1. Successful organization of the XXXth Party Congress of Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA) for the period 2020-2025
The debut of the Executive Committee of VNUA for the period 2020-2025
The Congress took place from 20-21 June 2020 with the participation of 177 delegates, including 14 standing delegates, 162 delegates elected from 44 subordinate units, 01 appointed delegate. The first session of the Congress took place on the afternoon of 20 June 2020. The official session of the Congress taking place on 21 June 2020 passed the draft Political Report submitted to the Congress, the draft leadership and directive review report of the Executive Committee of the Party committee of VNUA for the period 2015-2020; elect 9 delegates to attend the 3rd Party Congress of Universities and Colleges in Hanoi for the period 2020-2025. The Congress elected the Executive Committee of the XXX Party Committee of VNUA including 15 people, and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan was re-elected to be the Secretary of the Party Committee of VNUA. The Executive Committee for the period 2020-2025 elected 04 comrades into the Standing Committee of the Party Committee; 02 comrades to hold the position of Deputy Secretary of Party Committee; 05 comrades into the Inspection Committee of the Party Committee, and Mr. Vu Ngoc Huyen was re-elected to be the Chairman of the Inspection Committee of the Party Committee.
2. To drastically prevent and combat the epidemic Covid-19
At early stage, on 3 February 2020, VNUA issued Decision No. 272/QD-HVN on the establishment of a Steering Committee for disease prevention and control consisting of 29 members. After that, VNUA issued many directive documents closely monitoring the disease prevention: Notice No. 97/TB-HVN dated 31 January 2020, Notice No. 98/HVN-YT dated 3 February 2020, Official Letter No. 479/HVN-VP dated 31 March 2020... Upon the issuance of the Directive No. 16/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister, the Party Committee, the Board of Trustees, The Presidency Board sent a letter to the officials, staff, employees and students on the Covid-19 epidemic prevention and control. From 31 March 2020, VNUA had restricted the organization of meetings and crowded events; implementation of body temperature check; officials, employees and visitors must sanitize hands and wear masks when coming in and going out of the institution. From 1 April 2020, it is compulsory for the officials, staff and students to strictly follow the social quarantine, the organization of online meetings and teaching via MS Teams software; regular implementation of measures for environmental sanitation, disinfectant spray in the institution and health declaration on www.tokhaiyte.vn VNUA continues the drastic spirit for disease prevention and control in the next outbreak of the epidemic in July 2020. As a result, the whole university stayed safe from the disease. In cooperation with the country for epidemic prevention, VNUA contributed to the community by giving the Agriculture Primary school, especially the schools in Vinh Phuc province, and the officials, soldiers in Military zone 2 1,000 and giving 2,500 disinfectant spraying bottles respectively and medical masks.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Lan, President of VNUA giving the officials, soldiers of Military Zone 2
2500 disinfectant spraying bottles respectively and medical masks
3. Training activities affected by the Covid-19 pandemic
The most remarkable impact is on the teaching and training. From the end of January, VNUA issued Notice No. 96/HVN-VP dated 31 January 2020 on giving all students a week off school due to disease prevention. In the course of complicated situation of the epidemic Covid-19, so as not to disrupt the learners' curriculum, on 13 March 2020, VNUA issued Notice No. 335/HVN-VP to allow students to continue not going to school and conduct online teaching of theoretical subjects in accordance with the timetable for semester 2 (school year 2019-2020) starting from 23 March 2020, with 3 week step-by-step experiments before the formal lessons applicable to all subjects. This is the first time in the history of VNUA that all theoretical subjects are taught online through MS Teams software. In addition, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, the 2019-2020 school year time frame was adjusted to end 7 weeks later than normal but we still ensured the successful completion of the school year plan and the quality of education. This also means that the Covid-19 pandemic even affects the timetable for the school year 2020-2021 of VNUA.
4. Advancement of human resources and organization
Prof. Dr. Tran Duc Vien, Chair Board of Trusteesl and Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Lan,
President of the VNUA give the Appointment Decision to new appointed Vice Presidents.
On 7 February 2020, VNUA held a Ceremony to declare Assoc. Dr. Pham Bao Duong and Dr. Vu Ngoc Huyen as Vice Presidents of VNUA. On the morning of 19 October 2020, VNUA held a ceremony to announce the Decision rename of the Faculty of Political and Social Science to the Faculty of Social Sciences in accordance with Decision No. 3176/QD-HVN dated 4 September 2020 issued by the President of VNUA. In the same year 2020, in order to improve the capacity for innovation, incubation of startups and best exploitation of inventions, intellectual property of scientific and technological products, on 24 March 2020, President of VNUA issued the Decision No. 830/QD-HVN on the establishment of the Center for Agricultural Innovation based on the merge of the Center for Experts.
5. Deployment of the SAHEP-VNUA project (WB IDA loan project)
Some facility designs of VNUA under the SAHEP-VNUA project
After a long, careful and thorough preparation, in the first half of 2020, the SAHEP VNUA project "Strengthening scientific, technological and human resources capacity for new agricultural and rural restructuring" under the SAHEP project with the total budget of 54,200,000USD, equivalent to more than 1,200 billion VND, has been deployed. Nearly 600 construction workers have created a dynamic spirit of a great construction site on the campus of VNUA. The completion of the project in the near future will not only change the appearance of the university, but also contribute to improving the quality of training, scientific research and university governance to meet the requirements of the domestic and regional markets; at the same time, effectively serving the industrialization and modernization of agriculture, and restructuring the agricultural sector in association with building a new countryside.
6. Success in training and promotion of recruitment
A remark in 2020 in the training activities of VNUA is that VNUA has opened 9 new majors, including the "hot" majors with high demand on human resources such as Chemical Engineering Technology, Control Engineering and Automation, Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Economic Law, Computer Networks and Data Communication, Real Estate Management, Technology Education, Finance – Banking, E-commerce. The active adjustment and the establishment of new majors to adapt to social needs make great contribution to the success in annual enrollment of 5,000 full-time students while the situation of Covid-19 was still complicated.
7. The development of scientific, technological and innovative activities
Prof. Dr. Nguyenn Thi Lan, presents the Establishment Decision of the Center for Agricultural Innovation and flowers to leadership of the Center
VNUA is the pioneer in promoting science and technology development through the establishment of strong research groups, excellent research groups, and elite research groups, with our own financial resources. VNUA boldly proposed a new mechanism to promote research groups with the regulations on the payment for researchers at the rate of VND 30 million/month, initial support funding of VND 400 million/year/01 group, bonus for articles published on international journals up to VND 60 million/article ... Another milestone in 2020 in science and technology activities is the establishment of the Center for Agricultural Innovation under Decision No. 830/QD-HVN dated 24 March 2020 by the President of VNUA. The Center for Experts merged into the Center for Agricultural Innovation to enhance innovation capacity, incubation of startups and is expected to be a "kick" for the development of scientific research and technology transfer of the institute in the near future as well as in the long term.
8. Agricultural start-ups among students
Vibale Project – Enhancement of the value of Vietnamese banana leaves wins the first prize
The contest "Agricultural Start-up" was initiated and organized by VNUA since 2014 with the mission of lighting, spreading the spirit of entrepreneurship, creating an environment for students with agriculture majors to exchange and share knowledge and necessary skills for future career development. In 2020, the program " Agricultural Start-up" among students of VNUA had the cooperation of the Vietnam Climate Innovation Center - VCIC (Ministry of Science and Technology), the support of the National Startup Program and many domestic and international agencies, businesses and organizations. Starting with the program "Platform for Innovation Start-up" held on 10 July 2020, the organizing committee then received more than 70 startup ideas participating in the contest, of which 32 ideas were selected to join round 2 where the participating teams received training for entrepreneurship skills. 12 most excellent projects with creativity, high feasibility, exploitation of potentials, advantages or solutions to specific problems and social practices are selected for the final round. Participating in this dramatic and exciting final round, the Vibale project – Enhancement of the value of Vietnamese banana leaves won the first prize. The project of Improving and developing traditional products from rice and natural active ingredients of a group of students from VNUA was the runner-up.
9. Successful organization of important events
Launching ceremony of Technology Connection and Innovation Week 2020
From 30 October to 1 November 2020, Technology Connection and Innovation Week 2020 (Techdemo - Techmart - Growtech - Job fair - Startup) was held at VNUA with a series of 10 events: Job fair 2020; Workshop "Connecting supply and demand of technology in agriculture"; Forum "Investment promotion and international market connection"... The week attracted the participation of more than 200 booths with more than 1,000 technologies demonstrated by research institutes, universities, organizations, enterprises, scientists, domestic inventors and international organizations, units and enterprises operating in Vietnam. Within the week, VNUA signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement in scientific research and technology transfer with 16 enterprises. During the year, VNUA also successfully organized the 38th Anniversary of Vietnamese Teachers' Day on 20 November and launched the Center for Agricultural Innovation with the participation of Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Cuong; Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Le Quoc Doanh.
10. The image of VNUA is more familiar with the community
With many reports, videos and articles published on the media including visual news, audio news, printing and electronic newspapers, the image of VNUA has become more familiar with the community. The institution implements a variety of promotion in all fields of activities, from scientific research, training, employment, entrepreneurship and innovation. Especially in 2020, the university has widely circulated enrollment information, majors, especially new majors to the public, including 12th grade students of high schools all over the country and their parents, which helps parents and students have better orientation for the future to choose the suitable major.