Danh has said that Ton Duc Thang University does not violate the laws when appointing professors and associate professors, and that the school will continue the appointment as a part of its plan to implement the duties of training and conducting scientific research.
Danh denied the accusation that it is illegal for schools to grant professorships to its lecturers and researchers.
He said the appointment of someone to a position lies within the school’s self-determination rights stipulated in Decision No 158.
There are two types of posts the school needs to appoint - management and professional posts. The latter includes probationary lecturer, assistant to lecturer, lecturer, professor assistant, professor and associate professor.
The candidates for the school to consider for professors are the specialists and scientists who have doctorates and sign one-year term or longer labor contracts with the school.
“The professors and associate professors are not civil servants who receive pay from the State. They receive salaries from the school and have to fulfill the duties assigned by the school. Therefore, it is the school’s job to appoint and dismiss them,” Danh said.
Prior to that, Bui Manh Nhi, chair of the State’s Professorship Council, stated in local newspapers that the appointment of professorship titles by Ton Duc Thang University violated the current law and that this must be stopped.
Nhi said that the professorship titles can be granted only by the State, while the application for professorship must be approved by the State’s Professorship Council.
President of the HCM City Law University Mai Hong Quy also thinks that current laws do not allow schools to appoint professors and associate professors.
Other educators and scientists tend to support a new mechanism on granting professorship titles.
A university lecturer in Hanoi noted that in Vietnam, professor is a title given to honor its owner for high achievements, and does not show the owner’s position at the agency where he works. This is just like the title of ‘Artist of Merit’ or ‘People’s Artist’.
“A paradox exists that many people have professorship, but they do not work at universities or research institutes. Some of them hold high positions at ministries or state management agencies,” he said.
“There are so many people introduced as professors,” he said. “Please don’t be surprised if someone tells you that the secretary of the provincial Communist Party’s Committee is a professor.”
