INFORMATION ON MASTER’S THESIS

1. Full name: LÊ THU HƯƠNG 2. Sex: Female 3. Date of birth: 14 Sep 1986 4. Place of birth: Ha Nam 5. Admission decision number: 1355/2008/QĐ-XHNV-KH&SĐH, Dated 24 Oct 2008 by Rector of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University-Hanoi 6. Changes in academic process: None 7. Official thesis title: “Obstacles to the transition of public Scientific and Technological organizations toward autonomy and self-responsibility according to Decree No. 115/2005/NĐ-CP” 8. Major: Science and Technology Management; 9. Code: 60 34 72 10. Supervisors: Dr. Vũ Cao Đàm – Director of The Center for Policy Studies and Analysis, University of Social Sciences and Humanities Hanoi 11. Summary of the findings of the thesis: Policy reform in the field of science and technology has been an ongoing topic of conversation, both theoretically and practically. In 2005, the Government of Vietnam issued a Decree No. 115/2005/NĐ-CP on autonomy and self-responsibility of public scientific and technological organizations, which was considered as a “breakthrough” in S&T policy reform, a “liberation” for researchers to push up S&T development. The implementation of such Decree, however, has met a wide range of difficulties and has seemingly been impossible. This thesis examines the failure of Decree No. 115, and explains why such highly expected policy has come to a fail. Three main research methodologies have been employed: (i) document analysis; (ii) observation; and (iii) in-depth interview. It is proved by theoretical and practical evidences of the thesis that the failure of Decree No. 115 is due to the design of “autonomy” mechanism. The model of so-called “autonomous” S&T organization is, as regulated in the Decree, mainly “self-financed”, with the vision of removing “application - approval” mechanism in the field of science and technology. Such design of “self-funded orgnaization” has been argued as only suitable to some kinds of technological institutes; others are necessarily based on fund from sponsors, included the state, for fulfilling their public mission. Therefore, since its commentcement, the highly expected policy has met a variety of obstacles, from the legal framework designed by state agencies to implementation of the policy performed by S&T organizations. After over six years of issuance, Decree No. 115 has almost failed to achieve expected results. Finally, the thesis also provides evidents for the failure of the policy even if the Goverment of Hanoi keeps trying to completely perform the transition of public S&T organizations toward “self-finance” and “self-responsibility”. If it is the case, the new system of “self-finance” and “self-responsibility” S&T organizations does not make any move in the development of Vietnam’s S&T. 12. Practical applicability: Provides evidences and recommendations to policy makers for the reforming of S&T system in Vietnam 13. Further research directions: - Model of autonomous scientific and technological organizations; - Financial investment to scientific and technological organizations; - Oversight of community and sponsors to scientific and technological organizations 14. Thesis-related publications: None.