In terms of total investments for scientific research, the education sector has a budget lower than several other ministries and branches, including the Vietnam Academy of Science & Technology, the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, MARD and MOIT, according to a research team from Hanoi National University and MST.

The survey found that technological schools have the most outstanding science & technology products.

Technological schools (9/16 reported schools) had 1,729 technology transfer contracts signed and implemented in 2011-2015 which brought profits of VND553.09 million.

According to Vu Van Tich, head of the research team, the strength of scientific research activities of the education sector lies in agriculture– forestry–fishery and medicine.

Thanks to the application of scientific research works conducted by agriculture universities, Vietnam has become the world’s leading exporter in rice, coffee and cashew nuts.

The research in the medical sector by medical and pharmaceutical schools is also a strength of Vietnam in comparison with regional countries.

Agriculture–forestry–fishery schools in 2011-2016 had 570 products created, 62 of which were in the medical & pharmaceutical sector and 508 in agriculture–forestry-fishery.

Regarding internationally published articles, according to Web of Science, in 2011-2015, the total number of ISI publications was 10,034 articles. This included 5,738 articles from universities, accounting for over 50 percent of Vietnam’s total international published publications.

As for a number of technological schools with the latest year (statistics from the group of 16 schools belonging to the Hanoi University of Technology, the University of Natural Sciences of VNU Hanoi, the University of Technology of VNU HCMC and the University of Technology of Da Nang University), there were 1,733/5,738 international publications in 2011-2016, which accounted for over 30 percent of Vietnam’s total publications in the education sector.

Agriculture – forestry – fishery and medical schools published 7,023 articles in professional journals in Vietnam and overseas, of which 3,349 articles were published on summary records of national and international workshops.

On average, one scientist at the economics school under the Hanoi National University published 1.45 articles and one scientist from the social sciences school one article.

As for the overall assessment about the structure, function and organization model, the team pointed out that the organization of scientific activities at schools still isn't in line with the SRIC standards (S - Study; R - Research; I - Incubator; C - Commercialize).

Of the problem faced by scientific research units under universities, the team emphasized the lack of money to cover expenses on research.

The financial investment on science & technology activities in the country in 2011-2016 accounted for 1.7 percent of the state’s budget, or 0.4 percent of GDP./.

VNF/Vietnamnet