Talking to VietNamNet , an expert in higher education and also having many years of experience in postgraduate training said that PhD student Vuong Tan Viet (Venerable Thich Chan Quang) graduated from university with a degree in Law while studying and working. After finishing university, student Vuong Tan Viet was accepted to do PhD research, which is very special.

“Because the system of going straight to a doctorate from a bachelor’s degree is usually only for extremely excellent students. Normally, after graduating from a bachelor’s degree, you are only allowed to study for a master’s degree. Not to mention, studying straight to a master’s degree from a bachelor’s degree without taking an entrance exam is very rare,” he said. Therefore, according to him, this is a very special case.

“It can be said that in a year in Vietnam, there are only about 10 people who can do this, meaning they must be extremely talented or have very new contributions and discoveries, especially to be put on the list of direct admission to become a doctoral student by the schools. In the case of student Vuong Tan Viet, everyone is also very concerned, what is special about his university graduation thesis, to be accepted as a doctoral student,” said the expert.

In addition, regarding the process and total time of doctoral training, according to this person, from the time of being recognized as a doctoral student in December 2019 until the time of defense in December 2021, that is exactly 2 years.

“Although Hanoi Law University also issued a press release on June 25, explaining that it had followed the law, I still think it was wrong. Because the school’s regulations on doctoral recruitment and training also state that in extremely excellent cases, the training time will be shortened by 1 year.

The current regulations state that the standard training time for postgraduates with a university degree but without a master's degree in the same field is 4 years. Thus, even if it is shortened by 1 year, it will still be 3 years. Thus, student Vuong Tan Viet is still 1 year short of the training regulations of Hanoi Law University itself," he said.

According to experts, when studying straight from bachelor's to doctoral degree, students have to make up for the missing part of the master's program.

“Circular 08/2017/TT-BGD-DT of the Ministry of Education and Training stipulates that postgraduate students who do not have a master's degree must take additional courses including master's level courses in the corresponding field or major; with a minimum knowledge volume of 30 credits to ensure meeting output standards. But according to Hanoi Law University, this postgraduate student has completed 43 credits.

So if the total time for doctoral training is 2 years, 1 year has been lost (assuming no work elsewhere) and only 1 year left to study the doctoral program (7 credits according to Hanoi Law University information) and write the thesis. This means that the study volume is huge, if not terrible and this student will find it very difficult to do, if the process is done correctly", the information expert said. Also according to the education expert, to do the work capacity must be twice that of a normal person.

“I have seen final year students and master's students with 30 credits/year 'working their butts off'. To do the above, Vuong Tan Viet students have to work at a very high intensity.”

Not to mention, according to this expert, from the time this graduate student applied for a school-level doctoral thesis defense until the thesis defense, the time was also very short, only 2 months (October 3, 2021 - December 3, 2021). “This is also an unimaginable thing. Because when applying for a school-level thesis defense, it will have to go through an independent review process. Normally, the person receiving the independent review will have 4-6 weeks to respond to the thesis. With 2 independent reviewers, even in the fastest case, it will take 2 months.

This means that from the time of receiving independent criticism until the defense, the time to revise the thesis is only about 1-2 weeks, which I think is unreasonable. Not to mention the time it takes to print, bind, and send to the council; then the defense council needs 3 to 4 weeks to read and study the thesis to give comments and contributions; or it also has to send to ask for opinions from organizations and individuals working in related fields (this time usually lasts 2-3 months)...", this person analyzed.

Therefore, experts believe that the training and doctoral degree granting process for student Vuong Tan Viet is a "shortened" process, with unreasonable points. "The time limit as proposed by Hanoi Law University is only 2 months, which is extremely difficult and if it actually happens, it will not ensure the quality of independent criticism as well as comments and contributions from the council or more broadly, the quality of training activities is problematic because it is too fast."

Another education expert also raised the question: “The Most Venerable Thich Chan Quang completed his studies and obtained his doctorate in just over 2 years. Meanwhile, he did not have to spend time studying and doing research but also did other work at the temple, so his time was limited. Where did he find the time to do field surveys, experiments, and sociological investigations? Even with a very large investigation network, it still takes time and data processing. Those are the things that the council needs to reconsider.”

This education expert also wondered how Hanoi Law University arranged and organized the classes for student Vuong Tan Viet to complete his doctoral studies so quickly.

“The question that needs to be asked of Hanoi Law University is how many PhD students can do what Mr. Vuong Tan Viet did? In fact, according to the new regulations on doctoral recruitment and training, there are almost no cases that can do that. Even lecturers who teach in a university environment, who do research all day and can be said to work full-time, cannot do it that quickly,” he said.

On June 25, the Ministry of Education and Training sent an official dispatch to Hanoi Law University requesting a report on the enrollment and training process of doctoral student Vuong Tan Viet, also known as Venerable Thich Chan Quang. The official dispatch of the Ministry of Education and Training stated: "Currently, there is a lot of conflicting information about the enrollment, training and granting of doctoral degrees to Mr. Vuong Tan Viet at Hanoi Law University. To have complete information, the Ministry of Education and Training requests that Hanoi Law University urgently report specifically on the enrollment and training process for doctoral students (including the submission of documents for review, thesis defense, etc.) and provide evidence for Mr. Vuong Tan Viet's documents."

In the official dispatch, the Ministry of Education and Training set the deadline for Hanoi Law University to report on June 26.

Le Anh

Hanoi Law University clarifies the process of granting a doctorate degree to Venerable Thich Chan Quang

Hanoi Law University clarifies the process of granting a doctorate degree to Venerable Thich Chan Quang

Hanoi Law University has just informed about the training process and doctoral degree of student Vuong Tan Viet (aka Venerable Thich Chan Quang). The school said that the total training time meets and complies with the doctoral training regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training.