Research activities at University of Sciences, Hue University
Hue University marked an important milestone in the international university rankings in 2022. The target to shorten the gap between the top 300 leading universities in Asia has become reachable.
Towards a high rank
Hue University received two consecutive pieces of good news within a month. It was the first time Hue University had ever been mentioned in the 2023 Times Higher Education rankings of the prestigious universities in the world, and it was ranked in 351- 400 Asia range, 61st place in Southeast Asia, and 6th place in Vietnam, according to the Asian University Rankings 2023, announced by QS in November 2022.
To have a double achievement is not an easy task. It marked a stage of advancement in terms of professional development, training and research for the more than 65 years of Hue University.
Hue University representative said that THE is one of the prestigious university ranking systems. Vietnam has 6 higher education institutions in this system. Hue University is ranked in this system for the first time, and the other five, including Duy Tan University, Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam National University - Hanoi, Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City, and Hanoi University of Science and Technology, have been in listed since 2022.
THE ranking includes 1,799 higher education institutions from 104 countries and territories worldwide. Based on 13 criteria in 4 areas, including teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook, THE analyzed more than 121 million citations and more than 15.5 million research publications, and conducted a survey of more than 40,000 scholars worldwide. This shows that being included in this ranking is a big step for Hue University.
When the university ranking trend has been considered as a measure for a university prestige, the strong promotion of Hue University is an optimistic sign. The Asian University Rankings 2023, announced by QS on the afternoon of November 8, 2022, further shows that Hue University is making steady progress towards the goal of developing into a national university in accordance with Resolution 54-NQ/TW of the Political Bureau.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Anh Phuong, President of Hue University, Hue University's Asian ranking is gradually improving, compared with a place in 451-500 range in the 2019-2020 period, and 401-450 in the 2021-2022 period. This improvement is important especially when this ranking is on an increasingly large scale. In addition to the overall ranking, the QS Asia ranking indexes have shown the steady advancement of Hue University in recent ranking periods. In 2023, Hue University has an increase in continental ranking for 3 criteria, compared with the QS Asia 2022, among which the criterion of reliability to employers ranked 170th in Asia and the criterion of international research network ranked 195th in Asia.
Achieving crucial goals
In the context of increasing competition in higher education, Hue University has ever faced a certain amount of skepticism when it has difficulties with students’ enrollment or with staff retention. However, with efforts to retain the core values in higher education and the appropriate strategies have enabled Hue University to gradually achieve its crucial goals.
Provincial leaders assert that there is always a strong bond between the development of the province and that of Hue University. The major resolutions of the central and local governments, especially Resolution 54-NQ/TW of the Political Bureau or the Resolution of the Provincial Party Committee regarding the development of Thua Thien Hue into one of the national centers of high-quality multidisciplinary education and training during the 2021-2025 period, with a vision towards 2030. There are also many other resolutions closely tied to the roles, tasks and contributions of Hue University.
In addition to the important task of training human resources, Hue University’s indispensable role in doing research has contributed to the proper development of the region and the whole country. With specialized research, Hue University researchers have boosted international publications.
Within 5 years (2017-2021), Hue University have had the total of 1,650 Scopus-indexed articles. This is evidence of Hue University’s advancement that few regional universities can do better.
In the development process and efforts, Hue University continues to invest in science and technology activities, as well as university rankings. At the same time, it has appropriate policies to encourage the improvement of the quality of training, offer training programs using English as medium of instruction, and specific programs that can attract international students.
According to leaders of Hue University, the policies to support and encourage lecturers to participate in research and increase international publications and citations, the cooperation programs to attract international experts to teach, co-research and exchange the expertise, and the meritorious compensation and benefits have assisted Hue University to achieve its goals.
It is now a window of opportunity for Hue University and the people of the ancient capital to come near and realize their desire to develop Hue University into a National University. In fact, Hue University is on the verge of reaching the goals.
It is certain that constant efforts should be made during the development. In addition to speeding up the implementation of measures to improve the ranking indexes and affirm the international recognition, the education and training of human resources must also accelerate to deserve its functions and to contribute to socio-economic development. This is also a way Hue University marks a stronger milestone along its upward path.
Story and photo: Huu Phuc