VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam’s training in mathematics at universities remains poor, according to many mathematicians. 

Of the best-known first-generation mathematicians in the early 20th century, five professors were trained in France, namely Le Van Thiem, Nguyen Xien, Ta Quang Buu, Nguyen Thuc Hao and Hoang Xuan Han. 

Vietnam organized the first math university entrance exam in 1970 and attended the international mathematics Olympiad for the first time in 1974, at which Hoang Le Minh received the first gold medal.

Vietnam organized the first math university entrance exam in 1970 and attended the international mathematics Olympiad for the first time in 1974, at which Hoang Le Minh received the first gold medal.

However, according to Le Tuan Hoa, a well-known mathematician, despite the long history, the number of professors in mathematics remains modest – less than 80, and 10 of them have passed away. 

There are about 300 associate professors and 1,000 PhDs. Of these, 400 are working as university lecturers, which means there is less than one PhD per university or junior college.

Seventeen universities have math faculty and 30 universities give training in math.

Commenting about math training at university education, Hoa believes that the training quality in Vietnam is worse than Singapore, while it is weak compared with the world. 

“Vietnam is very good at training excellent students in math at general school, and it is also very good at training PhDs with many dissertations. But it is weak at math in university,” he said.

“We don’t have post-doc training in math. And our applied mathematics is also weak,” he continued.

Bui Quang Ngoc, CEO of FPT, the largest information technology group, commented that Vietnamese can’t create large, interesting systems which run fast and don’t make mistakes because IT officers are weak at math.

Ngoc said it is necessary to improve math training at university.

Le Truong Tung, president of FPT University, said only a limited number of universities provide training in basic mathematics and pointed out that the low quality of students for mathematics faculties is a big problem.

FPT University now provides basic math training, enrolling 30 studentsevery year. It is estimated that the school has to spend $1 million to train the students.

In Vietnam, only four schools train students in theoretical math out of 600 universities and junior colleges throughout the country.

The three mathematicians of the Institute of Mathematics who have got the Ho Chi Minh Awards include Ngo Viet Trung, Nguyen Tu Cuong and Le Tuan Hoa.

This was the third of 5 times the Ho Chi Minh Award was presented to professors from the Institute of Mathematics.

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