02050007198_NỘIDUNG Phân tích tác động của chính sách tài chính đối với hoạt động nghiên cứu khoa học trong các cơ sở giáo dục đại học (nghiên cứu trường hợp các cơ sở giáo dục đại học trực thuộc Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo
Trang 225ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC XÃ HỘI VÀ NHÂN VĂN
CÁC CÔNG TRÌNH KHOA HỌC ĐÃ CÔNG BỐ LIÊN
QUAN ĐẾN LUẬN ÁN TIẾN SĨ
HOÀN THIỆN CHÍNH SÁCH TÀI CHÍNH NHẰM THÚC ĐẨY HOẠT ĐỘNG NGHIÊN CỨU VÀ TRIỂN KHAI TRONG CÁC
CƠ SỞ GIÁO DỤC ĐẠI HỌC
Người hướng dẫn : PGS.TS Trần Ngọc Ca
Hà Nội, 2021
Trang 236Journal of critical reviews
Author Statement & Agreement Letter Date: 20 February 2021
Journal of Critical Reviews
Dear editor/manager,
In conjunction with the submission of the unpublished original manuscript titled
“PROMOTING THE COMPETENCE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS”
sent via the online system of Scope Med for your consideration, peer-review and
I herewith declare that this manuscript is currently not under consideration
elsewhere and will not be submitted to another journal until a final decision has
been made by the editorial board of your Journal; in case of acceptance, it will not
be published elsewhere
As being the submitting author, I clearly state that I have the consent from all
contributing authors to submit the manuscript and all of them accept complete
responsibility for its contents None of the authors declare any conflicts of interest and I guarantee no further ethical conflict among both the authors and the
experimental methodology
Sincerely
List of all contributing authors (full names in regular order):
Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, email: nhquynh@moet.gov.vn,
mobile: +84.904184886
2.Tran Thi Hai Van, Hanoi University of Mining and Geology Email:
tranthihaivan@humg.edu.vn, Mobile: +84.983211977
Technology and Environment, Ministry of Education and Training of VietNam,
email: nhquynh@moet.gov.vn, mobile: +84.904184886
“I hereby confirm and electronically sign this agreement form on behalf of all above listed contributing authors.”
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PROMOTING THE COMPETENCE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Quynh Nguyen Thi Huong 1 , Van Tran Thi Hai 2
in Vietnamese universities, thence, provides some recommendations to improve the motivation and quality of research activities, which lays the foundation for the socio-economic development of Vietnam in the future
Keywords—science and technology management, university, Vietnam
This article focuses on examining the university’s competence of science and technology management, which is a crucial factor to promote science and technology activities, thence, provides some suggestions for improvement
II SOME ISSUES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
The management of science and technology in universities is a challenging task It must attract collaboration and promote the ability to create reputable products in the research community while the financial resources to do so depend mainly
on the university’s incomes Therefore, limited financial and human resources as well as management mechanisms have resulted in ineffective and wasteful scientific research activities Some current problems in the management of science and technology in universities can be mentioned as follows:
Firstly, science and technology activities are not connected to socio-economic development tasks There is a need for research on many issues regarding Vietnam's economy in the process of transition, development and integration However, due to limited resources, it is necessary to prioritize and focus on some certain issues The unclear descriptions
of stakeholders’ rights and responsibilities regarding identifying scientific and technological tasks have led to the inevitable overlap of research problems among universities Research topics are mainly proposed from individuals in universities, in some cases can be explored by scientists However, they lack a focus; thus, hinder the implementation of large strategic, fundamental or long-term-oriented projects In addition, there exist many problems in the objectivity of the criteria for selecting topics as well as experts participating in the advisory councils
A number of business incubators have been established in universities thanks to the orientations towards university-based science and technology development The survey of scientists and units of research affairs of 13 universities nationwide shows that universities and research institutes have always facilitated businesses’ technological development Scientists revealed their participation in regular scientific research activities and about 35% of them confirmed that the university has technology transfer agreements with production and business establishments However, most of the business incubators are in the early stages of construction with many difficulties in forming legal entities, operating mechanisms, human resources and capital…, resulting from the lack of an appropriate implementation model and management
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of facilitating state management agencies’ control over expenditures on science and technology Expenditures are often divided into detailed categories with specific and clear spending norms, which lead to rigid and easily outdated management Many spending norms are unreasonable and heavily subjective because management agencies often provide low cost norms to ensure the “anti-waste” principle This situation hinders the disbursement of scientific research projects In addition, inflexible rules have posed difficulties for universities and project leaders in dealing with additional costs, which affects the progress and quality of the research activity
Too detailed regulations also lead to cumbersome procedures and documents to verify expenses Project leaders themselves do not fully understand the administrative regulations, while most universities do not have a specialized department to monitor and guide this work As a result, researchers are put under great pressure of time and finance, thereby affecting the quality of the research Also, due to complicated procedure for disbursement, management agencies end up having too many documents to read and verify their validity, resulting in limited effectiveness in monitoring scientific activities
The too high cost of monitoring, many unreasonable regulations and the subjective process of verifying documents have led to possible fraud in spending as well as bribery in research
In addition, management agencies have unreasonable mechanisms for allocating funds for scientific research The quality
of the research mismatches its funds, funds are allocated based on the number of researchers with academic ranks and degrees…
Third, the management mechanism and remuneration for researchers in universities have not motivated lecturers and researchers to invest their efforts and promote their creative capacities Vietnamese universities’ recruitment is opposed
to the world at all steps[4] Most Vietnamese lecturers and researchers at a university are its alumni while in the West, such local human resources will be minimized to avoid limited creativity due to lack of competition If young scientists continue to do research under their teachers’ supervision, they will lose opportunities to develop In addition, the heavily administrative process of recruiting lecturers also limits the development of research groups in universities
The current working regime and income in universities fail to motivate lecturers to focus on research In details, the salary and bonus system is based mainly on teaching hours instead of research activities According to regulations, hours
of teaching can compensate hours of doing scientific research but not vice versa As a result, lecturers lose their motivation in carrying out scientific research, which requires more considerable effort and greater creativity compared to teaching Besides, their salaries remain low and rigid, thus, teaching is their main source of income
MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION
Universities’ teaching and research can yield ethical, social or economic benefits to social problems Therefore, the history of higher education development worldwide shows that although universities are officially and publicly funded
by the governments, they do not necessarily have social responsibilities [3], [7], [9], [10] Apparently, the formation and development of universities under such viewpoint has been going on for centuries and can be considered quite ideal However, from now on, universities will be seen as business groups in the education sector So-called "corporate governance" or "new management" is becoming more important in universities although it can always be challenged by scholars who believe that in doing so, universities are responsible to themselves instead of society [5]
The financial values of some universities can be listed among the top 500 large companies worldwide by Fortune Magazine However, most universities still rely mainly on the government budget 80% of the funding for middle-level universities in Europe comes from the government while in the US, this proportion is 45% [14] Public assistance remains a huge amount of money Research is a powerful individual activity, highly dependent on ideas and imagination
of individuals or groups of individuals…[12]
Therefore, control and management is not appropriate to research However, in a competitive world with rapid changes in higher education, there are constraints requiring regulatory frameworks Universities need to develop and use
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management tools and skills if they want to gain and maintain their reputation Although some argue that tertiary teaching and doing research are two separate issues, they are intertwined It has been proved that graduate students and researchers become better researchers when teaching Also, research will take them to a higher level because it is the process of connecting knowledge and reality [1]
Therefore, these following actions need to done to improve the management of research affairs:
Firstly, to establish specific regulations for management activities They must allow not only supervision but also the promotion of "freedom" in research This is not easy because many researchers often avoid administrative issues because they are afraid of losing freedom which affects productivity and creativity According to a recent study [8], four out of ten Canadian universities with twenty seven faculties agreed that planning is not suitable for research They consider the control over lecturers a serious violation of academic freedom Meanwhile, in Vietnam, there are too many cumbersome and unnecessary procedures that limit creativity and effectiveness in research Therefore, there must be a balance between management and freedom in research Specifically, there should be some regulations as follows:
+ Each lecturer must perform two parallel tasks, namely teaching and doing scientific research Lecturers can also be required to participate in research activities to be able to teach Numerous scientific research activities can be converted
to teaching hours at a certain rate when the task completion level is considered
+ Attach scientific research to postgraduate training Lecturers’ research activities should comply with the research topics
+ The university needs to motivate students to participate in scientific research by improving either academic or financial rewards
Second, to make plans for scientific research activities Strategic plans need to be formulated properly and announced widely as they reflect the direction, goals and missions of the university Public announcement of strategic plans is also a way of sending messages to agencies that are able to fund research projects Strategic plans should be flexible and not too detailed to be able to adapt to possible changes when necessary A strategic plan can adopt either top-down approach, bottom-up approach or a combination of these two With a top-down approach, the University Administrative Board and University Council set research goals while the Vice Director in charge of research affairs and the Department of Research Affairs prepare a detailed plan to achieve the set goals This task will be consulted with leaders of departments and related units through meetings and seminars Finally, official documents will be put forward and approved by the Scientific Council
Third, to closely organize and manage scientific activities Based on the plans of the presented projects, the unit in charge
of supervision (each level should have a person in charge) needs to regularly gather information about the implementation process This is important in order to not only be aware of the difficulties in carrying out the projects, thence, to make timely adjustments, but also to create a reminder for the research group, thus, reduce late submissions and extensions
Fourth, the approval, evaluation and acceptance of the research project should undergo a clear and publicly disclosed process with standardized forms Evaluation and acceptance should be on the basis of the research results There should
be a bonus for excellent research projects and new publications as well as a penalty for unsatisfactory projects
IV CONCLUSION
The article presented the current situation of scientific research in Universities in Vietnam However, the article also offers solutions to evaluate and promote scientific research
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R EFERENCES
[1] Ball, S 2007 Leadership of academics in research Educational Management Administration & Leadership 35:449-477
[2] Belkin, D 2012 Tough times for Colleges and College towns Wall Street Journal, page A2, July 23rd
[3] Boulton, G and Lucas, C 2008 What are universities for? League of European Research Universities 19
[4] Ngo Bao Chau 2014 Conference on “Reforms in higher education” at the U.S Center (HCMCity) on July 31,
2014
[5] Deem, R 2010 Herding the academic cats: the challenges of “managing” academic research in the contemporary
UK university Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education 14:37-43
[6] Etzkowitz H and Leydesdorff, L 2000 The dynamics of innovation: from national systems and “mode 2” to a triple helix of university-industry-government relations Research Policy 29:109-123
[7] Rennison, J 2011 What is the social impact of university worth? Financial Times ( ft.com/alphaville June 17.)
[8] Sa, C.M and Tamtik, M 2012 Strategic planning for academic research: a Canadian perspective Higher
Education Management and Policy 24:1-19
[9] Shaheen, F 2011 Degrees of value: How universities benefit society Universities UK
[10] Shellard, D 2010 Abandon comfort all ye who enter this area of challenge and renewal Times Higher Education