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Doctoral dissertation on Vietnam civil servants’ badminton development provokes backlash

Doctoral dissertation on Vietnam civil servants’ badminton development provokes backlash

Tuesday, May 10, 2022, 11:25 GMT+7
Doctoral dissertation on Vietnam civil servants’ badminton development provokes backlash
A screenshot shows a doctoral dissertation by postgraduate Dang Hoang Anh stored on the Library of Theses and Dissertations of Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training.

A postgraduate successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in education on badminton development for civil servants in Son La Province, northern Vietnam, which has drawn public criticism for its narrow topic and poor value.

As of May 5, the online Library of Theses and Dissertations of the Ministry of Education and Training still stored a dissertation titled 'Research on Solutions to Badminton Development for Civil Servants in Son La City,' which was written and successfully presented at the Institute for Sports Science by a postgraduate named Dang Hoang Anh in 2022.

Son La City is the capital of the namesake province in northern Vietnam.

The website of the institute had earlier published the paper, highlighting that postgraduate Anh successfully defended his institute-level dissertation on January 19, 2022.

However, the dissertation is now inaccessible.

'Research on badminton development solutions'

The topic of Anh's dissertation, centered on pedagogy, was announced at the Institute for Sports Science of the General Department of Sports and Physical Training under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism on December 23 last year.

The website also lists multiple contributions and achievements of the dissertation.

“Comprehensive and scientific information about the participation of civil servants and public employees in Son La City in badminton shows that numerous existing problems are slowing down the popularity of this sport," the website said.

“There is inadequate awareness among civil servants and public employees about the importance of playing badminton, a shortage of collaborators, ineffective private funding of badminton, and its limited physical fitness.

Through an analysis, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the development of the badminton movement for Son La City’s civil servants and public employees were pinpointed in the dissertation.

A screenshot of postgrad Dang Hoang Anh’s doctoral dissertation.

A screenshot of postgraduate Dang Hoang Anh’s doctoral dissertation on badminton development for civil servants in Son La Province, Vietnam

For the research, the topic features six solutions to the development of badminton for the city’s public employees, including popularizing the importance of this sport, developing the badminton movement toward private funding for it, forming a strong team of badminton players who are civil servants and public employees, completing a competition system in badminton for public employees, diversifying badminton training methods, encouraging civil servants to play badminton, and frequently assessing the badminton movement.

Based on the criteria for the development of badminton, the efficiency of the badminton movement would be improved after one year of applying five of the six solutions to sociological experiments. 

Unbefitting

Over the past few days, the dissertation has sparked public outrage on online academic forums. Many people assume that the topic is unworthy of a doctoral dissertation.

Dr. Nguyen Duc Danh, head of the science and education faculty at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, affirmed that a doctoral dissertation can research and look for solutions, but the paper by postgraduate Anh covers too narrow a topic.

In reality, after a hard working day, civil servants and public employees can play many different sports such as swimming, football, and jogging rather than only badminton.

“Obviously, the scope of the research on the topic is extremely limited, as the purpose of playing sports is to get fit and healthy. Such a dissertation is unbefitting,” Danh stressed.

“Furthermore, the research subjects of the dissertation are civil servants and public employees, but not students, so the topic is not related to education,” he added.

To date, nearly 10 postgraduates have successfully defended doctoral dissertations in relation to the badminton topic at educational institutions nationwide. 

Among these papers, some have titles quite similar to Anh's. 

Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper contacted Anh and the Institute for Sports Science for further comment but received no response.

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Tieu Bac - Tran Huynh / Tuoi Tre News

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