Academic staff quality

Academic staff quality

Academic staff planning (considering succession, promotion, re-deployment, termination, and retirement) is carried out to fulfil the needs for education, research and service

               Academic staffs development plan of The FPS is specifically and annually built, the detailed plan includes: Report on performance and development orientation of the Faculty for the period 2015-2020, the development strategy of the Faculty/University, especially the quality of young lecturers and the successive staffs to implement study programme, the plan for standard academic staff for the title of professor/associate professor, senior lecturer and main lecturer, Ph.D holder. In addition, there is a strong research group in the organizational structure of the Faculty to implement the scientific research Programmes of VNU and the Government.

               Additionally, the Faculty also has good cooperation with visiting professors, visiting lecturers who are prestigious scientists and lecturers from many universities, research institutes, domestic and foreign organizations. In the past 5 years, visiting professors have taken up about 20% of the total hours in the faculty training program.

               The Faculty and the University have short and long term strategies to plan and develop academic staffs as well as offer appropriate supports. The professional training for each lecturer is being assured by the Departments. Before taking classes, young lecturers are trained further in expertise by senior lecturers. According to the academic staff development roadmap of the Faculty, every lecturer is about to have a Phd Degree by 2023.

               The process of promoting staff to the Faculty/Department leaders is publicly,the specific and clear promotion criteria has been implemented in accordance with the regulations of the USSH and VNU. Board of leader must have high professional qualifications, academic reputation, good ethical qualities and experience in management. Leadership planning and management are reviewed and supplemented annually, the requirements for each position are clearly identified in the University's medium and long term strategy. The positions in the planning will be voted of confidence for all faculty staff, the final results will be approved by the University. The periodical planning has been implementing since 2013.

 Staff-to-student ratio and workload are measured and monitored to improve the quality of education, research and service 

              Currently, the Faculty has 22 staffs, including 19 academic staffs and 03 support staffs. Lecturers are planned according to 03 departments: Department of Politics, Department of Ho Chi Minh Studies, Department of Communication Politics. The average age of staff is 42 years old. In which, there are 03 Associate Professor. PhD (accounting for 13.6%), PhDs are 9 (approximately 40.9%), PhD candidates are 06 (covering about 27,2 %), Masters are 03 (roughly 13.6%). According to the academic staffs plan of the Faculty, by 2020, the number of PhD staffs or higher make up more than 60% of the number of lecturers.

               The Faculty also receives the coordination from a great number of visiting professors, visiting lecturers who are prestigious scientists and lecturers from many domestic and foreign universities, research institutes, scientific and technological organizations.

The workload of lecturers in each academic year is specifically stipulated base on Regulations on annual internal spending of the University, Regulations on Organization and Operation of the School and Regulations on working regime for lecturers and researchers at VNU.

               The average hours of lecturers at the FPS are above 270 hours/year, ensuring the standard class hours of lecturers during the academic year. The Board of Deans of the FPS periodically calculates the balance and adjusts the number of class sections in the teaching assignment of lecturers, creates conditions for lecturers to have time to research and enhance their professional abilities in order to meet the University's requirements and the development orientation of the FPS.

Recruitment and selection criteria including ethics and academic freedom for appointment, deployment and promotion are determined and communicated

               VNU has regulations on the standards of lecturers, which are issued under Decision No. 3768/QĐ-ĐHQGHN dated October 22, 2014 of the VNU’s Director on the recruitment, use and management of officers and officials, workers in VNU. Based on the above regulations, the Faculty has recruited, trained and fostered the academic staffs, and emphasize the importance of professional qualification and foreign language. The specific recruitment criteria includes: 1- Having good moral quality, good ideas; 2. Having a doctorate in suitable major and having a certificate of professional training in pedagogy; having a master's degree or higher for lecturers teaching theoretical subjects of university training Programmes; holding a doctorate degree for lecturers and instructors in specific topics, theses, and dissertations in the master's and doctoral Programmes; 3. Having foreign language and computer skills to meet job requirements; 4- Having good health to meet job requirements; 5- Clear personal profile.

               Based on the teaching workload, the number of current lecturers, number of lecturers studying Dotoral Programmes, the Faculty's development strategy and vision, the FPS proposed the recruitment plan with the University. The recruitment notices are posted on the University website (http://www.ussh.vnu.edu.vn/d6/vi-VN/news/Thong-bao-tuyen-dung-vien-chuc-1-708-8644), the recruitment information portal of VNU (https://www.vnu.edu.vn/home/?C2109).. During the recruitment process, the Recruitment Council is established to ensure that the hiring process is accurate and objective. Recruitment results are publicly announced on the website.

               In the period 2015-2020, the FPS has proposed the University to conduct special recruitment for two lecturers holding doctorate degree.

               The rights and obligations of lecturers are clearly defined in the Regulations on the Organization and Operation of the University. All lecturers must follow the regulations and commitments in the signed labor contract. If violating these regulations, lecturers must explain to the University and related parties.

               The appointment of lecturers to the title of Professor, Associate Professor, tenure, as well as the standards for appointing leaders comply with the Nation's documents and are publicly available on the University's website (http://www.ussh.vnu.edu.vn/d6/vi-VN/news/Ket-qua-xet-cong-nhan-dat-tieu-chuan-chuc-danh-PGS-tai-Hoi-dong-Giao-su-co-so-Truong-DHKHXHNV-DHQGHN-1-708-20190)

 Competences of academic staff are identified and evaluated 

              Candidates who are recruited to be lecturers of the University in general and the FPS, in particular, must meet the standards of qualifications, scientific research capabilities, foreign languages, information science and teaching certification. The FPS currently has 19 tenured lecturers, including 1 PhD trained in Russia, 1 PhD trained in China, 1 master trained in the US, 1 PhD participated in a postdoctoral exchange Program in the US and Korea, 1 short-term PhD trained in Sweden and 14 nationally trained PhDs and masters.

               To identify and evaluate the lecturer ability, the University establishes an appraisal system based on teaching, scientific research and community service activities. Titles and tasks of each lecturer are explicitly stated in the documents of the USSH and VNU. On that basis, at the end of the academic year, every June, lecturers have to make a self-assessment of performance result for the academic year and determine the plan for the next year. Based on the results of the Emulation and Reward Council, in July and December, the Faculty will organize a labor rating assessment. The staff rating and evaluation process are carried out annually according to ISO standards..

               In order to improve teaching efficiency, Faculty lecturers get professional development in training through short and long-term training courses; they are also encouraged to apply a variety of teaching and learning methods. Additionally, they have to participate in scientific research at many levels: the University level, the national university level, the national level, science and technology organizations or have reports, scientific research publications in journals, domestic and foreign reputable publishers. Besides, the Faculty also regularly receives prestigious scientists from around the world to come for teaching and giving scientific presentations and organizing scientific research cooperation Programmes (table 27).

Table 27. The number of faculty lecturers went abroad on business

                The teaching capacity of academic staffs of the FPS is clearly demonstrated through the lecturer evaluation form at the end of each module. From the 2015-2016 academic year to the 2019-2020 academic year, the faculty lecturers are highly appreciated by students in their teaching activities with an average score of over 4.0 on a 5-point scale. This shows the teaching capacity of the faculty academic staffs received very positive feedback from students.

               On the self-assessment database of individuals, Departments, Faculties and University, the National University will have general assessments based on 4 criteria: Teaching tasks; Scientific research and technology transfer tasks; The task of training management, scientific and technological research management and The task of learning to enhance speciality. This is the basis for the University to adjust policies, build solutions to improve the quality of implementing the Faculty's training tasks.  

Training and developmental needs of academic staff are identified and activities are implemented to fulfill them  

             The faculty academic staff always have the need for professional training and development and are recommended in the academic year summary form annually. This is the basis for the Faculty to implement training activities in the next academic year. From the 2015-2016 academic year to the 2019-2020 academic year, most lecturers propose the need of fostering academic English capacity, skills in publishing internationally, pedagogical methods, tenure training, state management skills, leadership skills.

               In response to these aspirations, the University has held classes, seminars and training courses for lecturers. The training courses have helped the faculty lecturers update scientific research methods, teaching methods as well as improve their knowledgeetc. which helps enhance their work efficiency. Most of the lecturers are satisfied and very satisfied and recommend the University to regularly open annual training courses.

            In order to encourage the demand to improve lecturer's professional ability, the University regularly updates and introduces the national and international quality training Programmes for lecturers to participate. In addition, the University also has policies to support and reward lecturers such as full support for domestic master's and doctoral studies; fund for thesis and dissertation; commend and reward for lecturers who complete their doctoral dissertation and thesis on time; support English learning costs and exam fees for lecturers who have obtained international certificates of IELTS 5.5 or higher or other similar certificates; support for lecturers sent by the University to study second degree in English; develop a project to improve foreign language proficiency for lecturers in the 2018-2020 period to boost the number of lecturers who can use English according to international standards and support funding for lecturers to improve their political and professional skills in Hanoi. The University advocates lecturers to take part in studying, teaching and participating in seminars abroad, and at the same time, it has provisions to support funding for lecturers to participate in studying, improving their professional qualifications and skills abroad such as support for master's and doctoral study fees equal to the domestic support budget; and support for lecturers invited to participate in seminars abroad.

 Performance management including rewards and recognition is implemented to motivate and support education, research and service 

              Every year, the Faculty summarizes and evaluates the performance of each lecturer's tasks according to the instructions of the University with specific regulations on workload as well as clear regulations on reward and discipline. This is the basis for the Faculty to draw conclusions about the work of each member and forms of recognition, reward and encouragement. Emulation and rewards review is conducted in June, at the end of the academic year. The labor evaluation and rating are taken every December, the end of the fiscal year.

               Lecturers who complete their teaching, scientific research and other tasks assigned well are considered to be rewarded at different levels of titles. High-achieving and excellent individuals will be considered for a salary increase ahead of time.

               Every year, 100% staff and lecturers of the Faculty achieve the Excellent Employee, in addition, Faculty staffs also receive the Certificate of Merit from the Rector, Leading Employee at the University level. 

              The University also has a regulation on rewarding lecturers whose scientific works in foreign languages ​​are published in specialized scientific journals with high impact indexes with a bonus of 2,000,000 VND (equivalent to 100 USD) to 15,000,000 VND (equivalent to 700 USD)/project. In recent years, many faculty staff have been rewarded for their scientific achievements.

 The types and quantity of research activities by academic staff are established, monitored and benchmarked for improvement

            In response to the requirements of improving the training quality and international cooperation, the FPS has incorporated training and scientific research. Scientific research activities are identified by staff in the Faculty as a pivotal task. The type and number of lecturers' research activities are always clearly defined according to the forms of domestic/international publication, domestic/international workshops, topics, textbooks, lectures, translated documents, reference book/ monograph. In the annual plan, lecturers always set specific scientific research goals to ensure the number of research hours to undertake according to the specified titles. At the end of the academic year, the Faculty and the University always evaluate these lecturer activities (Tables 32, 33).

Table 32. The number of research projects of lecturers at the FPS (2015-2020)

Table 33. Number of published publication of the faculty’s lecturers (2015-2020)

               The lecturers' research works are always supervised by the Council of Science and Training of the Faculty as well as prestigious organizations such as VNU, National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (Nafosted) etc. The scientific works of the Faculty are published in prestigious domestic and international review journals.