Dr. Le Dac Son: "Cooperation with businesses is an inevitable path to improve the quality of university education"

The “University - Enterprise training model” has long been considered very important in the process of training high-quality human resources. However, not all universities have implemented it strongly. Dai Nam University is one of the pioneering training institutions in this field and considers it one of the key tasks, the backbone of the core training axis.

At the invitation of Viettimes Electronic Magazine - Agency of Vietnam Digital Communications Association, Dr. Le Dac Son - Chairman of the University Council shared frankly about the current reality of business cooperation of universities.

We would like to re-post the interview on the school's website:

VietTimes – Nowadays in Vietnam, there are many private universities established by entrepreneurs and businesses. To learn about this model, VietTimes had an interview with Dr. Le Dac Son – Chairman of the Board of Dai Nam University.

Dr. Le Dac Son - Chairman of the Board of Dai Nam University

PV: As a teacher and also a successful businessman, could you please tell us your views on university education in the market mechanism in general and at Dai Nam University in particular?

Dr. Le Dac Son: In my personal opinion, in the market mechanism, university education in general is considered a type of service, universities provide training services to learners with quality corresponding to the cost (tuition) that learners have paid to the school.

In Vietnam, there are two types of universities: public and private. Public universities in Vietnam do not operate according to the market mechanism, but basically operate according to the form of distributing benefits to students. Students at public universities are not investors in their future through their studies, but the investor here is the State.

"We will never do anything that is harmful to students, no matter how small. We will do everything that is best for students with all our heart and soul" - the declaration of Dr. Le Dac Son and also the educational motto of Dai Nam University.

For private schools like Dai Nam University, the school is the one providing training services to students, and students are the school's customers. The school is responsible for satisfying its customers with training quality commensurate with the investment costs (tuition) that students pay to the school. That is why in the school's mission, we clearly state "Dai Nam University is a place that provides training services to students so that students can have a good life and be good citizens after graduation."

PV: Because Vietnam is a developing country, the reality is that science and business are ahead of schools. In your opinion, how should schools proactively cooperate with businesses so that we can have human resources that meet the demands of reality?

Dr. Le Dac Son: Many Vietnamese universities today still mainly teach students the academic knowledge that the school has (not regularly updating practical production and business practices in society), so most students graduating from school cannot work immediately.

Dai Nam University is directly operating 03 3-star practice hotels in Hanoi, 4-star in Bac Ninh, 5-star in Da Nang and 01 Travel Center that both does tourism business and serves as a practice facility for Tourism students.

Therefore, in order to work, businesses must retrain and supplement knowledge from 6 months to 1 year for newly graduated bachelors and engineers. That phase difference causes costly retraining costs and takes more time for an engineer to truly integrate into the workforce effectively. Training for graduates to have jobs immediately after graduation must be trained according to the needs of businesses.

Realizing that, universities have been working with businesses to build output standards that are suitable for the practical needs of businesses. This is the inevitable path that universities must take to improve the quality of training.

PV: There have been opinions that in this relationship, neither the school nor the business should consider themselves the best for the cooperation process to go well. Could you please tell us your opinion on this opinion?

Dr. Le Dac Son: The relationship between schools and businesses must be considered a close, mutually supportive relationship. Schools, as "intellectual producers" to provide to businesses, must find a way for businesses to use. If they want students to graduate and meet the requirements of businesses, schools must understand what businesses need.

If the school does not understand what the business needs, it will train inappropriate products (defective products must be retrained). On the business side: if they keep complaining that students must spend effort and money to retrain them after graduation to be used, then why not go to the universities to order student output so that they can work for the business and benefit immediately.

Therefore, this relationship must be built equally (Win - Win), beneficial for both sides and for the country. However, the reality in our country: schools are in greater need of cooperation from businesses for training. Most businesses have not really seen the opposite of this synergy.

PV: University education must turn the training process into self-training so that students can be mature and useful when they graduate. What do you think about this reality? To have positive interactions from both sides, especially to create conditions for universities to give students more opportunities to experience at businesses, a policy from the State is needed. The policy that some countries have implemented to force businesses to connect with schools is the labor recruitment tax.

Dr. Le Dac Son: Why is university education in developed countries successful? In fact, they have taught students to become self-learners. Lecturers no longer teach students according to the old model: The teacher is the center, students are the ones who listen, take notes, memorize for exams... like in universities in Vietnam today.

We are forced to change the university teaching model in the following way: Taking students as the center; Lecturers are coaches, those who kindle passion for students, guiding students to self-study according to the regulations of active lectures built by teachers. When and only when students know how to self-study and research under the guidance of teachers, university education will be successful.

The path to that goal is of interest to domestic university educators. In the context of the current Covid-19 epidemic, students are having to study online passively, so schools are looking for ways to make students self-study. Digital transformation will be the most positive and effective solution to make the desire for students to self-study come true.

PV: Thank you!

According to Viettimes