One of Vietnam’s many 2020 goals includes producing 20,000 additional PhD holders; one that many doubt is attainable, according to VietNamNet. 

Based on statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) Vietnam only trained 4,000 PhDs from 2001-2010, meaning the next decade will have to produce at 3 times that rate in order to hit the 20,000 goal. 

Hanoi is leading PhD growth in Vietnam with 504 successful candidates in 2010 while other regions, such as the northern mountainous areas, the central region and the Mekong Delta saw “insignificant” performance.

In addition, social sciences students account for most of the PhD grads:

“In 2011, Vietnam had 121 PhD students finishing the Academy of Social Sciences. Meanwhile, only three obtained the doctorate from the University of Technology, and the Medical University had none.”

Even if the goal of 20,000 PhDs is reached, many Vietnamese PhDs flock to the private sector due to higher salary potential. Very few are working on academic research projects, and even those who are rarely undertake original research due to lack of resources and low compensation at public universities.

[VietNamNet // Photo via dherholz]