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The National Center for Social Sciences and Humanities (NCSSH) is a research institution under the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The predecessor of NCSSH, established in December 1953, comprised the departments of Literature, History, and Geography.
One of the functions of the NCSSH is to conduct research on important issues in the social sciences and humanities that concern the State. It supplies scientific analysis to the policy-making process of the Government to build and develop the country and realize the full national potential of the social sciences and humanities.
NCSSH has responsibility for organizing and carrying out research projects, training scholars at a high level of specialization, defining the directions and policies for developing the social sciences and humanities in the whole country, and for expanding academic exchange with other countries.
Over forty years of development, NCSSH has made noticeable contributions to national liberation and to building the country. It has taken part in preserving and developing the nation's culture as well as learning from the modern scientific achievements of other countries.
NCSSH concentrates on fundamental research in the social sciences and humanities, on international issues, and on relations between countries of the region and the world. It supplies the analytical foundations for forming foreign and domestic policies of the State, for choosing optical solutions for developing the economy, culture, and society, and for developing the branches of the social sciences and humanities themselves.
NCSSH is particularly concerned with compiling works that summarize the development of different areas of social life, such as the series of volumes on Vietnamese history, Vietnamese literature, the Vietnamese economy, and so on.
Another fundamental area of activity of NCSSH is carrying out basic socio-economic investigations of all the regions of the country, forming a scientific basis for researching both the universal trends and distinctive characteristics of all aspects of Vietnamese social life .
The research achievements o are reflected not only in monographs but also in 17 up-to-date academic journals from specialized branches of the Center. These periodicals are scientific forums for academic discussion, exchanging ideas, and supplying society with a significant amount of scholarly information from domestic and foreign sources.
NCSSH also has a large collection of research materials. The Social Science Library, directly under NCSSH, is the largest library in the country for social sciences and humanities. It has preserved many valuable documents such as ancient books, handwritten documents, very precious photographic materials, etc. Every year tens of thousands of domestic and foreign readers come to make use of the documents there.
Together with the development of research fields, NCSSH also is gradually building up an organizational structure and a staff of researchers. The Center currently has 16 institutes, 7 research centers, a museum of ethnology, and various research support offices. The total staff of NCSSH is 1,300 people, of whom 930 are researchers. The remainder are research support staff such as administrators, information personnel, librarians, etc. In 1995, the number of scholars with academic degrees includes:
- I member of a foreign academy of science
- 28 professors
- 86 associate professors
- 265 M.A and Ph.D. fellows
In addition to its research function, NCSSH also gives basic training to graduate students throughout the country, participates in university teaching, and contributes to building up a large number of scholars with a high level of professional skill.
NCSSH is continuously expanding international cooperation as well as exchanging infonnation and materials with hundreds of research institutions and with individuals in many countries.
Every year, NCSSH sends large number of scholars abroad for research and participation in international workshop. At the same time, it receives foreign scholars who wish to conduct research in Vietnam, assisting them in contacting Vietnamese scholars and in making use of documents in the NCSSH collection. NCSSH also is prepared to receive foreign graduate students who wish to enroll in graduate courses at the Center.
NCSSH is ready to cooperate with foreign research institutions and scholars to carry out joint research projects and to organize workshops on topics of common interest.
President: Nguyen Duy Quy, Professor, Dr.
Vice-President: Do Hoai Nam, Professor, Ph.D.
Vice-President: Le Huu Tang, Professor, Ph.D.