Rector's speech at 2016-2017 Academic Year Opening Ceremony

  • Posted: 27/Sep/2016
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Rector's speech at 2016-2017 Academic Year Opening Ceremony:
 
OPENING CEREMONY SPEECH OF 2016-2017 ACADEMIC YEAR
By Assoc.Pro,Dr. NGUYEN VAN DE, Merited teacher, Rector of Dong Thap University
 
Esteemed Mr Doan Tan Buu, Member of Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of Dong Thap People’s Committee,
Distinguished international guests,
Dear delegates and honored attendees,
Dear my colleagues, graduate students and undergraduate students
It is on September 29th, 2016 that, under the warm sunlight beamed to the land of Pink lotus flowers, Dong Thap University is solemnly holding its opening ceremony forthe academic year of 2016 2017.
We, the whole University staff, are honorably glad to see your presence: comrades, leaders of all levels, domestic and international guests, and reporters from many news agencies, colleagues, and graduate students, undergraduate students of the enrollment season 2016.
May I send all my best sentiments and warmest welcome to all of you!
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear my colleagues, graduate students and undergraduate students
I would like to extend my time for the speech by spending this moment on reading some lines of an email shared to us by an ex-student, who says:
“On this day of ten years ago, like thousands of other new students, I entered this University with simple but enthusiastic belief for my bright future. This University opened a new world, immense, colorful, strange and interesting as it has ever been. That time, by the witness of teachers, seniors and juniors, and friends I did express my expectations and promises and all of them welcomed my with their wide open hands and plenty of love.
It was right on this University that I started learning my first life lessons from which I could envision my own path for future career start-up. I think that it is just like any person, who reaches mature and wise age, would wish to rush to their home at their tiredness of life struggle, then any graduated students would surely be urged to go back to their university when their energy and urge have come to the climax.
Yes, we come back again for contribution and continuous construction, for finding the days of youthful innocence and jubilant excitement.Today, many generations of outgoing students are going back to Dong Thap University, for its opening ceremony for academic year with such brimful emotions and energy. Many others, my friends and I are longingfor this day with our deep gratefulness for the outgoing wonderful days at Dong Thap University.”
May I express my sincere thanks to him for the special love he has for our University. In response to such sentimental flow, Dong Thap University has, for nearly an academic year, made all-out efforts and achieved significant and comprehensive results in many working aspects, which I would like to highlight five of them below:
1. Training scope: Our University is offering 5 training programs (including Education management, Education studies, Vietnamese language, Theories and methodology of Math teaching, Theoretical chemistry and Physical Chemistry) for postgraduate students, 17 training programs for BA students of four year courses and three year courses, which altogether enrolls 10,200 undergraduate students, 410 graduate students, and 2,100 in-servicestudents who come from 41 cities and provinces in Vietnam.
2. Scientific research: in the last academic year, 105 scientific works (2 of them were of State level, 20 of ministerial or provincial level) were successfully conducted, there were 355 published articles, 62 of which were on international journals, (18 of them were categorized as ISI), 335 more articles were printed in University Journals, on workshop proceedings, with the ratio of a yearly 1,68 items per a lecturer. The Journal of Dong Thap University is an effective scientific publication with two issues a month, and it carries scientific research works on natural sciences and on education studies. It is noticeable that the University’s journal is listed among the journals prescribed by the State Council for Profession Title of Vietnam for scientific status recognition. For many consecutive years, there have been young outstanding lecturers of math, who are awarded by the Ministry of Education and Training for typical excellent scientific research works, which belong to the National Key Program for math development, period 2010 – 2020.
3. Staff development: For the academic year of 2015 – 2016 alone, the University welcomed 14 doctors who successfully defended their doctoral dissertations back to the institution for teaching after interval times of research, thus increases the University’s rate of post-graduates to 92 percent, specifically 2 Associated Professors, 74 Doctors, 301 Masters (78 of whom are in their post graduate programs, 39 have been to foreign countries for studies or research). It is noticeable that the University a new couple both won doctoral title, adding to its 11 couples of Ph.D holders who are enthusiastically conducting research and teaching.
4. Students’ achievements: In the last academic year, 92 excellent students were admitted to be Party members; severalother students won high prizes in the national Olympic contests, Vietnamese Young Math Genius Award, Luong Van Can Award; many graduated students got the Occupational title of Gold Chalk, or have been very successful on their paths of business start-up or business doing.
5. Close relationships, the pride of Pedagogical tradition and Organization culture have taken their shape and developed within the University’s faculties, departments, teaching and working staff, students via the sets of core values: Highlighting quality, Encouraging creativeness, Enhancing cooperation, Favoring honesty, Promoting responsibility.  At the same time, many typical cases of strong will for progress, independence, devoutness have been recorded in the University timeline when someone “gave university studies to his younger sister” and worked for daily pay to cover his sister’s school fee and life expense and then re-entered the university to realize his own dreams.
By the way, I would like to, on behalf of the whole staff, express our sincere gratefulness to Leaders of Education and Training Ministry, Steering Committee of Southwest region, Comrades and Leaders of Dong Thap province, Heads of Provincial departments, heads of cities, districts, branches and agencies, heads of domestic and international companies, the mass public for their creating favorable conditions, for constantly supporting, cooperating and being with us in the past few years as well as during our long but glorious process of construction and development.
It is, however, a must for us to take a serious judgment to the university’s shortcomings, not to be satisfied with these “fruitful crops”. The limitations include a number of lecturers whose capacities of teaching and research doing fail to meet their current job demands, limited facilities and a tight budget, impractical teaching curricula and training process, ineffective and non-professional management and organization of credit based training form.
At the same time, the University is facing with increasing challenges, including high demands for well-qualified human resource from the socio-economic development process, tough competitiveness from universities inside and outside the country, low enrollment of students for teacher education training programs, impossibilities of employment after graduation because of subjective and objective reasons.
Ladies and gentlemen!
On the arrival ofthis new academic year, which marks the 42ndanniversary of its Pedagogical tradition and training of education management staff (1975-2017), its 14 years of continuous construction and development, Dong Thap University has identified its theme for the new academic year as “improving its teaching staff, gradually internationalizing its training activities” by carrying out five following major measures:
(1) Improving the University in term of the qualifications of lecturers, office workers, management staff and management mechanism, of facilities and equipment.
(2) Further boosting its international relations, forming liaisons with recruitment entities, education management bodies at all levels, schools of general education.
(3) Devoting energy and time to the accreditation of education quality, innovating its enrollment schemes in order to train high quality human resource which aims at the realization of a financially independent university model.
(4) Developing an open source of IT based learning materials, taking part in the organization and implementation of fostering programs applicable to education management staff and teachers in Mekong delta region.
(5) Continuously shaping and developing the University’s culture, at the same time enhancing education propagation works, introducing and advertising the university’s image.
Dear new graduates and undergraduates!
For my initial words to you, I would like, on behalf of the University, to congratulate you on becoming new students in Dong Thap University. It is so interesting of Vietnamese for the word “Nhà” (house) to be purposely combined with “Tru?ng” (University) to form a new word whose connotation implies an educational institution. To you, today is the first day to begin an academic year and to be in a new university, and right in this meeting with you, I would like to say some more words from my heart.
Four years at your university time will go very quickly as a wink of eyes. The today image of boys and girls whose eyes are full of desire for knowledge and dreams when entering university will soon become a yesterday moment. As the graduation time approaches, you all will choose to enter into your own life careers. No matter how much you are worried or anxious for these days, you have to encounter life challenges as you are supposed to get a “CERTIFICATE OF THE SOCIETY RECOGNITION” by 2020.
It is sure that you, in your initial steps on start-up path, will find it hard to get yourself adapted to the reality, thinking that working is really difficult and that your assumed strong abilities have no means to develop. This is because you are in shortage of LIFE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE. It is, therefore, not a good idea for you to wait and learn these essential things until your graduation day comes, till you start your living earns because you may surely miss hundreds of opportunities for your success.
You must remember that going to university is not only for knowledge but actually for better enrichment of personality, morality and for your maturity. I am very delighted to be informed that “the students of 2016 training course are quite dynamic and self-confident”. Let your strong points be enhanced in the upcoming years, will you?
Dear my colleagues,
We must respect and thank our students for their confidence and choice to study in our University. Each of us should be a teacher who is an inspirer, a well-qualified trainer, and a torch of knowledge to light up “torch of students”.
This morning, I ran across on someone’s timeline and found a joking status (May I wish to reiterate that it is hopefully a joke) which says “it seems that Vietnamese are having students of 21st century, lecturers of 20th century and lecture halls and facilities of 19th century”. Let’s care nothing about the accuracy of that remark but each teacher by your working status and position make more effort just for the sake of our students. I am holding a strong belief that the facilities and equipment, which are just few in number or have not been upgraded, will be soon improved. However, it must be our regrets, sadness and blames if our lessons are not well-prepared, without updates of the “changes of life”, and we are still irresponsible, neglecting and indifferent to work. Let’s join hand in creating a dynamic learning environment, full of academic characteristics and rich in pedagogical tradition.
Dear delegates, colleagues,
Dear graduates and undergraduates,
I would like to end my shares here by quoting a famous saying by Drew G. Faust, a well-known education manageress, who discussed about “higher education – responsibilities for the past and the future”:
“The essence of a university is that it is uniquely accountable to the past and to the future – not simply or even primarily to the present….A university looks both backwards and forwards in ways that must – that even ought to – conflict with a public’s immediate concerns or demands. Universities make commitments to the timeless, and these investments have yields we cannot predict and often cannot measure”
Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaking from the podium of the opening ceremony, once again on behalf of the university, I would like to say thanks to all of you and now send leaders, distinguished guests, delegates, colleagues and our graduate and undergraduate students my best wishes of good health, happiness and success.
With my best respect and honor, I declare the start of new academic year of 2016 – 2017. 
 

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