Introduction about the PhD program of Buddhism studies

1. General Background

Buddhism is a major religion in the world with a long history, and a system of plentiful doctrines and fruitful magical discourses. Buddhist monks have practiced doctrines of Buddhism for thousands of years with a lot of research and practices by many generations. Traditional Buddhist studies and Buddhism as a modern academic field also have research tradition with a great number of scholars all over the world; they have generated a huge amount of insightful research. Buddhism has become a highly cosmopolitan field.

The PhD program of Buddhist studies at Tran Nhan Tong Institute under VNU (TNTI) is the first Buddhist doctoral training program in Vietnam national education system. The program has widely consulted many Buddhist doctoral programs around the world in order to assure the international benchmark and international level of training, which enables to both focally exploit intellectual and cultural achievements of Buddhist studies in nationwide and worldwide level, especially the core and cross-cutting content from the thought system of Buddha-King Tran Nhan Tong and Truc Lam Zen school - Vietnamese Zen Buddhism to ensure ethnic characteristics of the program.

The training program not only integrates and conveys the vast amount of knowledge and culture about Buddhism, but also bases on scientific foundations. This is actually a modern updated scientific training program, through which the central goal is to train high quality human resources, create excellent scientific products, practically serve the construction and protection of Socialist Republic of Vietnam with rich people, strong nation, democracy, fairness and civilization.

Thus, unlike some other Buddhism training programs offered by other institutions under Buddhist systems in the world and Vietnamese Buddhist Association that mainly focus on getting the Buddhist doctrines and Buddhist traditions across; also unlike PhD programs taught by other universities in the world which approach Buddhism from a scientific perspectives without the knowledge of Buddhism in Vietnam, the PhD program of Buddhist studies at Tran Nhan Tong Institute is a perfect unification of knowledge with the major focal characteristics, such as novelty, scientificness, ethnicity and globalness, which meets practical social needs accordingly.

Duration of the program: 176 credits.

Training mode: Full time.

Teaching language: Vietnamese

Venue: Tran Nhan Tong Institute, 144 Xuan Thuy road, Cau Giay district, Hanoi, Vietnam.

2. Profession Orientation:

The program offers career opportunities, such as:

- Studying and teaching Buddhism at Buddhist schools; Executing the Buddhist practices in Buddhist institutions according to the laws and regulations of the Vietnamese Buddhism Association.

- Studying and teaching Buddhism at schools in the national education system according to the educational programs approved by the state management agencies.

- Working as an expert in Buddhism at ognizations of the Vietnam Communist Party, the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and the Vietnamese Fatherland Front Committee with the issues related to Buddhism.

- Working as an expert inBuddhism at ognizations of media and publishing houses with the cultural and ideological work and editing related to Buddhism.

- Working as an expert in Buddhism in business with economic issues related to Buddhist culture.

3. Advantages of the Program

Firstly, the faculty staff is not only the local scientists but also international scientists, in which not only secular scientists but also spritual scientists participate in the trainingand teaching. This specific characteristic of the teaching staff derives from the characteristics of the field of Buddhist studies. Buddhism study as a science or a professional object of Buddhism is a huge system of knowledge, and culture with a long history, and a lot of intellectual qualities. These values can only be identified by personal experience and realization with very specific modes that cannot be done without being fully committed and deeply imbedded in. Therefore, the participation of spritual scientists is indispensable in implementing the high quality training program of Buddhist studies.

Secondly, on the learning mode, learners are involved in the journey of personal experience to self-realize Buddhism ideaology by themselves; these perceptions will be parallelled and consistent with the journey of receiving knowledge from class lectures. In the total duration of the training program for PhD students with bachelor’s degree, there will be at least 5 months of experience practice under the guidance of spritual scientists who have advanced training. The experience activities will be embedded in the real Buddhist cultural space, possibly in large monasteries in Vietnam, and possibly in major Buddhist cultural centers in the region and in the world.

Thirdly, about tuition, Tran Nhan Tong Institute will offer tuition support to learners by calling for scholarships, full scholarships, merit-based scholarships and other forms of support (funding for publication, publishing, and attending international conferences, etc.).

4. Specification of Educational Program:

4.1. The PhD program of Buddhist studies for candidates with bachelor’s degree has total credits: 176 credits, of which:

- Part 1. Supplementary courses:               44 credits

* Generic Knowledge (required):              08 credits

            * Generic Discipline Knowledge: 10 credits

Required:                                                       06 credits

Elective:                                                        04/16 credits            

* Specialized Knowledge:                          22 credits      

Required:                                                       14 credits

Elective:                                                        08/16 credits

                        * Personal experience practice:                 04 credits

- Part 2. Courses, assigments and  the review essay:      62 credits

* Doctoral courses:                                      14 credits

Required:                                           10 credits

Elective:                                            04/08 credits

            * Personal experience practice and advanced academic foreign language:   12 credits

Required:                                           08 credits

Elective:                                            04/08 credits

* Doctoral modules:                        34 credits

Required:                                           15 credits

Elective:                                            19/48 credits

            * Review Essay:                               02 credits

- Part 3. Scientific research (The required activity in the program, but no credit count)

- Part 4. Participation in professional activities, tutoring activities, and training support (required activities for PhD students, but no credit count in the training program).

- Part 5. Doctoral thesis:                                          70 credits

4.2 The PhD program of Buddhist studies for candidates with MA/MSc degree has total credits: 132 credits, of which:

- Part 1: Courses, assigments and  the review essay:      62 credits

* Doctoral courses:                                      14 credits

Required:                                                       10 credits

Elective:                                                        04/08 credits

            * Personal experience practice and advanced academic foreign language:   12 credits

Required:                                                       08 credits

Elective:                                                        04/08 credits

            * Doctoral assigments:                                34 credits

Required:                                                       15 credits

Elective:                                                        19/48 credits

            * Review essay:                                            02 credits

- Part 2: Scientific research (The required activity in the program, but no credit count).

- Part 3. Participation in professional activities, tutoring activities, and training support (required activities for PhD students, but no credit count in the training program).

- Part 4. Doctoral thesis:                                          70 credits

4.3 Curriculum

4.3.1 Curriculum 1

4.3.2 Curriculum 2