Prof.Dr. Pham Le Hoa
Never in the history of mankind has there been a more turbulent time period, with so many extraordinary milestones as our contemporary modern era: it is the time of knowledge, economic growth, information technology, and also the age when globalization is acknowledged as an inevitable historical process of human society. Facing such an era that is full of opportunities and challenges requires each individual and each nation to relentlessly strive for a unique idiosyncrasy in order to assert their own existence. Thus, now more than ever, there is an urgent need to have a team of people with enthusiasm, dedication, and high professional qualifications to take charge of this mission. Therefore, art education, which offers solutions to this approach of preparing/training the human resources, has become increasingly valuable, as it has been proven to play an extremely important role in our social life. Art education has been further shown to have great significance when on the twenty-sixth of May in 2006, the Prime Minister signed the Decision to Establish National University of Art Education—the first and as of yet only university completely dedicated to providing the human resources working in art education for the whole of Vietnamese society.
Pioneering mission
National University of Art Education (NUAE) is the university where arts teachers for education and training sector are trained. The establishment of the university illustrated the concern/appreciation of the Vietnamese Party and Government for the role of art education in human development in our country. In addition, that means: the staff and faculty members of NUAE not only received a great honor, but also have responsibility of leading the field of art education in the country.
In order to fulfill such a great responsibility, over the years the university has pioneered and implement training activities in the fields of arts at undergraduate and graduated levels. Examples of this are Theory and Methods of Teaching Music, Culture Management, Theory and Methods of Teaching Painting. In particular, decision No. 317/QD-BGDDT, which was assigned on 30.01.2015 to the National University of Art Education for training Theory and Methods of Teaching Music at doctoral level, recorded a important mark not only for the training career of the university, but also for the work of art education in the country as a whole. For the first time in the history of education in Vietnam, this subject is training at the highest level on Education Law of Vietnam. This will not only meet the requirements of practical development but also demonstrate determination, consensus and sense of responsibility of all the university’s members in an era where art education has been valued as an inevitable requirement in the face of many difficulties and challenges.
Course Credit Training is an inevitable trend of the times, and has been conducted in many countries around the world, including Vietnam, but for arts schools, this training method is quite new and difficult to deploy. Even top universities have had difficulty believing that this transition to a credit training system is possible for the arts. As a pioneer for the art schools of this country, National University of Art Education has carried out successfully the transition from annual training towards credit training system. The school has prepared for years for a specific route details, and set a goal at each stage. Furthermore, the credit training system in some subjects were field tested, organized into many training sessions. Other universities, which have experience in this field, were visited by our official delegation and the transition process is suitably wielded with the specific characteristics of our university. Art education is highly peculiar and therefore, credit training in art based educational institutions must also be special, so the universities are aware and adjust the unreasonable points accordingly. And until this moment, the National University of Art education has completed the transition from annual system towards a credit system. This may be considered as a great success with a training institute in culture and arts sector, and fundamental for future growth.
The motto to success
The motto of Training what the society needs, not training what we have is the guiding principle for all activities and development of the university. In the era of modernization and globalization, there are many new and diversified arts that have made the human resource needs for this sector to become huge. Therefore, within 10 years the school was upgraded from only 2 traditional sectors, music and painting, to nearly 20 sectors. Specialized training can now be taken in many different subjects and on varying levels. The diversification of the training type is essential to meet the needs of the times, opens up opportunities for the new development, and improves with depth and clarity the position and the influence on the society of the university. These new sectors such as fashion design, graphic design, vocal, piano, actors, etc. attract a lot of students and demonstrates that this orientation of the university in expanding the educational sector coincides with professional practices of society. However, the expansion of training types is still a development orientation that is based on the advantage/potential of our university. The expansion still actively upholds and implements the historic task/mission that the party, government and society entrusted the university, which is educating and training to improve intellectual, cognitive, aesthetic of the Vietnamese people in the arts.
In parallel with the diversification of training types, our university always gives prominence and attaches special importance to the improvement in the quality of education with the goal of quality education is our branding affirmation. Many faculty members and students of the university are really mature and have established a reputation through their own artistic careers, which are recorded by society. Many students have outstanding achievements such as: the university choir, that participated twice in the International Choir Festival in Hoi An (2011) and Hue (2012), and won the first prize with gold medals in the many different categories, student Pham Thi Kim Thoa - First prize vocals of Hanoi in 2011, Giang Thi Chuong- 2nd runner at Miss Sport 2012, Song Thao – third prize in Sao Mai 2015 in folk music, Hoang Thi Thu Dung - First prize in folk singing star contest, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Mai – special prize in Hutech designer contest... and there are many other students have grown from our university and participated in many activities in the field of art education in the country. They have become singers, painters, fashion designers, graphic designers, cultural managers. Many of them have become officers, lecturers, or teachers and continue giving lectures at educational establishments all over the country.
The core for any university is that a teacher has to be teacher, and students must be students – the teacher has to be good for the hope of educating good students. Therefore, improving the quality of the staff is especially important for our university. When newly founded in 2006, the university did not have any Ph.D. and the number of faculty members with a master's degree was still very limited. In this situation, the University’s Party Committee and the managing board have supported, encouraged teachers to learn more and improve the education level. One could say, that the last 10 years has been "the whole school goes to school" - from the managing board members to the faculty members and officials. So far, the university has 09 professors and associate professors; 04 emeritus teachers, 04 emeritus artists. Regarding qualifications, the university now has more than 20 Ph.Ds., dozens of people are Ph.D. candidates in the university and the prestigious academy in the country and abroad such as Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, National University Hanoi, Vietnam University of Fine Arts, National Academy of Music, National University of Art Education, Queensland University of Technology (Australia), University of Shanghai (China) .... Many faculties have 100% of the members at post graduate level such as Painting Education, Basis of Painting, Piano, Political Theory, Fine Arts and Culture... These numbers may not stand out from many other sectors but has been very impressive for the educational institutions of the arts sector. But the most important thing to say is there is a attitude, a passion for learning, a constant improvement of professional qualifications and pedagogical skills of all members of university. This creates a position / high reputation for our university among the teacher training schools of arts in Vietnam. It can be shown, in how many achievements have been achieved that the staff and faculty members are the great pride of the National University of Art Education. The university is proud to have the teachers with passion, professional skill, who confirm the worthy of noble titles of university teachers day by day.
Poise asserts class
Looking back the past 10 years, inheriting the historical legacy of 46 years, the National University of Art Education today, which is on the rise due to a strong internal force, made many impressive breakthroughs. NUAE has more than 400 staff - faculty members and hundreds of guest lecturers. The university has assembled a team of arts educators with talent, credibility and enthusiasm for the career of education and research such as: Prof. Dr. To Ngoc Thanh, Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Them, Prof. Nguyen Xuan Kinh, Prof. Le Hong Ly, Prof. Dr. Pham Le Hoa, Prof.People’s Atist Trung Kien, Prof. Le Ngoc Canh, Associate Prof. Nguyen Thuy Loan, Associate Prof. Pham Trong Toan, Associate Prof. Nguyen Huu Thuc, Associate Prof. Trinh Hoai Thu, Associate Prof. Nguyen Thi To Mai.... Staff and faculty members of National University of Art Education are the members of multiple councils, which grade high-level scientific research, doctoral theses, scientific and training projects in many Vietnamese institutions.
As a leading facility for art education, NUAE used to be the work place of many well-known musicians, such as composer To Vu, Hong Dang, Pham Ngu, Hoang Long – Hoang Lan, Dao Ngoc Dung, singer Phan Huan, Quang Phac. Their names are the pride and the clear example of artistic activity for next generations of teachers. Following in their footsteps, these young NUAE teachers today not only are good in teaching expertise but also successful in the field of performing arts. Examples of some famous singers that came from the university: Emeritus Artist. Tran Mai Tuyet, Huong Giang, Tan Phuong, Doan Thuy Trang .... Hundreds of teaching staffs are member of Vietnam Musicians' Association, member of Music in Hanoi, member of Vietnam Fine Arts Association, member of Hanoi Fine Arts Association.
For an arts university, scientific research is not a simple problem because the ability/field of the artist's thinking is different from many other sectors. The artists can burn out when performing on stage, forget all but his passion for creating art but then find it difficult when facing research work with close regulations and the provisions that exist in the methodology of scientific research. However, an unexpected result is that the scientific research at the NUAE is completely contrary. The singers, songwriters, painters of the school always fascinated to learn, to study the problems of the arts, the problems practically serve to further enhance the quality of training at the university. In the 2014-15 school year, the NUAE has accepted 12 university-level science and technology projects, 12 faculty-level scientific projects, and 11 student research projects. Among these, 02 selected projects (one project of the faculty member and one project of student) participated in the contest of ministerial level scientific research award and got the encouragement prizes. Entering the 2015-16 school year, the university has had 02 science and technology projects at ministerial level, 02 scientific and technological tasks at ministerial level; 15 university-level research projects, 09 department research projects and 12 student research projects. Regarding the content of these projects, the orientation for scientific research is: to study the ones needed for the development of the university.
Along with scientific research, the NUAE council for Professor title was established and put into operation in an effective way. This is something that not many schools in the fields of arts can perform. In addition, the NUAE Journal of Art Education, which was licensed as nationwide newspaper publisher, assumes the role as a scientific forum on art education. The State council for Professor title of Vietnam allowed the magazine on the list of scientific point conversion journals and that is an achievement. Through the years, the Journal performs its role and has attracted the attention of numerous scientists, researchers, educators, as well as wide range of audiences in all over the country. In 2015, Journalist Association of Art Education Magazine was founded and become a place to exchange the professional journalism for officials and teachers. So far, the Association has admitted 12 members, promoted the role, and contributed to the growth of the journalism movement at NUAE in general and to the development of the Art Education Magazine in particular. The journal is deservedly seen as a scientific forum on art education and a bridge between NUAE with other art education schools in the country and the world.
On the training scale, before becoming the National University of Art Education (May 2006), the university only has two fields of training (College of Music Education and College of Fine Arts), now NUAE added 11 more fields of training at the university level including Pedagogy of Music, Pedagogy of Fine arts, Cultural Management, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Painting, Vocal music, Piano, Pedagogy of Pre-school Music, Pedagogy of Pre-school Arts, Drama-film actor; 3 fields of training in master degree including Theory and Methods of Teaching Music, Culture Management, Theory and Methods of teaching art; 1 major code of Ph.D. course in the Theory and Method of Teaching Music. Currently, the university has basically completed and finished the training task at college level, and taking steps to implement the mission of training the arts at the higher levels including the undergraduate and the postgraduate level. We determine our own position through our strategic vision and development orientation of the university so that in the near future we will become a high quality research center of art education.
The conclusion
The process of development of each thing and event carries its own missions. Still the people of yesterday, who now carry responsibility as an important factor of a leading university of art education, would become a new stature with a great cognitive/new responsibilities. 46 years of tradition and extraordinary strength come together with the achievements of the last 10 years allowing the University to move forward confidently, continuing its enthusiastic dedication to a difficult and challenging but also very proud career- art education; continuing grow the university with the great task which the Party and Government entrusted – perfecting Vietnamese people through art education at a high level.
As an usual concept: class is the maintenance level of performance in a long time. In glorious, proud, past 10 years journey with the achievements of the National University of Art Education have got; poise or class - it is not difficult to give an answer.