Training Program for Doctoral Degrees in accordance with Circular 08/2017/TT-BGDDT

1. The doctoral training program is designed, evaluated, and issued by the training institution as per current regulations, meeting the following conditions:

- A minimum study load of 90 credits for PhD candidates with a master's degree and a minimum of 120 credits for PhD candidates with a bachelor's degree;- The learning outcomes include practical and theoretical knowledge; cognitive skills, professional practice skills, and communication and interpersonal skills; the level of autonomy and personal responsibility in applying knowledge and skills to perform specialized tasks of a doctoral graduate must achieve Level 8 of the Vietnam National Qualifications Framework approved in Decision 1982/QD-TTg.

2. The structure of the training program includes: supplementary courses, doctoral-level courses, and the doctoral dissertation.

3. The supplementary courses aim to support the PhD candidates in having sufficient knowledge and professional level to carry out the research topic.

- For PhD candidates who already hold a master's degree: based on the courses accumulated at the master's level, the need for updated and supplemented knowledge, and the requirements of the field and research topic, directors of universities, academies, rectors of universities, and heads of scientific research institutes authorized to train doctoral levels determine the number of courses and credits the PhD candidate needs to supplement.- For PhD candidates who do not hold a master's degree: the supplementary courses include master's level courses in the relevant field or specialization, excluding foreign language courses and thesis; with a minimum knowledge load of 30 credits to ensure the PhD candidate meets the Level 7 learning outcomes of the National Qualifications Framework and the requirements of the field and research topic.

4. The doctoral-level courses (including compulsory and elective courses) aim to enhance the level of specialization theory, research methods, and the ability to apply research methods, in which:

- The overview essay requires the PhD candidates to demonstrate their ability to analyze and evaluate domestic and international research works directly related to the research topic, thereby deriving the purpose and research tasks of the doctoral dissertation;- Doctoral topics require PhD candidates to enhance their research capacity and self-research, updating new knowledge directly related to the research topic of the doctoral dissertation;- Each PhD candidate must complete between 06 and 09 doctoral-level courses with a load of 14 to 20 credits, in which the overview essay and 02 or 03 doctoral topics decided by the head of the training institution are compulsory courses.

5. The doctoral dissertation is the scientific research outcome of the PhD candidate, containing new contributions in theory and practice in the professional field, valuable in developing, increasing scientific knowledge and thoroughly solving the raised issue of the dissertation topic.

6. The training institution is allowed to use the doctoral-level training program of a foreign training institution according to the provision of point c, clause 1, Article 36 of the Law on Higher Education.

See also: Circular 08/2017/TT-BGDDT, effective from May 18, 2017.

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