In 5 years, Vietnam has had 2,184 more recognized Professors and Associate Professors.

In 2018, Decision No. 37 of the Prime Minister took effect, replacing the previous Decision 174, but it was not until 2019 that it officially came into practice.

The basic objective of Decision No. 37 is to improve the quality of Vietnamese professors and associate professors (GS, PGS) through regulations on standards to approach international standards; encourage candidates to publish scientific works in prestigious international journals, helping candidates to increasingly integrate deeply and widely with the international scientific community; gradually improve foreign language proficiency, especially English; be open and transparent in the process of evaluating candidate profiles...

Over the past 5 years, according to information from the State Council of Professors (SCP), the SCP has coordinated with SCs at all levels and relevant agencies and units to promptly, transparently, objectively and publicly respond to relevant petitions and complaints according to regulations.

In 2019, there were 30 comments from society. In 2020, there were 57 petitions and comments from society related to 16 sectoral and interdisciplinary Councils; 2 petitions related to members of sectoral and interdisciplinary Councils; 2 questions about the results of the review at the sectoral Council.

In 2021, there were 35 social feedbacks (3 legitimate). In 2022, there were 22 petitions, emails, and feedbacks (2 legitimate). In 2023, there were 18 feedbacks.

Up to now, the National Council of Professors has processed 100% of petitions, complaints and denunciations about candidates; coordinated with relevant units to process 2 denunciations about members of the sectoral and interdisciplinary Council of Professors, namely the Council of Culture - Arts - Sports and the Council of Economics, and 3 denunciations against 3 Associate Professors who were recognized in previous years; is coordinating to process 1 denunciation against 1 Associate Professor who was recognized in 2021, 1 Associate Professor in Mechanics - Dynamics in 2017, 1 Associate Professor in Education in 2021, 1 Associate Professor in Animal Husbandry - Veterinary Medicine in 2022); is coordinating to process 1 Associate Professor in Law in 2021.

The results of the entire term review in the years 2019-2023 show that the ratio of candidates submitting applications compared to the number of registered candidates is 3126/3612, accounting for over 86%, of which the ratio for professor candidates is 84.5% and for associate professor candidates is 86.9%;

The rate of candidates approved at the basic Councils of Professors is 2746/3126, accounting for nearly 88%, of which the rate for Professor candidates is 88.1% and Associate Professor candidates is 88.8%;

The rate of candidates approved at the industry and interdisciplinary councils: 2264/2746, accounting for 82.4%, of which the rate for professor candidates is 70.9% and for associate professor candidates is 84.2%;

The rate of candidates approved by the State Council of Professors: Total 2184/2264, reaching 96.5%, of which the rate for GS candidates is 93.9% and PGS candidates is 96.9%. Compared with the number of candidates submitting applications for consideration at the basic GS Councils, the number of candidates approved by the State Council of Professors is 69.8%; compared with the number of registered candidates, the number of candidates approved by the State Council of Professors is 60.5% (GS candidates are 49.6% and PGS candidates are 62.2%).

According to the National Council of Professors, 2019 is the first year of implementing Decision 37. The Council of Professors of Security Science and Military Science proposes that the National Council of Professors consider recognizing the qualifications for the title of Associate Professor for 5 candidates majoring in Fire Prevention and Fighting according to the provisions of Decision 37 and 35 candidates (1 Professor candidate, 34 Associate Professor candidates) according to the specific replacement plan.

However, after reporting, the Government Office proposed to properly implement Decision No. 37 of the Prime Minister. If through implementation, it is found that the Decision has inappropriate contents, it will be carefully evaluated and the procedure for amendment and supplementation will be carried out according to regulations.

Also in 2019, the recognition of GS standards was carried out for 1 special case (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Duc Chinh, at the request of the Faculty of Mechanics) according to the provisions of Decision No. 37.

In 2020, the Prime Minister signed and issued Decision No. 25 amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decision No. 37, which stipulated the replacement of the standards for scientific articles published in prestigious international journals for the fields of Military Science and Security Science related to state secrets in the fields of National Defense and Security and amended Appendix I to clearly distinguish scientific articles published in scientific journals and scientific reports at conferences.

Thanks to that, 36 candidates majoring in state secrets in the fields of National Defense and Security were considered for recognition as meeting the standards of Professor and Associate Professor in 2020.

Besides the achievements, the activities of the 2018 - 2023 term of the National Assembly still have difficulties, shortcomings and limitations that need to be overcome.

The understanding and application of the “insufficient” level of some criteria according to Decision No. 37 (not enough teaching experience, not enough standard teaching hours; not enough scientific works; not performing enough scientific and technological tasks; not guiding enough graduate students, postgraduate students; not enough points from compiling books for training, etc.) were initially not unified among the sectoral and interdisciplinary Councils of Professors, but were promptly unified and guided by the National Council of Professors to ensure fairness for all candidates.

Regulations on prestigious international articles, monographs, and criteria for scoring scientific works are unclear, leading to the "abuse" of the concept of monographs or candidates publishing too many scientific works in a short period of time, causing public opinion to doubt their seriousness.

On the other hand, the regulation requiring the same number of prestigious international articles for all candidates in different scientific fields is difficult for some fields in the fields of Social Sciences - Humanities, Culture - Arts, and Sports.

In some basic, sectoral and interdisciplinary scientific councils, the identification of prestigious international journals and prestigious international publishers is still confusing; the assessment of scientific works still focuses on counting quantity, not carefully assessing the quality of the content of each scientific work; questions have not been thoroughly resolved, leading to a number of petitions being sent to the State Scientific Council and media agencies.

The issue of scientific integrity has been increasingly focused on by the Councils of Science at all levels in the process of evaluating documents, but has not been applied evenly among the councils, especially among the sectoral and interdisciplinary Councils of Science.

The National Council of Professors proposes that in the coming time, it will review and propose contents that need to be revised and supplemented in Decision No. 37 and Decision No. 25 in the direction of ensuring strict, clear regulations that are more consistent with reality and current legal documents, contributing to improving the quality of work in recognizing the standards for the titles of Professor and Associate Professor in the coming years.