Accreditation in higher education in Vietnam: A case study of Vietnam National University, Hanoi

19 ACCREDITATION OF VIETNAM’S HIGHER EDUCATION AND VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI .... vii LIST OF ABBREVIATION 1 ACBSP Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs 3 A

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

HOANG THI THANH THUY

ACCREDITATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN VIETNAM: A CASE STUDY OF VIETNAM NATIONAL

UNIVERSITY, HANOI

MASTER'S THESIS

………

Hanoi, 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

HOANG THI THANH THUY

ACCREDITATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN VIETNAM: A CASE STUDY OF VIETNAM NATIONAL

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor from Vietnam side

- Dr Thuy Anh for her scholarly advice and critical feedback and comments for my thesis proposal and revision I specially owe many thanks to my supervisor from Japan side - Professor Jun Kawaguchi for his invaluable guidance and continuous encouragement It was my honor to work with my supervisors I am highly appreciated their wisdom, patience and continuous support duirng my thesis preparation Their generous assistance and meaningful suggestions helped me in all the time of study, research and preparation for my master thesis Without the thought-provoking conversations, useful discussion and enormous supports of my supervisors, hardly could

I put my thesis into perspective and introduce my final thesis

My great gratitute is also delivered to the prestigious professors and administrative staff at both Vietnam Japan University and University of Tsukuba for their academic and administrative supports during my thesis

I also express my deep appreciation to the informants who accepted to be interviewd Without their support as well as their abundant and valuable imformation, hardly could I have been able to complete my research

Last but not least, I express warm and sincere thanks to my beloved family that encouraged me to finish my thesis

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i

TABLE OF CONTENTS ii

LIST OF TABLES v

LIST OF FIGURES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATION vii

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Problem statement 2

1.3 Purpose of study 3

1.4 Research questions 3

1.5 Research method 4

1.6 Significance of study 5

1.7 Limitations of study 5

1.8 Structure of the thesis 5

LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Definition and concepts 7

2.2 Theoretical framework 9

2.3 Research gaps 12

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 15

3.1 Population of the research 15

3.2 Design of the research 16

3.3 Data collection 19

3.4 Data analysis 19

ACCREDITATION OF VIETNAM’S HIGHER EDUCATION AND VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI 21

4.1 Vietnam’s higher education and its accreditation 21

4.1.1 Overview of Vietnam’s higher education 21

4.1.2 Overview of Vietnam’s higher education accreditation 22

4.2 Vietnam National University, Hanoi and its accreditation 33

4.2.1 Overview of VNU 33

4.2.2 Overview of VNU’s accreditation 37

RESEARCH FINDINGS 49

5.1 Orientation for accreditation 49

5.2 Motivations of accreditation at VNU 51

5.3 Difficulties influencing the implementation of accreditation at VNU 57

5.4 Support from VNU for the implementation of accreditation 61

CONCLUSION AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS 62

6.1 Conclusion 62

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6.2 International experiences on accrediation 63

6.3 Policy implications 64

6.3.1 For MOET 64

6.3.2 For VNU 66

6.3.3 For VNU members 67

REFERENCES 69

APPENDIX 1 INTERVIEW PROTOCOLS 73

APPENDIX 2 INTERVIEW CODING 79

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LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 2.1 Contributions and limitations of researches 12

Table 3 1 Characteristics of informants 16

Table 4.1 The number of HEIs and number of students in academic year 2017-2018 21 Table 4.2 Legal documents on HE accreditation by MOET 24

Table 4.3 Number of HEIs conducting self-evaluation reports 27

Table 4.4 Numbers of HEIs externally evaluated by domestic accreditation agencies 29 Table 4.5 List of universities in Vietnam granted by international accreditation agencies 29

Table 4.6 Number of programs awarded by external accreditation agencies 30

Table 4.7 Organizational Structure of VNU 35

Table 4.8 VNU statistics on staff and students in 2017 36

Table 4.9 List of policy regulations and documents 38

Table 4.10 List of universities granted by external agencies 43

Table 4.11 List of ASEAN universities granted by ANU-QA institutional standards in 2017 and 2018 44

Table 4.12 List of programs granted by external agencies 45

Table 5.1 Motivations to implement accreditation at VNU 56

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 2.1 AUN benchmarking 9

Figure 2.2 Processes of motivational process 10

Figure 2.3 Conditions and characteristics of change 11

Figure 4.1 Organizational Structure of VNU 35

Figure 4.2 The accreditation system in Vietnam’s HE 40

Figure 4.3 AUN institutional standard 45

Figure 5.1 Motivations to implement accreditation at VNU 51

Figure 5.2 Difficulties during the implementation of accreditation 58

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LIST OF ABBREVIATION

1 ACBSP Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs

3 ACEJMC Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass

Communications

4 ACS WASC Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association

of Schools and Colleges

5 ABET Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology

6 ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations

8 AUN-QA Quality Assurance

9 CEA-AVU&C Centre for Education Accreditation

10 CEA-UD Center of Education Accreditation University of Da Nang

11 CHEA Council for Higher Education

12 CTI Commission des Titres d'Ingénieur

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13 ENAEE European Network for Accreditation of Engineering

Education

14 FIBAA International Business Administration Accreditation

15 GDETA General Department of Education Testing and

Accreditation

16 HCERES High-level Council of French higher education research and

evaluation

18 HEI Higher education institutions

20 IACBE International accreditation Council for Business Education

21 IFEQA Institute for Education Quality Assurance

22 INQAAHE International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in

Higher Education

23 NIAD-QE National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality

Enhancement of Higher Education

25 QAC Quality Assurance Centers

26 TEQSA Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

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28 VJU Vietnam Japan university

29 VNU Vietnam National University, Hanoi

30 VNU-UEB University of Economics and Business

31 VNU- UED University of Education

32 VNU-UET University of Technology

33 VNU-IS International School

34 VNU-LS School of Law

35 VNU-HUS University of Sciences

36 VNU-SMP School of Medicine & Pharmacy

37 VNU-ULIS University of Languages and International Studies

38 VNU-USSH University of Social Science and Humanity

39 MOET Ministry of Education and Training

40 HCERES High-level Council of French higher education research and

evaluation

41 SAHEP Support for Autonomous Higher Education Project

42 UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization

43 VNU- CEA Vietnam National University - Center for Education

Accreditation

x

44 VNU-HCM

CEA

VNU-HCM Education Accreditation Centre

an inevitable trend, accreditation agencies have been established at both regional and global scale (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2016)

With 295 higher education institutions (HEIs) and 1,823,991 students in the academic year 2017-2018, Vietnam has focused on assuring the quality of education (Nguyen, 2019) Its higher education (HE), therefore, is not an outsider in the global and regional trends regarding quality assurance (Nguyen, 2019) Initially introduced into Vietnam’s education and training in 1990s, accreditation was formalized in 2003 with the establishment of the national organization in quality assurance and accreditation, the General Department of Education Testing and Accreditation (GDETA) (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2016) According to Education Law, it is compulsory for all higher education institutions (HEIs) in Vietnam to be accredited since 2005 (Nguyen, 2014; Nguyen, Oliver & Priddy, 2009) The accreditation model for HE system in Vietnam has been adapted from those have been popularly utilized in regions, for example, ASEAN University Network Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) and Bologna Process of Europe (Nguyen & Nguyen, 2016) There are three components belonging to quality assurance model in Vietnam including (i) internal quality assurance, (ii) external quality assurance and (iii) accreditation agencies (Kristoffersen, 2010) With the aim to directing the development of the quality assurance system, the Government of Vietnam has promulgated legal frameworks as well as regulations for accreditation Since 2007, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has issued the set of accreditation standards for both program and institutional levels Currently, the set of standards, adopted from

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AUN-QA, included 11 standards, 50 criteria for programs by Circular 04/2016 and 25 criteria, 111 criteria for institutions by Circular 12/2017

As a national leading HEI in Vietnam, VNU has great concern on accreditation

at both institutional and program levels Six out of member universities have been accredited by national standard of MOET with high results (MOET, 2019a) University

of Science (VNU-HUS) is the first university in ASEAN to be granted by AUN-QA institutional standard (AUN factbook, 2018) Regarding the program accreditation, 29 programs have been awarded by international accrediting agencies, accounting for nearly

a quarter (23,02 percent) of total 126 programs that were internationally accredited (MOET, 2019b) Thanks to the above-mentioned achievements, VNU possibly provides invaluable experiences during the implementation of accreditation in terms of (i) motivations and (ii) difficulties

1.2 Problem statement

The accreditation of HE in Vietnam has achieved certain results (Nguyen, 2014; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2016; Nguyen et al., 2017) MOET targets that all tertiary institutions and at least 10 percent of programs will have been accredited by 2020 (MOET, 2014) 218 universities out of 295 higher education institutions (HEIs) accounting for 73.9 percent conducted self-evaluation (MOET, 2019a) However, a small ratio of HEIs and programs has been externally granted by accreditation agencies Until April 2019, regarding institutional level, 121 universities and 03 colleges out of

295, accounting for 42.03 percent, have been granted by domestic accreditation certificates based on MOET standards (MOET, 2019a) 06 HEIs including VNU University of Science out of 295, occupied 2.03 percent, have been recognized by international accreditation organizations such as AUN-QA and High-level Council of French higher education research and evaluation (HCERES) (MOET, 2019a) In terms

of program level, 142 out of 489 programs have been accredited, comprised of 29.04

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percent (MOET, 2019b) There has been a mere proportion of 0.2 percent of programs (16 programs) granted by national standards and a quarter (126 programs) granted by regional and international standards (MOET, 2019b)

Additionally, arguments about the independence and effectiveness of accreditation in Vietnam have been discussed in studies by Madde (2014) and Dao (2015) The accreditation of Vietnam’s HE has faced with challenges including (i) low quality awareness, (ii) limitation in human resources and (iii) unclear incentives for the outcomes of accreditation (Thanh, 2013; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2016; Nguyen et al., 2017)

In order to meet target of all universities accredited by 2020, it is urgent to find motivations to encourage HEIs to implement accreditation and the difficulties that hinder the implementation of accreditation As a leading comprehensive university that is externally accredited by MOET and AUN-QA standards, VNU can be analyzed as a case study

1.3.Purpose of study

The thesis aims to identify the motivations to implement accreditation and difficulties that hinder the implementation of accreditation at VNU Based on the analysis, the research then provides policy implications for public HEIs (institutional level) and government/MOET (national level) to encourage public universities to implement accreditation To this end, VNU is taken as a case study

1.4 Research questions

The research focuses on answering the following questions:

Question 1 What are motivations to implement accreditation at VNU?

Question 2 What are the difficulties that hinder the implementation of accreditation at VNU?

at institutional level by VNU and its members are analyzed

In addition, in-depth interview is utilized The author conducted the interviews with 14 key informants that represent VNU level, its member level as well as ministerial level of quality assurance and accreditation to deepen understandings of the research issues The interviews focused on (i) motivations and (ii) difficulties to implement accreditation at VNU Regarding VNU level, the thesis targets Director of Institute for Education Quality Assurance (IFEQA) and Chief of Education Quality Assurance Council to present the mindset of VNU leaders As for VNU members, Directors/Vice-Directors and staff of Quality Assurance Centers (QAC) together with Vice Dean of program have been interviewed to represent the perspectives of accreditation implementers at VNU member universities/schools and faculties In terms of ministerial level, the author aimed to interview Vice-Director of Vietnam National University - Center for Education Accreditation (VNU- CEA), which is first accreditation agencies established in Vietnam by MOET and managed by VNU

The findings of qualitative data in Chapter 5 including the motivations to implement accreditation will be compared with theoretical framework mentioned in Chapter 2

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1.6 Significance of study

The thesis is expected to cover both social and academic significance

Regarding academic significance, the thesis aims to provide a case study’s analysis of accreditation based on the motivations and the difficulties that hinder the implementation of accreditation at VNU The findings of thesis might be the orientation for the next research on the issues of accreditation in HE in Vietnam

In terms of social significance, the motivations of VNU are expected to provides policy implications at institutional and national levels to encourage public HEIs to implement accreditation

1.7 Limitations of study

An analysis of case study VNU - a leading university helps the research obtain insightful understanding of accreditation within the institutional specific context However, the thesis merely focuses on the motivations and difficulties to implement the accreditation at VNU – a case study example of a public HEI in Vietnam Further studies which identify the motivations of non-public HEIs are expected to be conducted In addition, the thesis aims to identify the institutional motivations of universities and schools, therefore, motivations of lecturers and students that get directly benefits of accreditation implementation are beyond the scope of this study Moreover, the numbers

of interviewees are quite small (14 informants) However, thanks to their support, the amount and quality of information is quite abundant and valuable

1.8 Structure of the thesis

The thesis delivers six chapters including

Chapter 1 Introduction This chapter will illustrate the research background

and state research problem The research questions, research method, research significance and limitations of study are also presented in this part

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Chapter 2 Literature review Chapter 2 focuses on review the available

literature history of the research on accreditation in both international context and Vietnam’s context

Chapter 3 Research methodology The objective of this chapter is to explain in

detail the research method of the thesis in detail

Chapter 4 Accreditation of Vietnam’s higher education and Vietnam National University, Hanoi Chapter 4 aims to provide an overview of accreditation of

Vietnam’s HE The policy documents at national level on HE accreditation, characteristics as well as achievements and challenges of HE accreditation are

introduced In addition, this chapter will focus on the overview and the achievements of

accreditation at VNU and its members Policy documents on accreditation issued by VNU and current situation on institutional and program accreditation will be also provided in this chapter

Chapter 5 Research findings This chapter will present the finding results of

interview that identify the motivations and difficulties to implement accreditation These findings will then be analyzed and discussed in this part In particular, the institutional motivations at VNU are compared to the theoretical framework which has been mentioned in chapter 2

Chapter 6 Conclusion and policy implications The final chapter will

summarize the main findings and discussions from above chapters and then provide policy implications at institutional and national levels to encourage public HEIs in Vietnam to implement accreditation

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LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definition and concepts

There are a large number of definitions and concepts of HE accreditation For instance, Council for Higher Education (CHEA), the USA has defined accreditation as

“a process of external quality review created and used by higher education to scrutinize colleges, universities and programs for quality assurance and quality improvement” (CHEA, 2015) Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) regards accreditation as “a collegial process based on self- and peer assessment for public accountability and improvement of academic quality” In

a broader context, UNESCO (2007) mentions that accreditation is “the process by which

a (non)-governmental or private body evaluates the quality of a HEI as a whole or a specific educational program in order to formally recognize it as having met certain pre-determined minimal criteria or standards” (cited in Nguyen & Nguyen, 2016) The result

of this process is usually the awarding of a status, of recognition, and sometimes of a license to operate within a time-limited validity (UNESCO, 2007 cited in Nguyen & Nguyen, 2016)

Some definitions related to school accreditation are introduced in both developed countries and developing countries In the U.S setting, according to the Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACS WASC), accreditation is defined as “an ongoing cycle of quality and a process schools use to monitor student learning and set school improvement goal” The U.S Department of Education describes the practice of accreditation as “a means of conducting nongovernmental, peer evaluation of educational institutions and programs” (Hegji, 2017) In the developing countries, for example, Nigeria defines school accreditation as

a type of school self-evaluation, a systematic and comprehensive evaluation to look out for areas of strengths and weaknesses of the school (Afemikhe et al., 2015) In Vietnam’s

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context, school accreditation is defined as the evaluation process including evaluation and external evaluation in order to determine the level the school satisfies the educational quality evaluation standards, and recognize the school meeting educational quality standards by government organizations (MOET, 2014)

self-There are some concepts including quality assurance, peer review, external review and external evaluation and benchmarks related to accreditation Quality assurance as cited in IIEP-UNESCO (2011) is regarded as “a continuous process of evaluating (assessing, monitoring, guaranteeing, maintaining, and improving) the quality

of a higher education system, institutions or programs.” According to MOET (2014), quality assurance includes both internal and external review It is confirmed that accreditation is quality assurance through external review [12 V1] External evaluation

is the third stage of accreditation process in Vietnam (MOET, 2014) Another concept is peer review defined in Oxford dictionary as the evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field According to Massachusetts Association of Planning Director, peer review is “the evaluation of creative work or performance by other people in the same filed in order to maintain or enhance the quality

of the work or performance in that filed” (Hao, 2015) The differences between peer review and accreditation is the objectives and scope of the concepts Peer review aims

to support quality improvement or certify the level of achievement of the criteria while the objectives of accreditation is to recognize the achievement of the standards Regarding scope, peer review is used for both individual and system levels while institutional and program levels are granted by accreditation For the benchmark, it is

“simply about making comparisons with other organizations and then learning the lessons that those comparisons throw up” (European Benchmarking Code of Conduct, cited in Focus, 2013) As can be seen in Figure 2.1, ANU-QA used benchmarking to compare between the stakeholders’ need and the current accreditation implementation at HEIs to identify the level of achievements that meet the ANU-QA criteria

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Figure 2.1 AUN benchmarking

Source: AUN factbook, 2018

2.2 Theoretical framework

According Uno (2007), “motivation can be interpreted as an internal and external impulse in a person indicated by the existence; desires and interests; encouragement and need; hope and aspiration; appreciation and respect.” Machrony (2009) emphasized that the objectives of motivation are to encourages activities, toward achieving needs that satisfy or reduce imbalances Dylan, 2018 introduced 6 types of motivations including Intrinsic motivation, Extrinsic motivation, Incentive motivation, Fear-Based motivation, Incentive motivation and Achievement-Based motivation Intrinsic motivation is stimulated by internal desires while extrinsic motivation is derived from external desires Fear-based motivation is generated by the accountability to public Incentive motivation

Due to the limited researches on motivations of accreditation especially the

context of HE, the thesis only utilizes the theoretical framework of Neuroscientific model and model to test accreditation stimulate change in Healthcare organization in Canada Figure 2.2 explains the generation of motivation in terms of the reward-driven

approach process, regarded as an example of incentive motivation (Sung-il, 2013)

Figure 2.2 represents a complicated model but the thesis only focuses on the context of accreditation applied to explore the impact of internal and external conditions Later findings of motivations generated from the implementation of accreditation at VNU in chapter 5 will be compared to 6 types of motivations in theoretical framework in chapter

2

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Figure 2.3 Conditions and characteristics of change

Source: Marie et al.,201

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2.3 Research gaps

Table 2.1 describes the contributions and limitations in the part of literature review

Table 2.1 Contributions and limitations of researches

mention)

Nguyen et al., 2017,

Achievements and Lessons

Learned from Vietnam’s

Higher Education Quality

Assurance System after a

Decade of Establishment

ü Illustrate the achievements and challenges as well as lessons learned from Vietnam’s HE quality assurance and accreditation

from 2005 -2015

- NOT figure out the motivations and difficulties to

- NOT identify the motivations and factors that influence the implementation of accreditation

Nguyen & Nguyen, 2016

- Introduce all school level, not focus on HE

Dzung & Son, 2016, A

review of Assessment

Models in Higher

Education and Implication

for Vietnam’s Regional

ü Examine current assessment models applicable to the teaching and learning at HEIs

ü Briefly describe some common practices related to

- NOT Evaluate the implementations of accreditation

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Integration Efforts how students’ learning is

assessed at the faculties or department (hereafter referred to as departments) of foreign languages, say English in this study, of some selected Vietnamese HEIs

ü Identify major implications and suggestions for regional integration among those institutions from the perspective of learning assessment

- Focus on internal QA process, the interplay

of internal QA process and mechanisms as

international linkages

of accreditation

3 ADB, 2010, Viet Nam:

Preparing the Higher

-Focus on external QA

Source: Combined by the author

It can be seen that limited empirical researches mention the possible difficulties

or obstacles for the adoption of accreditation in the context of HE, especially in developing countries In addition, there is limited case study analysis about accreditation

in HE, motivations and factors to implement accreditation at universities in Vietnam Therefore, there has been a research gap for motivations and difficulties to implement accreditation in HE in Vietnam through a case study’s analysis

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The research method will be explained in the detail in this chapter Firstly, the chapter discusses the population of the research and then presents the design of the study, the research process and research analysis

3.1 Population of the research

The research aims to identify the motivations and difficulties during the implementation of accreditation at a national leading university in the context of a developing country The mindset of key institutional actors at VNU that are involved in accreditation implementation will be analyzed in detail As “the first modern university ever established” and “the largest comprehensive HE and research center in Vietnam” (Nguyen, 2010), VNU, therefore, was taken as a case study

Encountered with a great number of characteristics of a national leading HEI regarding its status, missions, history, and prestige (Nguyen, 2010), VNU possibly represents a critical case study VNU consists of eleven member universities and schools Therefore, the study targets the population including VNU-level accreditation implementers as well as ministerial level organizations of QA and accreditation Under the VNU level, the thesis intends to interview the accreditation implementers who are Directors/Vice-Directors and staffs at QA centers as well as Vice Dean of programs belonging to member universities and schools The interviews focus on (i) motivations and (ii) difficulties to implement accreditation at VNU Regarding ministerial level organizations, the study target to interview the quality assurance and accreditation organizations, for example, Director of Institute for Education Quality Assurance (IFEQA) and Vice-Director of Vietnam National University - Center for Education Accreditation (VNU-CEA)

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3.2 Design of the research

Regarding sample, a total of 14 interview respondents were selected to present the three groups of VNU level, VNU member level and Ministerial level including 2, 11 and 1 respectively (see Table 3.1) In addition, participants of each group were chosen based on different characteristics As for VNU level, the study targets Chief of VNU Quality Assurance Council and Director of Institution for Education Quality Assurance (IFEQA) At VNU member level, the author tried to pick up those who are Directors/Vice-Directors and staffs of QA centers as well as Vice Dean of program at member universities and schools For Ministerial level, the study planned to interview Vice Director of Vietnam National University - Center for Education Accreditation (VNU- CEA) Table 3.1 represents the characteristics and numbers of interview informants

Table 3 1 Characteristics of informants

Total

Directors/

Vice Directors

Source: Combined by the author

In terms of research instruments, besides evidence collected from desk review and secondary data, the findings of study are dependent on in-depth interviews conducted with respondents to deepen the understandings of motivations and difficulties

to implement accreditation at VNU The study followed interview protocols including

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interview questions that needed to be explored during each interview The interview protocols were delivered in order to ensure the consistent information obtained from each interviewee Please see Appendix 1 for the details of the interview protocols

Apart from interviews, qualitative data are collected from various sources including policy documents, institutional documents and reports as well as websites from MOET, VNU, and its members

3.3 Data collection

The author collected the major source for qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 14 respondents from May 1st to 12th The researchers contacted the interviewees through emails at least one week before each interview to invite them to join in the interviews as well as present them the research purpose and significance

All interviews lasted for 30 to 60 minutes The content of interviews was

recorded (except for 4 informants) and the author took notes under the permission of interviewees The researcher is responsible for transcribing the interviews

3.4 Data analysis

The findings of qualitative data in Chapter 5 including the motivations and difficulties to implement accreditation will be compared with theoretical framework mentioned in chapter 2 The study then focused on analysis of cross-cutting issues related

to the accreditation implementation at VNU

Grounded theory methods are utilized to process the qualitative interview (Strauss

& Corbin, 1990, cited in Nguyen, 2010) A list of major themes and sub-themes was inductively produced, based on interview transcripts which were selectively coded With the aim of anonymity guarantee, pseudonymous names were used to identify interviewees, for example, 01MH1, 02 MH3, 06 MS2 and 12 V1, 13 V2 and 14 N1 These codes followed the rules: V = VNU level, M = VNU members and N = Ministerial

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ACCREDITATION OF VIETNAM’S HIGHER EDUCATION AND VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI 4.1 Vietnam’s higher education and its accreditation

4.1.1 Overview of Vietnam’s higher education

Vietnam higher education system (HES) has a large scale and diversity (Thanh, 2013) Vietnam HES consists of four main kinds of HEIs including public, semi- public, private and branch of foreign higher education institutions (Tran, 2010) In academic year 2017-2018, there were 295 universities and colleges and the public schools accounts for 76.3 percent (see Table 4.1) Before 1993, Vietnamese HES did not have multi- disciplinary universities and private universities (Tran, 2010) Since the end of 1993 some multi-disciplinary universities, for example, VNU founded in December 1993, have been established by merging former institutions Regarding governance and administration, there are two types of institutions including national universities under the direct governance of Prime Minister, for example, VNU and universities or colleges governed by MOET, other ministries or local authorities (Nguyen, 2019)

Table 4.1 The number of HEIs and number of students in academic year

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Source: MOET, 2019

4.1.2 Overview of Vietnam’s higher education accreditation

In Vietnam, accreditation is compulsory for all HEIs (MOET, 2014) Standards and criteria for HE accreditation have been issued and regulated by MOET (MOET, 2014) The updated regulation by MOET on HE accreditation at institutional level, which includes 25 standards and 111 criteria for external evaluation, was issued in 2017 (Nguyen et al., 2017) The accreditation procedure consists of four stages: (i) self-evaluation, (ii) external evaluation, (ii) appraisal of external evaluation results, and (iv) recognition of meeting the national standards Apart from the first stage conducted by HEIs, the other three stages are delivered by one of the five independent education accreditation centers established by MOET These five agencies operate based on a cost recovery basis The accreditation cycle lasts for five years and the midterm review is conducted every 2.5 years (Nguyen et al., 2017)

In Vietnam, there are five education accreditation centers including the VNU Centre for Education Accreditation in Hanoi (VNU-CEA), VNU-HCM Education Accreditation Centre (VNU-HCM CEA), the University of Danang Education Accreditation Centre, Vinh University Education Accreditation Centre and the Education Accreditation Centre under the Vietnam Association of Universities and Colleges For the sake of independence guarantee, these abovementioned centers were licensed to accredit all HEIs and programs, apart from the schools, faculties, and programs of the hosting universities For instance, VNU-CEA are not permitted to accredit the VNU member universities, schools and programs These centers are authorized to recognize HEIs and programs meeting accreditation standards without the interference of a third party (Nguyen, 2016)

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HEIs in Vietnam follow two accreditation levels including institutional and program accreditations According to MOET (2019a), until April 2019, 251 HIEs including 218 and 33 colleges, accounting for 85.08 percent, have completed the self-evaluation reports Accrediting agencies take legal responsibilities to conduct external evaluation and recognize institutions or programs that meet standards of education quality (MOET, 2014) Up until April 2019, 128 universities and six colleges were externally evaluated by accreditation agencies and 124 HEIs including 121 universities were granted accreditation certificates (MOET, 2019a) Additionally, six universities were recognized by international accreditation organizations (MOET, 2019a) In terms

of program level, 142 programs have been externally reviewed by April 2019 16 programs evaluated by domestic standard of MOET by VNU-CEA (10 programs), VNU-HCM CEA (five programs) and CEA-AVU&C (one programs) and others recognized

by international standards (MOET, 2019b)

In Vietnam, university accreditation has strong relationship with university autonomy and internalization [13 V2] A university that has been externally accredited takes opportunity to become autonomous university and external accreditation is regarded as one of criteria of university autonomy [13 V2] In brief, HEIs in Vietnam accredited by external agencies possibly get incentives of autonomy Under Resolution

77, the autonomy in the resolution involves university governance, organizational structure, number and position of staff, university financing, for example, setting its own tuition fees and academic programs, for instance, curriculum design and research agenda (Australian Department of Education, 2018) As a support university autonomy with the budget of 329.6 million dollars by the World Bank and the Government of Vietnam, the development project titled Support for Autonomous Higher Education Project (SAHEP) from 2017 to 2022 were approved in 2017 in order to leverage research, teaching, and institutional capacity at selected autonomous universities as well as improve the national management system of HE in Vietnam (Australian Department of Education, 2018) It

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is estimated that more than 150,000 students and 3,900 lecturers will get benefits from this project (Australian Department of Education, 2018) In brief, HEIs in Vietnam, which have been externally accredited, possibly get benefits of autonomy

Regarding university internalization, HEIs and accrediting organizations in Vietnam actively joined in QA and accreditation networks regionally and globally (Nguyen et al., 2017) Specifically, five institutions/ agencies are regarded as members

of the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE) (INQAAHE, 2017) and three universities are full members of AUN-QA (AUN, 2017; Nguyen et al., 2017) Thanks to the support and participation in these networks, HE QA and accreditation systems of Vietnam has been internationally integrated and obtained precious experience

4.1.2.1 Policy framework for accreditation of Vietnam’s higher education

According to MOET (2014), all HEIs are compulsory to be accredited MOET has developed a system of policy documents on accreditation [13 V2] (see Table 4.2) The Education Law and Higher Education Law promulgate accreditation standards, procedure, and cycles as well as regulations on establishment and operation of accreditation agencies (Nguyen et al, 2017) Additionally, as mentioned in National Assembly (2005), MOET are assigned to takes responsibility for management and supervision of accreditation activities Regarded as a unit of MOET, General Department

of Education Testing and Accreditation (GDETA) is in charge of guiding the implementation of national accreditation for programs to the individuals, HEIs and organizations (Niedermeier & Pohlenz, 2016) Accreditation standards and process has been legally developed by GDETA and approved by MOET To date, accreditation of

HE follows Circular No 42/2012/TT-BDGDT (Nguyen, 2016)

Table 4.2 Legal documents on HE accreditation by MOET

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No Legal documents Year Content

1 Education Law 2005 Article 17 Education quality accreditation

2 Higher Education Act 2012 Article 5: Details on QA and accreditation for

HE Article 52: accreditation agencies Article 53: the results of HE accreditation in

3 Circular 61/2012 /

TT-BGDDT

2012 Regulations on conditions for establishment,

dissolution, duties and powers of education accreditation organizations

2013 Regulation on the accreditation process and

cycle for HEIs

2018 Guidelines for external evaluation of

11 Decree 86/2018/ND-CP 2018 Article 4: general provisions on QA and

accreditation requirements in the

Source: Combined by the author

Vietnam Education Law (2005) states that accreditation is a measure to define to what extend education institutions meet missions, purposes, education contents The Article 17 represent the requirement of education quality accreditation (Vietnam Education Law, 2005) Higher Education Act 2012 provides the objectives, principles, and subjects of HE accreditation in article 49 Higher Education Act 2012 includes articles guiding details on QA and accreditation for HE The responsibilities of HEIs under QA are mentioned in the article 50, duties, and powers of the HEIs under quality assurance stated in article 51, accreditation agencies in article 52, and the results of HE accreditation included in article 53 (Thanh, 2013) Prime Minister’ Instruction No 296/CT-TTg on Feb 27, 2010 on HE management renovation during the period 2010-

2012 issued by Prime Minister requires universities to establish Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) A new university will be permitted to recruit students by MOET if it meets requirements defined in Decision No 07/2009/QĐ-TTg HEIs annually submit report to MOET and join in annual conferences organized by MOET to discuss main HE issues Universities are required to prepare self-evaluation reports and be ready for external review as well as conduct mid-term review every 2.5 years Mechanism of an

of foreign partners will commit to current policy documents in Vietnam (Decree 86, 2018) The other documents represent guidelines for program and institutional accreditation, for example, self-assessment of program (Guidance 1075), external evaluation of programs (Guidance 1076) and self-assessment of institutions (Circular 767) and external evaluation of institutions (Circular 768)

4.1.2.1 Self-evaluation and external evaluation

The accreditation includes self-evaluation and external evaluation activities For the self-evaluation, HEIs have implemented the self-evaluation for both institutional and program levels since 2005 Until April 2019, 251 HIEs including 218 and 33 colleges have written the self-evaluation reports (MOET (2019a), (see Table 4.3)

Table 4.3 Number of HEIs conducting self-evaluation reports

self-External Evaluation

28

Source: MOET, 2019a

With 85.08 percent of HEIs conducting self-evaluation reports However, there has been a gap between two accreditation cycles Many HEIs did not continue external evaluation after the stage of self-evaluation The number of HEIs updated self-evaluation reports during 2005 and 2011 has been limited accounting for a third of HEIs (104/295) (Nguyen et al., 2017) Majority of HEIs have inactively completed self-evaluation for the sake of quality assurance Regarding the external evaluation, it has been granted by

four national accreditation centers (see Table 4.4) Up until April 2019, 134 HEIs

including 128 universities and 6 colleges that comprised of 45.42 percent have been externally evaluated by accrediting agencies (see Table 4.3) However, 124 HEIs occupied 42.03 percent were awarded accreditation certificate (see Table 4.5) Majority HEIs (50 percent) were evaluated by VNU-CEA The numbers of HEIs externally accredited by CEA-AVU&C, VNU-HCM CEA and CEA-UD were 27.42 percent, 14.51 percent and 8.07 percent respectively Six out of 295 HEIs accounting for 2.03 percent (all are universities) were internationally recognized by organizations including AUN-

QA and HERCES (see Table 4.5) As it can be seen from table 4.5, no colleges in Vietnam have been internationally evaluated Majority of universities (five out six) were accredited by HERCES, which is famous in the field of technology (see Table 4.5) Table 4.5 indicated that merely 02 HEIs namely VNU University of Science and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology were granted by AUN-QA in 2017 VNU University of Science was the first university in ASEAN was awarded AUN-QA certificate under institutional standards Only Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology were granted

by both HCERES and AUN-QA in 2017 (see Table 4.5)