To improve income, associate professors have to sell research articles?

Not long ago, public opinion was stirred up by an associate professor who, while working in the Central region, had violated scientific integrity. The associate professor was then a full-time lecturer at this university, but according to statistics from MathSciNet (an online database of mathematics from the American Mathematical Society), he had 13 works under the name of Ton Duc Thang University and 4 works under the name of Thu Dau Mot University, out of a total of 42 scientific research works.

Speaking to the press at that time, he said that the university where he worked did not stipulate that full-time lecturers were not allowed to sign scientific research contracts with other schools, but only needed to complete scientific research tasks within the school. He himself had completed his scientific tasks with his school, but to write a research paper required a lot of effort and went through many stages, so he also wanted to be paid and have more income. To earn money and improve the economy, he only knew how to use his own abilities and intelligence.

After the incident of publishing many international articles but signed by a university different from his workplace, the associate professor submitted a request to withdraw from the Mathematics Council - Nafosted Foundation (National Foundation for Science and Technology Development - where he was a member at that time). Nafosted Foundation considered his request, discussed related aspects and agreed that he would not participate in the council.

Where do the billions of dollars in annual income of professors and doctors come from?

After VietNamNet published an article about professors and doctors receiving an income of nearly 100 million VND/month at universities, many readers said that this is a worthy treatment for scientists so that they can work with peace of mind and no longer have to think about "food, clothing, rice, and money".

Professors, associate professors, and doctors (GS - PGS - TS) can now receive incomes of up to billions of VND per year, so where does their income come from? Analyzing this with VietNamNet reporters, Associate Professor Do Van Dung, former principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, said that the income of professors, associate professors, and doctors now comes from many sources.

PhD, Master
Awarding doctoral and master's degrees at Ho Chi Minh City University of Law. Photo: TA

First is salary. Professors - Associate Professors - Doctors are senior lecturers of level 1, so the starting salary coefficient is 6.2, so the basic salary according to state regulations is already very high. In addition to the basic salary, schools will pay salaries according to job position, tens of millions of VND/month. With both of these salaries, they receive 35-60 million VND/month.

The second income comes from teaching. In addition to the prescribed teaching hours, most professors, associate professors and doctors teach overtime, so they have extra money. Meanwhile, the current extra money at schools ranges from 150,000 to 1,000,000 VND per lesson. Therefore, if a professor or doctor teaches diligently, this income is equal to or higher than their salary, not to mention their guest lectures at other schools.

The third source of income comes from scientific research. Most universities now have policies to encourage international publication rewards, with rewards ranging from 30-200 million VND/article depending on the publication in a scientific journal listed in SCIE, SSCI with index Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4. Therefore, the bonus from scientific articles can reach up to a billion VND/year/person.

“Each professor or doctor only needs to publish 5-6 articles per year to earn a billion dong. Not to mention that at some prestigious universities, they also have scientific research contracts with outside companies and organizations,” said Mr. Dung.

However, the former Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education also said that these are capable people, while professors and doctors who "live long enough to become veterans" have lower incomes, about several tens of millions of VND/month.

Sharing the same view, Dr. Nguyen Trung Nhan, Head of Training Department (Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry) said that the income of each person at the school where he works is different, depending on their capacity, qualifications, and job position. However, the school has a policy to attract talent, those with the title of professor will immediately receive 350-500 million VND, associate professors will receive 250-350 million VND. In addition, they will receive an academic allowance of 12 million VND/month for professors and 10 million VND/month for associate professors. Not to mention, they also receive salaries according to state regulations (phase 1) and salaries according to job position (phase 2). If they have scientific research works, they will also receive bonuses according to regulations.

Mr. Nhan said that the fact that a scientist has to sell articles (research papers) to earn more money is due to the policies of the place where they work. Schools that are not autonomous have low policies for lecturers. Therefore, the income of professors and doctors depends on the unit they are working for, whether it is a public school that is autonomous, a private school, or a public school that is not autonomous...

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