Vietnam: Eligibility requirements for the doctoral program

Eligibility requirements for the doctoral program (Image from Internet)

1. Eligibility requirements for the doctoral program

According to Article 7 of the regulations issued along with Circular 18/2021/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, eligibility requirements for the doctoral program are as follows:

* General requirements for applicants:

- Hold a master's degree or bachelor's degree classified as good or higher in a suitable academic discipline or a qualification equivalent to level 7 of the Vietnamese Qualifications Framework in some special academic disciplines suitable for the field of the target doctoral program;

- Meet admission requirements of training program standards promulgated by the Ministry of Education and Training and of the target doctoral program;

- Have research experience evidenced by a master’s thesis of a research-oriented training program; or a published scientific report or article; or working for at least 02 years (24 months) as a lecturer or researcher of a training institution or scientific and technological organization;

- Have a draft research outline and draft course-wise study and research plan.

* Vietnamese applicants must meet foreign language requirements as evidenced by any of the following degrees and certificates:

- A bachelor’s degree or higher awarded by a foreign training institution, Vietnamese branch of a foreign training institution or Vietnamese training institution to learners of a full-time program taught in a foreign language;

- A bachelor’s degree in a foreign language awarded by a Vietnamese training institution;

- Any of the foreign language proficiency certificates mentioned in Appendix II of this Regulation that is unexpired on the application date or any other foreign language proficiency certificate equivalent to level 4 of the Vietnam's language proficiency framework announced by the Ministry of Education and Training.| | Appendix II || --- | --- |

* Any foreign applicant who applies for a doctoral program taught in Vietnamese must have a Vietnamese proficiency certificate of level 4 of the Vietnam's language proficiency framework applicable to foreigners or higher and meet second foreign language requirements of the training institution, unless the applicant is a native speaker of the language used to teach the doctoral program.

* Training institution regulations shall specify requirements for specialized qualification, language proficiency and work experience and other requirements for applicants according to the characteristics of each field of training, academic discipline and training program of the training institution based on the minimum requirements provided in Article 7 of Circular 18/2021/TT-BGDDT.

2. Regulations on admission and recognition of research students

According to Article 8 of Circular 18/2021/TT-BGDĐT regarding the admission and recognition of research students:

- Every training institution may decide to admit new students one or more than one time a year when it meets quality assurance conditions for doctoral programs according to existing regulations.

- Admission methods include admission by examination, admission without examination or combination between examination and admission without examination. Training institutions shall decide on the admission method, ensuring transparent, fair, impartial and honest assessment of knowledge and capacity of applicants. Training institutions may organize online admission when they meet quality assurance conditions applicable to direct admission.

- Training institutions shall publish an admission announcement on their websites at least 30 working days before application begins, which shall include information on eligibility requirements; academic discipline and suitable specialized requirements; admission quota; application content, admission plan, result announcement time and enrolment time; tuition, policies for tuition reduction, exemption and assistance for research students during their study (if any) and other necessary information according to requirements of the training program and training institution.

- During admission, training institutions must perform internal inspection and supervision as per existing regulations.

- A research student recognition decision shall comprise the following information: name of the research student, academic discipline, provisional dissertation topic, instructor or co-instructor, management unit of the research student, training duration and course-wise study and research plan of the research student.

- Training institution regulations shall stipulate admission plans, admission announcements, admission methods, admission organization and research student recognition; archiving for the purposes of management, appraisal, supervision and inspection; responsibilities and sanctions for violations committed by groups, units and individuals involved in admission organization and research student recognition.

To Quoc Trinh

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