Officers of Institution of Biotechnology, Hue University working in the tissue growing room
Moving up more than 900 places
At the end of July 2019, the Cybermetrics Lab of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) announced the 2nd Webometrics University ranking in 2020. Notably, the place of Hue University in the world ranking for the first time witnessed the increase of 918 places, from the place 3.658 at the January 2020 ranking up to that of 2.740. Among 176 Vietnam higher education institutions ranked this time, while many training institutions were “out of” the top 10, Hue University still maintained the 7th position.
“Comparing to the January 2020 ranking, some units are no longer in the top 10 such as Ha Noi Medical University, University of Mining and Geology, Ho Chi Minh University of Agriculture and Forestry, Institute of Posts, instead, the universities named in the ranking were University of Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Duy Tan University, etc. Among the three regional universities, University of Da Nang and Hue University witnessed the impressive increase in the international ranking (by 1.635 and 918 places respectively). As of Thai Nguyen University, it went down by 701 places compared to the January 2020 raking”, shared Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Khac Lieu, Deputy Head of the Department of Science, Technology, and International Relations - Hue University.
The strong increase in the world ranking this time of Hue University is thanked to two criteria which are the openness and excellence, or academicity, in which the criteria of openness and excellence points have increased greatly (by 1.350 points and 1.172 points respectively). According to the representative of Hue University, the openness related to the number of citations from the top 110 scientists, determined by Google Scholar (one of the online scientific databases) and the excellence related to the number of articles in the top 10% cited in 5 years).
Representative of Department of Science, Technology and International Relations – Hue University shared that the sharp increase of these two criteria of Hue University is the results of promoting the presence of scientists on online scientific databases, especially Google Scholar, as well as the policies and solutions to increase the international publication of scientific projects that Hue University has done over the years.
“If in the June 2019 ranking, there were just around 90 documents of Hue University’s scientists, the number witnessed an increase to over 420 documents in the June 2020 ranking, with the presence of the scientists who have high citation index. According to the statistics, the number of international publication of scientific projects on Scopus of Hue University increased steadily over the years, from 125 (in 2016) to 191 (in 2017); 249 (in 2018), 285 (in 2019), and 239 (up to July 2020),” said the representative of Hue University
Towards higher rankings
Hue University has been trying to build and develop into a National University, striving by 2025 will be in the top 300 Asia’s leading universities and top 1.000 world’s leading universities. The Resolution No.54-NQ/TW on December 10, 2019 of the Politburo on building and developing Thua Thien Hue province to 2030, with the vision to 2045 also emphasized the construction of a multidiscipline and high-quality education – training center on the basis of developing Hue University into a National University, striving to be in the top 300 Asia’s leading universities.
Looking back to the rankings of Webometrics since 2017, it showed that from January 2019 ranking, the place of Hue University on the world and in-country rankings was quite stable and witnessed a trend of gradual promotion. It opens up various prospects in the development strategies of Hue University, especially affirming its place not only in-country university rankings but also in regional and international university ones.
University ranking is a measure of prestige and quality of an educational institution and of course, all universities are devoting their effort. Therefore, in addition to well improve the strengths, it is necessary for Hue University to have long-term plans because its goal of being in the top 300 Asia’s leading universities and the top 1.000 world’s leading universities is still quite far away.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quang Linh, Director of Hue University said that along with the solutions to increase the presence of scientists on online scientific databases, Hue University also develops the mechanisms of encouraging talents, as well as the policies of reward for the authors whose articles are influential, effective and have high citation index. At the same time, it also has the solutions to increase the achievements of the international publication of scientific research projects, focusing on building and developing the strong research groups, etc.
According to the representative of Hue University, recently, Hue University has also issued the regulations on Hue University-level projects, giving a priority to projects registered with having articles published in international journals. This is a solution to promote international publication, thereby contributing to increasing the position in the university rankings.
Story and photo: Huu Phuc