaluate and experts can analyze.
Based on the above 3 requirements, no ranking is satisfactory, including VNUR. Therefore, Vietnam should prioritize building a ranking with good methodologies and reasonable criteria to encourage the improvement of capacity, autonomy and quality of scientific research.
Professor Nguyen Van Tuan, University of New South Wales, Australia
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