Independent experts announce top 49 universities in Vietnam An independent group of six researchers who are working in Vietnam and other countries have announced a list of 49 top local universities on September 6. The group includes Dr Luu Quang Hung from Australia, Dr Ngo Duc The from the UK, and Dr Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Dr Giap Van Duong, M.A Tran Thanh Thuy and M.A Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen in Vietnam. Prof. Tran Nam Binh from New South Wales University, Australia and Prof. Le Van Cuong from Pantheon-Sorbonne University, France, are the consultants for the project. The project is non-profit and carried out in three years and included over 100 universities in Vietnam. It is hoped to help universities improve and be more transparent amid the changing world. The Ministry of Education and Training has also tried to rank the universities but there's no comprehensive chart yet. There are three criteria including scientific research, education and training, and infrastructure and management. Hanoi National University tops the list, followed by Ton Duc Thang University and Hanoi University of Agriculture.    Hanoi National University Many young and lesser known universities are ranked highly on the list thanks to their international publications. Ton Duc Thang University encourages and helps both Vietnamese and international authors to collaborate and publish their articles internationally. Even though well-known economic universities are given regards for their high entrance scores and reputation among employers, they lack international publications and their training is considered to be larger than the number of qualified lecturers. Most of them are averagely ranked. Published local articles were not included if the magazines or journals were not recognised by the Institute for Scientific Information as Vietnam lacks online database and to encourage universities to meet international standards. Political, military or public security universities, newly-established or foreign-affiliated ones were also not included because of the lack of data. According to the group, the students and parents can use the list to understand the correlation between the universities before doing more in-depth research about their interested departments. The universities can look back at their weak and strong points compared to other universities and improve. The group emphasised that the list is for reference use and only reflects some aspects of the facilities. It should not be used to measure the overall quality of a university. By Hong Hanh, dtinews.vn