Application-oriented master’s training – students do not have to do a thesis

This is one of the new points of the draft Circular that promulgates the training organization regulations for the master’s degree (draft regulations), which the Ministry of Education and Training offers for comments.

The Circular is expected to be issued in December 2020.

The draft circular on regulations on the organization of training for the master’s degree can be found HERE

Leaders of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training, said that the Circular Project regulates a series of contents to regulate enrollment, training institutions at the master’s level is to inherit and develop what is established in the regulation. train at the current master’s level, in accordance with current legal regulations and selectively refer to the training experience of countries in the region and the world.

Draft Regulation of Approach to improve quality management. As follows:

The master’s training time does not exceed 2 years.

The Law that modifies and complements several articles of the 2018 Higher Education Law assigns the Minister of Education and Training the promulgation of the standard of the training program at all levels of higher education and the minimum requirements to implement the training program. Therefore, the master’s level training program must comply with the regulations on training program standards.

Research-oriented or application-oriented training programs developed, issued, implemented by directors, directors of training institutions, self-assessed training quality and quality accreditation. amount of program in accordance with current law.

The training period for a master’s degree is determined on the basis of the number of credits to accumulate for each training program and prescribed by the director and the director of the training institution.

The duration of the inheritance of the current master’s training regulations: does not exceed 2 years with respect to the design time of the program.

Registration in the form of admission or a combination of exam and admission

Regarding enrollment, the current regulations in Circular No. 15/2014 / TT-BGDĐT only have the form of exams and very detailed regulations on exam questions, exam organization, exam grading, … The Law that modifies and complements several articles of the Higher Education Law 2018, in addition to exams, training institutions can use the admission method or a combination of exam and admission.

The draft regulation regulates the admission of the master’s degree in the direction of the principles and thresholds to guarantee the quality of the inputs. On this basis, the training institutions (CSD) develop enrollment plans that are appropriate to the specific conditions of each school and industry, but they must still meet the minimum standards established by the State for their practice. Present the accountability and supervision of stakeholders and the entire society.

Leaders of the Higher Education Department said regulations on admission methods and training institutions are based on the results of university studies and propose research for a research-oriented master’s program.

The schools refer to international experiences of higher education institutions in developed countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, European countries, Australia, New Zealand, Japan … to issue the contract to adapt to the school and training sector. For example, review of academic records, work experience, essay about you, letter of recommendation from professors or directors, proposals for research topics for research-oriented programs …

Expand the input object

Regarding the organization and management of training, the Draft Regulation allows the target audience to be students with university degrees in different disciplines with different cumulative volumes of learning.

For each input object, the e-learning institution should rely on the student’s training program (at the university level) to determine the contents / modules that students should further learn before entering the master’s program. .

Therefore, to meet the training needs of all different types of learners, the master’s training organization can be flexible in the process, but still needs to ensure quality. That’s one of the advantages of the credit-based training system.

“This is the reason, the draft Master’s Regulation stipulates the organization of master’s training according to the credit system and requires training institutions to be based on the credit training regulations specified in the level. University in the development of standards on the organization of credit training to apply in MSc training. Teachers with a master’s level must be doctors ”- emphasized the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Training.

It is not allowed to associate the training with the master’s degree outside the facilities.

Regarding training venues, Circular No. 15/2014 / TT-BGDĐT allows training institutions to partially train application-oriented programs outside of the training institution. Training institutions cannot organize master’s training outside of the training institution’s headquarters or campus because the provisions of the revised Higher Education Act 2018 do not allow joint training for master’s degrees beyond the institution.

Regarding the forms of learning, similar to the draft university training regulations, this draft training regulations for the master’s degree also allows the training program to organize training combined with forms of training. online, but not more than 30% of the volume of knowledge of the entire training program (under normal learning conditions and the school must undertake to ensure the quality of online training).

This regulation aims to bring Vietnam’s master training institutions closer to international trends, while improving efficiency and enhancing the application of information and communication technology.

The e-institution must specify the minimum and maximum amount of registered student credit for each semester. Specifically, the amount of credits for each semester does not exceed 23 credits for a training program designed for 01 year with 2 semesters; each semester does not exceed 15 credits for a training program designed to have 03 semesters per year.

Tighten output quality

The draft also reinforces the quality management of the results: the organization of exams, tests and evaluations plays an important role in the training process. Specifically, the head of the e-institution assigns a specialized unit in the e-training institution to organize the exam, score the exam, manage the exam bank, manage the final exam questions … in accordance with the regulations , the process built by the training policy build and publish.

To ensure objectivity and fairness, this specialized unit is independent from the training organizations. The exam questions must be formulated from the test bench of the training institution, according to the content and guarantee the objectives of the module and the exit standards identified in the detailed outline.

Based on the foreign language exit standards of the master’s program in the Vietnam National Qualifications Framework (VQF), the draft regulations on exit standards must reach level 4 according to the 6-level proficiency framework for Vietnam. . This exit standard is also the entry requirement for doctoral students in Vietnam.

Handling violations when the copy fee is not quoted correctly.

Regarding the Master’s thesis orientation and instructor standards, according to the draft, to limit the fact that a professor guides a generalized research-oriented master’s thesis and does not have quality control tools, the draft has been adjusted to clarify more clearly that the current regulations (Circular No. 15/2014 / TT-BGDĐT) on the requirements and regulations that guide the thesis for research-oriented training programs: People with the title of professor instruct up to 7 students; Individuals with doctoral degrees or associate professor degree are instructed up to 5 students; People with a PhD of 1 year or more are guided up to 3 students at the same time, including students from other training institutions.

Academic integrity was emphasized in the draft regulations. Due to the specific characteristics of each training field, there are international regulations and guidelines that cite different standards, so the draft regulations assign training institutions to learn from international experience that have provisions on: how to present the thesis, the minimum and maximum number of words required by each training discipline; regulations on student commitments in research ethics;

Stipulate and guide the use or citation of published research results in accordance with the regulations and standardized international citation requirements of each discipline or training discipline; regulations on verification and anti-copying by specialized software; Handle violations when the copy rate is not quoted correctly.

Application-oriented training, students do not have to do a thesis.

Leaders of the Department of Higher Education said that during the construction process, the Draft Regulation has consulted and learned from international experiences in concretizing research-oriented training programs and application-oriented training programs.

For an application-oriented training program, students do not have to do a thesis like a research-oriented training program; Training institutions provide for each specific program, students learn compulsory and optional modules, they can send an email to ask students to do essays, projects, graduation report at the end of the course (if applicable)).

To strengthen the role of state management in the implementation of autonomy training for master’s degrees, the project complements the regulations on information disclosure and accountability of training institutions, as well as the additional regulations required. Search transparently for diplomas to serve post-exam work.

Hong Hanh