Vietnam’s politico-economic reform (Đổi Mới) was launched in 1986, and since then the country adopted the market-oriented economy. Vietnam has transformed its economic, cultural, and social activities from one of the poorest countries in the world, with per capita income around $100, to lower middle income status within a quarter of a century with per capita income of over $2,000 by the end of 2014 (The World Bank, 2015). Its politico-economic context has impacted the operations of its HE system, especially on HEIs’ research activities since its Higher Education Reform Agenda (HERA) was activated in 2005. The overall objective of the HERA for the period 2006-2020 is to create the Vietnamese HE system that by 2020, ‘advanced by international standards, highly competitive, and appropriate to the socialist oriented market system.’ Its specific objectives are to increase S&T activities being carried out within universities, to develop key HEIs into major scientific centres for the entire country, and to increase income from S&T activities to account for at least 15% of total HE income by 2010 and 25% by 202017(G. Harman & Ngoc, 2010). Specifically, the research capacity of the three HEIs has been affected in three aspects (commercialisation of university research, research-teaching link, and selection criteria for research projects) under the Vietnamese politico-economic context (Figure 7-2).
17Resolution No. 14/2005/NQ-CP, dated 2 November 2005
184
Figure 7-2. Socioeconomic factors affecting the research capacities of the three HEIs Commercialisation of university research
Commercialisation of university research is seen as the first element affected by political and economic changes. The commercialisation of university research was more visibly reflected in the regional and national institutions. Three academic managers (two from Case Three and one from Case Two) suggested that research activities at Vietnamese HEIs were now becoming commercialised. However, the commercialisation of university research was not explicitly identified from Case One because no participants from this institution mentioned it. It was likely because very few important research projects were conducted by its academics for the past ten years. The study found that the commercialisation of university research was reflected by academics’ research income and research in specific disciplines.
For academics’ research income, the study found that non-material encouragement seemed to be no longer effective for boosting academics’ research engagement. Now, academics’ thoughts are becoming more materialistic. From different perspectives, two participants (one senior lecturer and one academic manager) from Case Three shared the view that the commercialisation of university research
Research-Teaching Linkage
Selection Criteria for Research Projects
Commerciali-sation of University
Research
SOCIOECONOMIC CONTEXT SOCIOECONOMIC
CONTEXT
HEIs’ RESEARCH CAPACITY
185
originated from effects of market economy. The academic manager perceived that the junior academics in his institution had a tendency to convert everything, including their research tasks, into money. Consequently, the academics have a greater devotion towards research projects that have greater research funding. In fact, since the Government’s policy ‘Đổi Mới’ (Renovation), which transitioned from a centralised planned economy to a market oriented economy, has affected Vietnamese people’s activities especially in the aspect of economics, including research activities at HEIs.
Similarly, an academic manager from Case Two said that the issue of ‘cơm-áo-gạo-tiền18’ was given a higher priority than professional reputation by the academics when they undertook research. He added that academics’ idealisation to contribute into the national development through non-monetary rewards was gradually fading. This finding supports studies of Owen-Smith and Powell (2001), Thursby, Jensen, and Thursby (2001), and Lach and Schankerman (2008), which found a positive link between financial incentives and the motivations of inventors to patents. In summary, financial incentives or monetary rewards seem to be more important than non-pecuniary factors for junior academic researchers, especially the academics in an emerging economy country like Vietnam, to engage in research activities.
This study also found that there was a difference in the influential degree of university research commercialisation on different disciplinary research projects across the three institutions. the commercialisation of basic research projects and research projects in domains of education and SS&H was much weaker than in other domains.
Research commercialisation is obvious in the research environment of the faculties in each institution. The commercialised degree of research projects and the research environment in the applied engineering faculties were stronger and more active than those in other faculties. For example, in Case One, the research environment and research capacity of the faculty of Agriculture & Natural Resources were more dynamic and stronger than five other faculties (see Table 4-2, Chapter 4). Similarly, in Case Two,
18 ‘cơm-áo-gạo-tiền’ is literally translated into English as ‘cooked rice – clothes – rice – money’. As it is the fact that Vietnam is an agricultural country – the second largest rice exporter in the world, the culture of rice is exposed in a wide range of Vietnamese everyday language. This phrase has an equivalent meaning that the material benefit is more important than the spiritual benefit.
186
the research environment and research capacity of the applied engineering faculties and research institutes were very dynamic and strong. In the interview, a senior manager of this institution stated that a majority of the important national and foreign research projects conducted in this institution were undertaken by the academics from the Colleges of Applied Agriculture, Aquaculture & Fisheries, and the academics from the Institutes of Biotechnology Research & Development, and Mekong Delta Development.
It is also evidenced by the data from Table 5-8 in Chapter 5 that most of Case Two’s important research projects conducted in the period 2006-2010 belonged to domains of applied engineering, especially in the fields of agriculture and environment. This result is supported by the interview data from another academic manager from this institution.
He stated that the research environment of a university or faculty became dynamic once it gained more external financial support. It was very hard for colleges/schools of SS&H and Education in this institution to gain external financial support because most of their research projects were for teaching disciplines only, and did not meet the organisation’s application requirements.
The research environment and research capacity of Case Three were not as dynamic and strong as those of Case Two because Case Three only provided training courses and conducted research projects related to SS&H. This institution faced difficulties to gain the research grants from VNU, ministerial and national research agencies because most of the research grants are given to research projects related to applied engineering domains. In reality, businesses generally finance university research that produces intellectual property utilised by the organisation. Commercialisation of university research occurs when university researchers conduct studies that lead to a discovery and have potential to yield commercial value (Smyth & Smart, 2012). Thus, it is more difficult for the faculties of education and SS&H in the three institutions to conduct research that yields high commercial value. Consequently, the research environment at HEIs, and in their faculties of education and SS&H is less dynamic. In other words, the research engagement and research capacity of the faculties of education and SS&H are much weaker than those in applied engineering faculties.
187
In conclusion, commercialisation of university research in Vietnam has only begun recently, and especially, since 1993 when the Vietnamese Government began to pay a greater attention to the development of its HE system and research activities at HEIs. The socioeconomic changes in Vietnam at recent times inevitably cause university cutback in research, which affects its HEIs’ research capacities, and their academics’
research engagement. However, the effects of research university commercialisation are not the same between the HEIs and faculties majoring in applied engineering disciplines and those majoring in SS&H and education. Therefore, it is necessary that the Government and the MOET strongly invest in basic research and give particular support to university research areas to which businesses pay little attention.
A linkage of research and teaching
The findings across the three institutions indicate that the link between research and teaching at these institutions was not strong and that the research capacity of Case Two was the strongest. For Case Three, despite being considered to be one of the two Vietnamese strongest research HEIs in the field of SS&H, its research and teaching link was not strong. There were two participants from this institution who mentioned the research and teaching link at Vietnamese HEIs. One stated that in order to enhance the research capacity of Vietnamese HEIs, the link between research and teaching needed to be reinforced. He continued that this link in his institution was not strong due to limited finance and research resources, and especially academics’ low motivation for research. The other considered that the link between research and teaching was very important for university academics because they might update their teaching materials, regulate their ways of teaching, and be respected by their students. However, he admitted that this link was not very strong in his institution.
As previously mentioned, although the research environment and research capacity of Case Two was stronger than those of Case One and Case Three, the research and teaching link of Case Two was also identified as not strong as well. For instance, three academic managers (MRe 1, MRe 2, and MRe 3) in this case had the same idea that the link between research and teaching in most Vietnamese HEIs in general, and in