Is quality being left unchecked?

IN RAPIDLY DEVELOPING FIELDS, IF THEY HAVE A PhD, THEY WANT TO HIRE IMMEDIATELY!

In recent years, the demand for human resources in the information technology (IT) field has been consistently high. To meet this demand and to develop trending fields of study, universities and colleges have simultaneously opened majors in the IT sector, including fields and specializations such as IT, computer science , computer engineering, artificial intelligence, software technology, programming, big data, etc.

The title of the thesis that Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai supervised for the students.

Mr. Khuc Trung Kien, former Director of the Fast Track SE programmer training program, commented that in these fields, people like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs didn't have degrees, but they possessed excellent practical knowledge and expertise, making them perfectly capable of teaching students. "However, someone using a fake degree is not qualified to teach students in any subject, whether theoretical or practical, academic or real-world," Mr. Kien said.

According to Mr. Kien, with the rapid development of the IT sector, universities are enrolling a large number of students, which inevitably leads to a shortage in lecturer recruitment, especially since the Ministry of Education and Training requires that any new major or enrollment quota must have a sufficient number of PhDs and Master's degree holders as stipulated.

"The requirement to meet the faculty-to-student ratio, while in reality PhDs in this field are very rare… could be the reason for the situation of falsifying degrees to get teaching positions. The university needs to recruit master's and PhD holders to meet regulations, while those who falsify degrees need to teach… The two sides meet, and the ones who suffer are the students," Mr. Khuc Trung Kien commented.

A PhD holder who served three terms as head of the Information Technology department at two universities in Ho Chi Minh City admitted: "Currently, there are many IT master's degree holders, but they prefer working in businesses. IT PhDs are very rare. IT PhDs working in businesses earn 50-60 million VND/month, while lecturers or department managers at universities only earn 15-30 million VND/month. Meanwhile, universities desperately need this workforce to open new programs or increase enrollment quotas. Therefore, some universities are eager to recruit PhD holders as soon as they submit applications."

However, according to this doctor, not all universities find it easy to recruit PhDs and master's degree holders. Many universities, especially public ones, have very strict recruitment and faculty quality assessment processes before official hiring.

The University of Science, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, has confirmed that Mr. Hai's doctoral degree is not found in the university's degree database.

IS THE QUALITY BEING LEFT UNCERTAIN?

An official working at the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Science, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, also believes that someone without a PhD or Master's degree like Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai, if they have experience working in IT companies, can still mentor students. "But it should only be limited to sharing experiences outside of the company to expand upon and clarify fundamental theoretical concepts. Such sharing should only be considered to enrich the lecture. The biggest fear is that if someone without formal training teaches correctly in some areas but incorrectly in others, it will be very dangerous to the quality of education," this official shared.

The official argued that while those using fake degrees are at fault, allowing fake master's or doctoral degrees to infiltrate the teaching staff is a consequence of a lax approach to quality control. "This suggests that some training institutions are focusing on increasing recruitment without paying attention to the quality of their faculty and professional resources. The process of ensuring and controlling training quality has not been given sufficient attention," the official added.

According to this official, if the recruitment of full-time lecturers is already so lax, then the process of inviting visiting lecturers is even more lax. "In departments with a large student population and a need for visiting lecturers, most universities don't check qualifications or quality; they just need to see if the lecturer has taught at a certain school, is working at a certain company, or knows someone, and they can accept them as a visiting lecturer. The same applies to inviting lecturers to supervise graduation theses. Currently, some departments have 100% of students working on graduation projects, so there aren't enough lecturers to supervise them, and they have to invite additional lecturers from outside to comply with the procedures," this official shared.

Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai was formerly a full-time and visiting lecturer at many universities and colleges in Ho Chi Minh City.

Meanwhile, Professor Le Bao Long, from the National Institute for Research, University of Quebec (Canada), stated that in Canada, the recruitment of lecturers in any field is extremely rigorous. "PhD candidates must submit their original degrees for verification, and must have a supervising professor and published scientific papers. Everything is checked to ensure it matches the information provided in the application. In addition, they must have letters of recommendation from at least three well-known professors. The professors writing the letters will explain how they know and evaluate the candidate, and the value of their work," Professor Long explained.

Professor Long believes that the "fake PhD" case involving Nguyen Truong Hai occurred because some universities in Vietnam prioritize having enough lecturers with master's and doctoral degrees to attract students, without considering quality.

Professor Hoang Van Kiem, former Rector of the University of Information Technology, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, also raised the issue: "This is a wake-up call regarding lecturer recruitment and a review of the quality of training at universities today. Clearly, the management of lecturers in some universities is very lax, especially in 'hot' fields with many universities offering these programs, leading to a shortage of master's and doctoral degree holders. Recruiting without checking qualifications or assessing whether their actual teaching ability meets the requirements could lead to irreparable consequences."

Accordingly, Professor Hoang Van Kiem proposed that the Ministry of Education and Training should inspect and review the entire staff of full-time lecturers at universities. This includes identifying cases of fake doctoral and master's degrees, cases of "purchased" or borrowed degrees, and cases of foreign degrees from universities in the US, the Philippines, etc., that are not recognized in Vietnam. "If an inspection is conducted, many problems will certainly be uncovered," Professor Hoang Van Kiem stated.

Are you co-authoring scientific papers with many well-known figures?

When submitting his scientific resume and application for a teaching position to universities, Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai stated that he had researched a series of topics and projects. Regarding articles published in international journals, Mr. Hai listed four. Notably, these articles were co-authored with several people, including well-known figures such as Associate Professor Dr. Duong Anh Duc, former Deputy Director of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, now Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City; Associate Professor Dr. Vu Hai Quan, Director of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City; Professor Dr. Hoang Van Kiem, former Rector of the University of Information Technology (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City)...

Professor Hoang Van Kiem, whose name was mentioned by Mr. Hai in the joint article (Efficient large-scale multi-class image classification by learning balanced trees. Computer vision and image understanding, 156, 151-161), confirmed: "This is truly a 'super scam' in terms of documentation. I affirm that I did not co-author any article with Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai."

Similarly, Associate Professor Lam Quang Vinh, Head of the Science and Technology Committee of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, affirmed: "Based on the research information provided in Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai's scientific resume, we have reviewed and confirmed that this person's name is not listed in any research projects of the Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City."

Ha Anh - My Quyen

Proposed solutions to mitigate the consequences.

To date, Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai has used fake master's and doctoral degrees to apply to more than a dozen universities. Among them, Mr. Hai became a full-time lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology; a visiting lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport (on probationary contracts), Saigon University of Technology (only supervising graduation theses),FPT Polytechnic College...; he also worked on probation as deputy head of the IT department at Van Hien University, and was appointed head of the IT department at Vietnam College of Industry and Trade…

"In my opinion, universities that hired Mr. Nguyen Truong Hai as a lecturer must address and rectify the consequences. Theoretically, if someone uses a fake degree, all course results, modules, and graduation theses taught and supervised by this person must be reviewed. For students who have taken courses taught and graded by Mr. Hai, careful consideration is needed; tutoring and re-examinations may be necessary if needed, especially for important courses. As for the graduation project, the evaluation committee could either approve it or invite one or two independent lecturers to provide further objective evaluation," suggested Professor Hoang Van Kiem.

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