Young University Staff Development in Context of Industrial Revolution 4.0. Phát triển tiềm năng của các giảng viên trẻ trong bối cảnh CMCN 4.0 TS. Nguyễn Hoàng Tiến ĐH Thủ Dầu Một Dr Nguyen Hoang Tien Thu Dau Mot University Tóm tắt: Bài viết này trình bày thực trạng chất lượng đội ngũ giảng viên của các trường đại học Việt Nam, từ đó tìm kiếm các giải pháp phát triển đội ngũ GIẢNG VIÊN TRẺ nhằm đáp ứng yêu cầu cấp bách về đổi mới toàn diện nền giáo dục để xử lý những thách thức và khai thác những cơ hội tiềm ẩn do cuộc cách mạng công nghiệp 4.0 mang tới. Từ khóa: cách mạng công nghiệp 4.0, giảng viên trẻ, cải cách giáo dục Abstract: This article aims at presentation the current state of quality of faculty members in Vietnamese universities and proposes several solutions to develop young lecturers’ staff facing urgent needs to reform totally the country’s education system in order to cope with challenges ahead and to explore potential opportunities brought about by the 4th industrial revolution. Key words: industrial revolution 4.0, young lecturer, educational reform. 1. Introduction In education the most important factor deciding about quality is not material infrastructure, but experience and competency of academic teachers’ staff. Tertiary education treated normally as a bridge linking graduating students with labor market which is increasingly integrated worldwide. Due to that, the role of young academic staff becomes more and more vital and the enhancement of the quality of staff, especially young staff is a critical issue that should be put on top of the agenda in strategy and policy for national education development. 2. Comparative analysis of the domestic and international staff of academic teachers In most Vietnamese universities most of lecturers are holding master degree as the input requirement for a new academic staff member is just only master degree with “very good” or “good” classification. After that, they have to commit to strive for PhD promotion. However it is not always possible for every one and it can be justified by many various familiar reasons. That’s why, in many key universities countrywide, the proportion of lectures holding master degree is predominant. In local universities even none of academic lecturer is holding PhD degree. The next problem of Vietnamese universities is the process of promotion from PhD to Associate Professor/Professor. In order to do that candidate must carry out many researches and publish internationally. As we know Vietnam is known for its least and the number of PhD holders, compared to the world and region. Thus it is very hard to be promoted to such academic titles. Those who earned their PhD degree overseas are in advantageous situation in terms of working in professional scientific environment, contacts with highest in ranking professors and that help them push forward their international publication and recognition. In highly developed countries, the requirements that academic lectures should meet are very high in terms of academic degree and title, incomparable to the business environment outside where pressure and priority are put on business experience and working performance. First class professors have already an affirmed position and renown in society and in scientific world. Their most important role is to help students and the next generations to develop to their full potential. Young lecturer must meet the minimum input requirements which are the PhD degree and post-doc studies to sign a 5 to 7 year labor contract with the university. Within this time, their most important focus is to carry out scientific research and publication in order to fulfill required conditions to become professor or full professor later on. Otherwise they should leave the university environment for find other suitable job. If a university cannot sign long term labor contract with tens of professors it is will not be allowed to open a concrete major and anrol students because PhD holders are not qualified as key faculty staff members. The above mention analyses show us the difference in terms of quality and professionalism between domestic and international academic teaching staff. This difference stem predominantly from average people intellectual level, socioeconomic development, science-technology background, environment, culture and traditions of each nation. Before presenting solutions aiming at developing potential and competencies of young staff of academic teacher in Vietnam we should analyse and investigate more about the need as well as the urgence of total education reform in context and under pressure of the 4th industrial revolution. 3. The 4th industrial revolution – challenges and opportunities The term “industrial revolution 4.0” or “the 4th industrial revolution” has been mentioned for the first time in 2011 at the Hannover fair presenting industrial program 4.0 to boost Germany’s traditional branch of automation and mechanics. A group of expert on industry 4.0 has presented series of recommendations on industrial modernization and implementation for German government. They are considered as fathers and driving forces behind the so called Industrie 4.01 [4]. “Industrie 4.0” connect embedded system and smart production bases to create a digital convergence of industries, businesses, their functions and internal processes [4]. The first three world industrial revolutions have been presented in table 1. Currently the 4th industrial revolution stems from the 3th industrial revolution, connecting all techologies together, deleting the boundary between physical world, virtual world and biological living world. According to Klaus Schwab, the speed of change of the 4th industrial revolution is unprecedented. Compering to previous revolutions, the 4th revolution develops with not linear but exponential speed. On top of that, due to interdisciplinary character and with ICT as a background, it currently destroys all structures of industrial branches in all countries. It premonish the transformation, both extensively and intensively, of the production, business ans management systems worldwide. Tabel 1. World industrial revolutions 1 IR Time period Technological content 1.0 1820-1870 Transport and communication. “Industrie” is industry in German language Steam engine. 2.0 1870-1913 Traditional industries (agriculture, heavy industries, mechanics, metallurgy, chemistry) in developed countries. Electrical engine. 3.0 1913-1950 New technologies such as: Energy, space and aviation technology, biotechnology, military technology, information and communication technology. Informatization and automatization. 4.0 1950-hiện tại Technology integration based on ICT platforms. -Social Network -Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning -Internet of Things -Big Data -3D Printer -Virtual Reality -Cloud and Cognitive Computing -Driveless cars, Drones -Smart robot, factory and city -E-Learning, telemedicine Source: [6], [7] Currently IR 4.0 is taking place in America, Europe and parts of Asia (Japan, South Korea) first. Beside new opportunities IR 4.0 also puts forward many challenges for humankind. Table 2 presents those opportunities and challenges related with IR 4.0 for organizations, economy and society. Table 2. Opportunities and challenges due to the 4th industrial revolution Opportunities Challenges 1 Many new professions, new jobs and new Instability, unequality, imbalanentepreneurship chances ce in the labor market. 2 Enhanced working and production’s productivi- How to educate human resource ty. Economic growth based on new business that converge proper skills and models. competencies. 3 High personalization, social connections done Traditional ways of production, on many new modes. distribution and consumption has been totally changed 4 Proactive and innovative (creative) mind is an Developing countries will lose advantage of individual and business their advantages based on cheap labor cost. Source: Author’s synthesis Facing the opportunities and challenges mentioned above what national governments, businesses and entrepreneurs can do to success and gain sustainable competitive advantages in context of upcoming IR 4.0? Next, what is the role of universities and its (young) staff will be for the other entities in the economies. Of course, all universities are standing in front of similar opportunities and challenges. 4. The role of young staff of academic leactures in education’s innovation and reformation Comparing to foreign countries, in general, Vietnamese academic staff looks very young as if men reaching 60, women reaching 50 both of them, with some exceptions, should retire. Meanwhile professor of foreign universities will work as long as he or she can, without limit of age as this is a specific of tertiary education. More importantly life expectancy in developed countries is exceptionally long. In practice, all Vietnamese academic staff are young. So we should determine for our own research that young faculty member in Vietnam is a person who is under 40 despite for some other professions this threshold of age is categorically not young any more. Older academic staff in Vietnamese universities are conservative, growing in completely other epoch and as a consequence they are reluctant to changes in term of radical educational reforms and not suitable to follow the achievements and well as innovations brought about by the IR 4.0. So all the hopes are put on younger techgenerations to accept new things, to welcome and foster new ideas and to promote innovative changes initiated by IR 4.0 and intergrative trends spilled over all around the world. In order for younger generations of teaching staff to carry out this serious mission and to fulfill the expectations of the society they should be trained and developed accordingly in order to gain suitable competencies include knowledge, skills and attitudes. Given the current quite unfavorable conditions of Vietnamese education system mentioned above. Young generation of teaching staff have many barriers and to overcome to fit in a to-be totally reformed education system directed towards opportunities and challenged offered by IR 4.0. 5. Solutions for development of young staff of academic lecturers in a response to the need of total education reformation in relation with the 4th industrial revolution How to make tertiary education and its actors (young staff of academic lectures) main driving force to propel socio-economic development in such limited and less favorable condition of Vietnam ? Hereafter are several solutions proposed by author to enhance young academic staff’s potentials and competencies for the universities to fulfill their expectation, execute their mission and carry out their function standing in front of urgent need to reform the whole education system in order to explore the existing oppotunities and to deal with challenges of irreversible trend of education integration and ocurring IR 4.0. a) Policy and strategy for tertiary education development – as well known Vietnamese government and party prioritizes investment in education and are striving to do everything to improve education quality following step of South Korea. Investment in education is a prioriry and precondition to boost knowledge and technology based economy including IR 4.0. With limited resources more investment should be there to boost young teaching and researching talent. So it is best to use selective strategy im terms of investment in some key universities, in some key majors, and in some age group of lectures (preferable young generation). b) International cooperation and staff exchange – With limited resources and potentials Vietnamese universities can not be developed on its own. Foreign cooperation and support is needed, in only in financial aspect. Student and staff exchange is needed as well as internationalization of teaching program, teaching staff to make young teaching staff reach the international standard in a long term. c) International joint publication and carrying out research – today in a world of IR 4.0 nothing can be done alone, joint publication and co-research with foreign partners (professors, professional practical researchers) is precondition to enhance research potential of young lecturers, researchers at the same time, with a mutual benefits. d) Learning foreign experiences of professional education management – Education is one of important industries in an economy, so it should be managed professionally to be effective as well. Experiences in this field should be transfered from overseas, where education has a much longer history of development. e) Integrating newest technology with educational processes – In current context of the IR 4.0 without the help of technology nothing can be done. Widest scope of integrated technologies should be applied to enhance and to ease the educational processes, education management processes and their effectiveness. f) Enhancing and internationalizing cultural environment within university – It is worth to creat strong cultural environment to support processes of researching, teaching, learning, management and their effectiveness at different levels of university. All cultural values and identities of the university are developing over time and should be gradually transformed due to integration and internationalization and under impact of quickly evolving IR 4.0. g) Balanced and sustainable development – In a world of lightning changes, innovation, transformation, reformation in terms of both technology (IR 4.0) and sociology (however less intensive changes in different fields and different levels and corners of the society) a balanced and sustainable approach to development is recommended and needed to calm down the radical changes in order to make up sociological and individual changes with the latest and newest technological developments. Reference: 1. 2. Nguyen Hoang Tien: Challenges and opputunities for enterprises in the world of the 4th industrial revolution. National conference on “Accounting, auditing and Vietnam economy in context of the 4th industrial revolution”, 11/2017, Quy Nhon University, Quy Nhon, Binh Đinh. ISBN: 978-604-922-593-2. Nguyen Hoang Tien: Scientific and intellectual potential as key factors of development based on innovative growth. VI National conference on business and 3. 4. 5. 6. management “Enhancing business management capacity”, 12/2017, Danang Economics University, Da Nang. https://news.zing.vn/cach-mang-cong-nghiep-40-la-gi-post750267.html https://vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/khoa-hoc/hieu-ve-cach-mang-cong-nghiep-lan- thu-43574624.html Nguyen Hoang Tien: Lecturing and e-learning material of “International Economic” course for internal use 2015-2017. Nguyen Hoang Tien: Entrepreneurship in international business [in:] Lecturing and e-learning material of “International Business” course for internal use 2014-2017.