By the end of 2020, the QS Asia Rankings 2021 announced that Hue University entered the 401- 450 group of Asia, ranked 6th among 11 Vietnamese higher education institutions in the ranking list.

Young scientists from Hue University involved in research

Huge advance

The above figure shows the advance of higher education institutions, but more importantly, it shows the gap bridged with the top universities in Asia, close to the target of joining the top 300 prestigious universities of the continent in accordance with the Resolution 54, turning Hue University into the National University.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Khac Lieu, Deputy Head of Department of Science, Technology and International Relations of Hue University, said that the data should be clearly understood so that the joyful signals can be seen on the path to approach the top 300 universities in Asia.

Compared with the places 451 – 500 in the two rankings of 2019 and 2020, Hue University has begun to show an upward transformation in accordance with the development strategy towards becoming the National University by 2022 and ranking 300th in Asia by 2025.

Apart from the ranking, it is more interesting that Hue University's ranking indexes have improved each year. Notably, there was the steady promotion of Hue University's indexes over the last 3 QS Asia ranking periods in the ranking of Hue University, the relative position of Hue University (in the top), the ranking score of Hue University vis-à-vis the Asian average and Hue University's ranking score  vis-à-vis Vietnamese average.

According to the representative of Hue University leaders, even the ranking by each criterion, in this ranking, Hue University has the continental rank of 8 criteria up against QS Asia 2020. The Prestige criterion established by employers especially ranks 200th in Asia for the first time.

In terms of the scores for each ranking criterion, there are 6 out of 11 criteria whose scores increase, even increase sharply. Besides, the operation result through the QS statistical indexes demonstrates that most of the Hue University indexes have increased significantly over the years. Even the average number of articles published per lecturer, or the average number of citations per article of Hue University has risen.

Reaching the National University level

Joining in university ranking is a trend in the current globalization context. Concurrently, it helps the universities know their gap with other universities nationwide and worldwide as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the universities can work out the strategy of action to adjust, perfect and enhance the quality of training and scientific research.

For Hue University, the ranking is also an important measure of the transformation of a regional university in the ancient capital towards becoming a National University.

In order to get promotion on the international and continental rankings, even in the past year, Hue University made timely decisions. Hue University’s team in charge of higher education quality assurance actively collected information and data, thoroughly informed the staff, scientists of publicizing research works, correctly declaring the name of the university...

Ranking among the top 300 universities in Asia by 2025 and the top 1,000 universities in the world is not effortless. Although Hue University has enough internal power, in the panorama of brand recognition from academic experts and employers, Hue University needs to make the plans and improvements to enhance rankings in the years to come, with consensus and boost through better mechanisms.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Huynh Van Chuong, Deputy Director of Hue University, affirmed that in the process of development, Hue University will continue to make the specific and worthy investments in terms of funds and staff for ranking. It also invests in the guidance experts and skilled team specializing in ranking.

These people will make a clear plan and connect well with the member universities in the work of data collection and standardization.  Hue University will boost the linkage between Hue University experts and international experts in order to create a strong international publishing network.

In the coming time, Hue University and its member universities will formulate the incentive policies to enhance the quality of training, training in English and develop the specific programs that can attract international students. The policies will be formulated to support and involve lecturers in scientific research, increase in international publications and citations. The international cooperation programs will also be developed to attract foreign experts to teaching, co-researching and exchanging expertise...

Story and photo: Huu Phuc