Vo Xuan Vinh, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences
Ho Thi Thanh, Vietnam National University Hanoi
The BA Southeast Asian Studies program of Vietnam National University Hanoi is older than Naresuan’s, having been established in 1995. The Southeast Asian Studies Department was founded a couple of years later under the Faculty of Oriental Studies. In 2013, however, the BA Southeast Asian Studies program was abolished and replaced the following year by the BA Thai Studies program. Five years later, the Southeast Asian Studies Department and the BA Southeast Asian Studies program were restored, this time with six full-time and 16 part-time lecturers.
Hence the university offers two undergraduate levels about the region: Southeast Asian Studies and Thai Studies. The BA Southeast Asian Studies program has a heavy language component (choice of Thai or Indonesian), while the Thai language is understandably a requirement of the BA Thai Studies program. The BA Thai Studies program had 17 graduates in academic year 2021-22, compared to 58 in the BA Southeast Asian Studies program in the same year. Whether it is wise to offer a program on a specific country at the same level as a regional study program will soon become evident as enrollment data come in. Both programs aim at more or less the same audience and their curricula overlap in content. For example:
| Course Type | BA Southeast Asian Studies | BA Thai Studies |
|---|---|---|
| Required |
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| Elective |
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Table 1. Required and Elective Courses of BA Southeast Asian and BA Thai Studies Programs (Excluding Language Courses)
Sources: Vietnam National University Hanoi, BA Southeast Asian Studies <https://web.archive.org/web/20221130172955/https://ussh.vnu.edu.vn/vi/dao-tao/nganh-dong-nam-a-hoc/khung-chuong-trinh-18212.html>;
BA Thai Studies <https://web.archive.org/web/20220302122921/https://ussh.vnu.edu.vn/vi/dao-tao/nganh-dong-phuong-hoc/khung-chuong-trinh-ap-dung-tu-khoa-qh-2019-x-16316.html>. Accessed 24 November 2022.
The PhD Southeast Asian Studies program began in 2008 and aims to:
The number of graduates is small, from one to two a year since 2016 (none in academic year 2020-21). The traditional appeal of international relations and diplomacy is still evident in the student dissertations, but all of them at least deal with countries outside Vietnam.
| Category | Dissertation Topic [Year Defended] |
|---|---|
| International relations |
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| Comparative studies |
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| Religion |
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| Art |
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| Policy |
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| Southeast Asian leaders |
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| Education |
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Table 2. Categories of Dissertation Topics, PhD Southeast Asian Studies, 2016-2022
As for faculty publications from 2017 to 2022, ‘own country plus’ studies represent a third of total publications, followed closely by papers on Indonesia (28%), Malaysia (17%), and Thailand (10%). A few of the papers speak about Korean influence or Korean language teaching in Indonesia and Thailand, and only one publication is about Vietnam. Among the faculty several country specialists stand out: Ho Thi Thanh for Indonesia, Tran Thuy Anh for Malaysia; and Tran Quynh Trang and Nguyen Thi Thuy Chau for Thailand.
The concern raised by Dr. Boonwanno with regard to Naresuan University’s programs—the lack of human resources (lecturers and administrative staff)—also applies to both the Southeast Asian Studies and Thai Studies programs of the Vietnam National University Hanoi. In the program’s initial years, the lecturers were recognized professors, associate professors and PhDs. Since 2017, however, the faculty’s source of permanent lecturers has significantly narrowed. That year, for instance, among the department’s nine lecturers, one was a professor, two were associate professors, and the rest held PhD and Master’s degrees. The professor retired in 2020, and the two associate professors in 2017 and 2021, respectively. Therefore, the current crop of permanent lecturers—six in all for both the Thai and the Southeast Asian Studies programs—are of relatively low academic rank and with less academic experience. Three of them have taught for more than ten years, while the rest could be considered as still undergoing a training process. More worrisome is that some of the full-time lecturers are not even trained in Southeast Asian or in Thai Studies.
Moreover, all six lecturers must teach, research, and perform other academic and administrative services such as conducting examinations, engaging in external relations, organizing student support activities, arranging the schedule of part-time lecturers, and doing other administrative tasks. Because these lecturers are not trained in administration, the paperwork takes up an inordinately large amount of their time, depriving them of the hours needed for teaching and research. The case study writers warn that “[t]he risk of lecturers becoming teaching-administrative machines is inevitable.” To ease their burden (somewhat), part-time lecturers have been hired (more than ten), who now account for the majority of the faculty. These lecturers come from other majors in the Faculty of Oriental Studies (under the VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities), the University of Languages and International Studies (under VNU), and institutes under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences.
The implications of faculty shortage for the viability of the PhD program are serious. The Ministry of Education and Training ruled in April 2017 that a training institution may open a doctoral program when it has at least one professor and three doctorates or two associate professors and three doctorates, all of whom must be full-time lecturers in the appropriate field or a discipline allied with the program. The possession of a degree in the proper discipline allows the professor or associate professor to preside over the program, organize its implementation, and ensure its quality. Since the PhD Southeast Asian Studies program currently has no full-time lecturers holding the title of professor and associate professor, however, the future of the program is in peril.
The second major constraint has to do with faculty recruitment. Previously, outstanding graduates were invited to join the faculty and undergo training as lecturers. However, new university regulations require a doctoral degree. Master’s degree holders may be recruited in special cases, but they must register for the doctoral program upon recruitment. If they do not take a doctoral course immediately after being recruited, a penalty will be deducted from their salary at the end of the year. The prospective lecturer must also complete the doctoral program in three years to enjoy tuition waiver. Failing that, he or she would have to pay tuition through salary deduction at the end of the year and worse, forfeit the title of “advanced laborer,” a criterion for assessing the successful completion of the year’s tasks. Faculty recruitment has thus become a grave problem.
The third challenge is the requirement of faculty publications. University regulations require VNU-level research projects to produce international publications in ISI or SCOPUS-accredited journals. Without the stipulated international publication, the project will be deemed a failure, the penalty for which is salary deduction. Instead of taking the risk, then, some lecturers opt to just teach and do their own research for publication without university support. This explains why from 2016 to the present, not a single university-level research project has been carried out by lecturers in the Southeast Asian Studies programs.
A related difficulty arises from the university’s limited collection of materials and resources for teaching Southeast Asian and Thai Studies. VNU’s library system, moreover, is still poorly digitized, and the library system is not connected to the library system of VNU partners around the world, posing a constraint on teaching and research.
Despite these difficulties, the Southeast Asian Studies and the Thai Studies programs are among the top choices for undergraduate admission to the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. The entry marks of these two programs have consistently been the highest admission scores. Surely one hallmark of a program’s strength is its ability to attract quality students. Perhaps one source of attraction is the employability of graduates. Competence in a Southeast Asian language (and in English), knowledge of the region’s culture and history, and research capability are assets for any graduate and certainly to the job market. When participating in scientific research projects, for instance, graduates have been observed to quickly become key researchers of their respective institutions. The graduates’ ability is a testament to their mentors’ dedication in spite of the problems discussed earlier.