Accreditation in higher education in vietnam a case study of vietnam national university, hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIVIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY HOANG THI THANH THUY ACCREDITATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN VIETNAM: A CASE STUDY OF VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI MAJOR: PU

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 UNIVERSITY, HANOI

MAJOR: PUBLIC POLICY

CODE: PILOT

RESEARCH SUPERVISOR:

Dr NGUYEN THUY ANH

Dr JUN KAWAGUCHI

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 mythesis 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 andcontinuous support duirng my thesis preparation Their generous assistance and meaningfulsuggestions helped me in all the time of study, research and preparation for my masterthesis Without the thought-provoking conversations, useful discussion and enormoussupports of my supervisors, hardly could I put my thesis into perspective and introduce myfinal thesis

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

I also express my deep appreciation to the informants who accepted to beinterviewd 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 thatencouraged me to finish my thesis

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

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

6.2 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

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

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

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

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

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

26 TEQSA Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency

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

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

44VNU-HCM VNU-HCM Education Accreditation CentreCEA

1.1 Research background

Since the first form of accreditation was introduced in 1989 in Western Europe(Sursock, 2010), accreditation in higher education as a basic approach to qualityassurance has been greatly concerned by different stakeholders throughout the world

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

With 295 higher education institutions (HEIs) and 1,823,991 students in theacademic 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 andregional trends regarding quality assurance (Nguyen, 2019) Initially introduced intoVietnam’s education and training in 1990s, accreditation was formalized in 2003 with theestablishment of the national organization in quality assurance and accreditation, theGeneral Department of Education Testing and Accreditation (GDETA) (Nguyen &Nguyen, 2016) According to Education Law, it is compulsory for all higher educationinstitutions (HEIs) in Vietnam to be accredited since 2005 (Nguyen, 2014; Nguyen, Oliver

& Priddy, 2009) The accreditation model for HE system in Vietnam has been adaptedfrom those have been popularly utilized in regions, for example, ASEAN UniversityNetwork Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) and Bologna Process of Europe (Nguyen &Nguyen, 2016) There are three components belonging to quality assurance model inVietnam including (i) internal quality assurance, (ii) external quality assurance and (iii)accreditation agencies (Kristoffersen, 2010) With the aim to directing the development ofthe quality assurance system, the Government of Vietnam has promulgated legalframeworks as well as regulations for accreditation Since 2007, the Ministry of Educationand Training (MOET) has issued the set of accreditation standards for both program and

AUN-QA, included 11 standards, 50 criteria for programs by Circular 04/2016 and 25criteria, 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 beenaccredited 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-QAinstitutional standard (AUN factbook, 2018) Regarding the program accreditation, 29programs have been awarded by international accrediting agencies, accounting fornearly a quarter (23,02 percent) of total 126 programs that were internationallyaccredited (MOET, 2019b) Thanks to the above-mentioned achievements, VNUpossibly provides invaluable experiences during the implementation of accreditation interms 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 institutionsand at least 10 percent of programs will have been accredited by 2020 (MOET, 2014) 218universities out of 295 higher education institutions (HEIs) accounting for 73.9 percentconducted self-evaluation (MOET, 2019a) However, a small ratio of HEIs and programshas been externally granted by accreditation agencies Until April 2019, regardinginstitutional level, 121 universities and 03 colleges out of 295, accounting for 42.03percent, have been granted by domestic accreditation certificates based on MOETstandards (MOET, 2019a) 06 HEIs including VNU University of Science out of 295,occupied 2.03 percent, have been recognized by international accreditation organizationssuch as AUN-QA and High-level Council of French higher education research andevaluation (HCERES) (MOET, 2019a) In terms of program level, 142 out of 489

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 byregional and international standards (MOET, 2019b).

Additionally, arguments about the independence and effectiveness ofaccreditation 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) lowquality awareness, (ii) limitation in human resources and (iii) unclear incentives for theoutcomes 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 findmotivations to encourage HEIs to implement accreditation and the difficulties thathinder the implementation of accreditation As a leading comprehensive university that

is externally accredited by MOET and AUN-QA standards, VNU can be analyzed as acase study

1.3.Purpose of study

The thesis aims to identify the motivations to implement accreditation anddifficulties that hinder the implementation of accreditation at VNU Based on theanalysis, the research then provides policy implications for public HEIs (institutionallevel) and government/MOET (national level) to encourage public universities toimplement 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 ofaccreditation at VNU?

Question 3 What are policy implications to encourage public universities toimplement accreditation?

at institutional level by VNU and its members are analyzed

In addition, in-depth interview is utilized The author conducted the interviewswith 14 key informants that represent VNU level, its member level as well asministerial level of quality assurance and accreditation to deepen understandings of theresearch issues The interviews focused on (i) motivations and (ii) difficulties toimplement accreditation at VNU Regarding VNU level, the thesis targets Director ofInstitute for Education Quality Assurance (IFEQA) and Chief of Education QualityAssurance Council to present the mindset of VNU leaders As for VNU members,Directors/Vice-Directors and staff of Quality Assurance Centers (QAC) together withVice Dean of program have been interviewed to represent the perspectives ofaccreditation implementers at VNU member universities/schools and faculties In terms

of ministerial level, the author aimed to interview Vice-Director of Vietnam NationalUniversity - Center for Education Accreditation (VNU- CEA), which is firstaccreditation agencies established in Vietnam by MOET and managed by VNU

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

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’sanalysis of accreditation based on the motivations and the difficulties that hinder theimplementation of accreditation at VNU The findings of thesis might be theorientation 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 providespolicy implications at institutional and national levels to encourage public HEIs toimplement accreditation

1.7 Limitations of study

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

of interviewees are quite small (14 informants) However, thanks to their support, theamount 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, researchsignificance and limitations of study are also presented in this part

Chapter 2 Literature review Chapter 2 focuses on review the available

literature history of the research on accreditation in both international context andVietnam’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 areintroduced In addition, this chapter will focus on the overview and the achievements

of accreditation at VNU and its members Policy documents on accreditation issued byVNU and current situation on institutional and program accreditation will be alsoprovided 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, theinstitutional motivations at VNU are compared to the theoretical framework which hasbeen 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 providepolicy implications at institutional and national levels to encourage public HEIs inVietnam to implement accreditation

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition and concepts

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

“a process of external quality review created and used by higher education to scrutinizecolleges, universities and programs for quality assurance and quality improvement”(CHEA, 2015) Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and MassCommunications (ACEJMC) regards accreditation as “a collegial process based onself-and peer assessment for public accountability and improvement of academicquality” In a broader context, UNESCO (2007) mentions that accreditation is “theprocess 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 havingmet 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, andsometimes 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 developedcountries and developing countries In the U.S setting, according to the AccreditingCommission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (ACS WASC),accreditation is defined as “an ongoing cycle of quality and a process schools use tomonitor student learning and set school improvement goal” The U.S Department ofEducation describes the practice of accreditation as “a means of conductingnongovernmental, peer evaluation of educational institutions and programs” (Hegji, 2017)

In the developing countries, for example, Nigeria defines school accreditation as a type ofschool self-evaluation, a systematic and comprehensive evaluation to look out for areas ofstrengths and weaknesses of the school (Afemikhe et al., 2015) In Vietnam’s

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

self-There are some concepts including quality assurance, peer review, external reviewand 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 educationsystem, institutions or programs.” According to MOET (2014), quality assurance includesboth internal and external review It is confirmed that accreditation is quality assurancethrough external review [12 V1] External evaluation is the third stage of accreditationprocess in Vietnam (MOET, 2014) Another concept is peer review defined in Oxforddictionary as the evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by othersworking 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 samefiled 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 andscope 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 theachievement of the standards Regarding scope, peer review is used for both individual andsystem levels while institutional and program levels are granted by accreditation For thebenchmark, it is “simply about making comparisons with other organizations and thenlearning the lessons that those comparisons throw up” (European Benchmarking Code ofConduct, cited in Focus, 2013) As can be seen in Figure 2.1, ANU-QA usedbenchmarking to compare between the stakeholders’ need and the current accreditationimplementation at HEIs to identify the level of achievements that meet the ANU-QA

Figure 2.1 AUN benchmarking

Source: AUN factbook, 2018

2.2 Theoretical framework

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

focuses on the rewards that come after a goal is met while people utilize based motivation focus reaching a goal for the sake of achievement (Dylan, 2018)

achievement-Figure 2.2 Processes of motivational process

Source: Sung-il, 2013

Due to the limited researches on motivations of accreditation especially thecontext of HE, the thesis only utilizes the theoretical framework of Neuroscientificmodel and model to test accreditation stimulate change in Healthcare organization inCanada 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 ofaccreditation applied to explore the impact of internal and external conditions Laterfindings of motivations generated from the implementation of accreditation at VNU inchapter 5 will be compared to 6 types of motivations in theoretical framework inchapter 2

Figure 2.3 Conditions and characteristics of change

Source: Marie et al.,201

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, Illustrate the achievements - NOT figure out theAchievements and Lessons and challenges as well as motivations andLearned from Vietnam’s lessons learned from difficulties toHigher Education Quality Vietnam’s HE quality implement theAssurance System after a assurance and accreditation accreditation

Decade of Establishment from 2005 -2015

UNESCO, 2016, Vietnam Overview Vietnam Policies - NOT identify

Policies and Practices on and Practices on HE the motivations and

accreditationNguyen & Nguyen, 2016 Overview of school’s - Introduce all schoolAccreditation of schools in accreditation in Vietnam in level, not focus on HEVietnam: Achievements, terms of development

challenges, and lessons history, achievements,

Dzung & Son, 2016, A Examine current assessment - NOT Evaluate the

review of Assessment models applicable to the implementations of

Models in Higher teaching and learning at HEIs accreditation

Education and Implication Briefly describe some

for Vietnam’s Regional common practices related to

Integration Efforts how students’ learning is

assessed at the faculties ordepartment (hereafterreferred to as departments) offoreign languages, sayEnglish in this study, of someselected Vietnamese HEIsIdentify major implicationsand suggestions for regionalintegration among thoseinstitutions from theperspective of learningassessment

Concepcion, 2010, Quality Introduce the Quality - Focus on internal QA

Assurance Mechanism and process, the interplay

of accreditation

3 ADB, 2010, Viet Nam: Introduction and setting for - Analyze the current

Preparing the Higher HE in Vietnam in terms of implementations of

Education Sector management, finance and QA in detail

Development Project QA

(HESDP)

4 Johnson, 2016, AUN-QA Introduce and focus on - Analyze internal QA

Program to Institutional Assessment at Program and

5 Tham, 2012, Internal Focus on Internal QA in HE -Focus on external QA

quality assurance in in VN and external factors

Vietnam's higher from international projects

education: the influence by influence on internal QA

international projects

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 indeveloping countries In addition, there is limited case study analysis aboutaccreditation in HE, motivations and factors to implement accreditation at universities

in Vietnam Therefore, there has been a research gap for motivations and difficulties toimplement accreditation in HE in Vietnam through a case study’s analysis

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

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

3.1 Population of the research

The research aims to identify the motivations and difficulties during theimplementation of accreditation at a national leading university in the context of adeveloping country The mindset of key institutional actors at VNU that are involved inaccreditation implementation will be analyzed in detail As “the first modern universityever 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 HEIregarding its status, missions, history, and prestige (Nguyen, 2010), VNU possiblyrepresents a critical case study VNU consists of eleven member universities andschools Therefore, the study targets the population including VNU-level accreditationimplementers as well as ministerial level organizations of QA and accreditation Underthe VNU level, the thesis intends to interview the accreditation implementers who areDirectors/Vice-Directors and staffs at QA centers as well as Vice Dean of programsbelonging to member universities and schools The interviews focus on (i) motivationsand (ii) difficulties to implement accreditation at VNU Regarding ministerial levelorganizations, the study target to interview the quality assurance and accreditationorganizations, for example, Director of Institute for Education Quality Assurance(IFEQA) and Vice-Director of Vietnam National University - Center for EducationAccreditation (VNU-CEA)

3.2 Design of the research

Regarding sample, a total of 14 interview respondents were selected to presentthe 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 werechosen based on different characteristics As for VNU level, the study targets Chief ofVNU Quality Assurance Council and Director of Institution for Education QualityAssurance (IFEQA) At VNU member level, the author tried to pick up those who areDirectors/Vice-Directors and staffs of QA centers as well as Vice Dean of program atmember universities and schools For Ministerial level, the study planned to interviewVice Director of Vietnam National University - Center for Education Accreditation(VNU- CEA) Table 3.1 represents the characteristics and numbers of interviewinformants

Table 3 1 Characteristics of informants

Institutions/ VNU member level VNU Ministerial Total

Directors/ Staff of Dean/

Source: Combined by the author

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

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

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

3.3 Data collection

The author collected the major source for qualitative data from in-depthinterviews with 14 respondents from May 1st to 12th The researchers contacted theinterviewees through emails at least one week before each interview to invite them tojoin 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 ofinterviewees The researcher is responsible for transcribing the interviews

3.4 Data analysis

The findings of qualitative data in Chapter 5 including the motivations anddifficulties to implement accreditation will be compared with theoretical frameworkmentioned in chapter 2 The study then focused on analysis of cross-cutting issuesrelated 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 wasinductively produced, based on interview transcripts which were selectively coded With theaim of anonymity guarantee, pseudonymous names were used to identify interviewees, forexample, 01MH1, 02 MH3, 06 MS2 and 12 V1, 13 V2 and 14 N1 These codes followed therules: V = VNU level, M = VNU members and N = Ministerial

level The second letter stands for the name of VNU member universities and schoolscoded by the author The number 01, 02, … 13, 14 before letters indicates the timeorder of the interviews conducted in each member institution The number 1,2,3 afterletters represent the characteristic of the informants (see detail in Appendix 2).

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 year2017-2018, there were 295 universities and colleges and the public schools accounts for76.3 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 somemulti-disciplinary universities, for example, VNU founded in December 1993, have beenestablished by merging former institutions Regarding governance and administration,there are two types of institutions including national universities under the directgovernance of Prime Minister, for example, VNU and universities or colleges governed byMOET, other ministries or local authorities (Nguyen, 2019)

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

Number of students 1,823,991

Source: MOET, 2019

4.1.2 Overview of Vietnam’s higher education accreditation

In Vietnam, accreditation is compulsory for all HEIs (MOET, 2014) Standardsand 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 educationaccreditation centers established by MOET These five agencies operate based on acost 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 VNUCentre for Education Accreditation in Hanoi (VNU-CEA), VNU-HCM EducationAccreditation Centre (VNU-HCM CEA), the University of Danang EducationAccreditation Centre, Vinh University Education Accreditation Centre and theEducation Accreditation Centre under the Vietnam Association of Universities andColleges For the sake of independence guarantee, these abovementioned centers werelicensed to accredit all HEIs and programs, apart from the schools, faculties, andprograms of the hosting universities For instance, VNU-CEA are not permitted toaccredit the VNU member universities, schools and programs These centers areauthorized to recognize HEIs and programs meeting accreditation standards without theinterference of a third party (Nguyen, 2016)

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

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

In Vietnam, university accreditation has strong relationship with universityautonomy and internalization [13 V2] A university that has been externally accreditedtakes 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 byexternal agencies possibly get incentives of autonomy Under Resolution 77, the autonomy

in the resolution involves university governance, organizational structure, number andposition of staff, university financing, for example, setting its own tuition fees andacademic programs, for instance, curriculum design and research agenda (AustralianDepartment of Education, 2018) As a support university autonomy with the budget of329.6 million dollars by the World Bank and the Government of Vietnam, thedevelopment project titled Support for Autonomous Higher Education Project (SAHEP)from 2017 to 2022 were approved in 2017 in order to leverage research, teaching, andinstitutional capacity at selected autonomous universities as well as improve the nationalmanagement system of HE in Vietnam (Australian Department of Education, 2018) It

is estimated that more than 150,000 students and 3,900 lecturers will get benefits fromthis 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 inVietnam 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 thesenetworks, HE QA and accreditation systems of Vietnam has been internationallyintegrated 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 MOEThas 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 ofaccreditation agencies (Nguyen et al, 2017) Additionally, as mentioned in NationalAssembly (2005), MOET are assigned to takes responsibility for management andsupervision of accreditation activities Regarded as a unit of MOET, GeneralDepartment of Education Testing and Accreditation (GDETA) is in charge of guidingthe implementation of national accreditation for programs to the individuals, HEIs andorganizations (Niedermeier & Pohlenz, 2016) Accreditation standards and process hasbeen 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

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

HEArticle 52: accreditation agenciesArticle 53: the results of HE accreditation in

3 Circular 61/2012 / TT- 2012 Regulations on conditions for establishment,BGDDT dissolution, duties and powers of education

accreditation organizations

4 Circulars 62/2012 / Regulations on accreditation procedures and

5 Circular 38/2013 / TT- 2013 Regulation on the accreditation process and

6 Decree 73/2015 / ND- 2015 Criteria for accreditation of HE programs

9 Circular 2018 Guidelines for on self-assessment of

accreditation requirements in the

Source: Combined by the author

Vietnam Education Law (2005) states that accreditation is a measure to define towhat extend education institutions meet missions, purposes, education contents TheArticle 17 represent the requirement of education quality accreditation (VietnamEducation Law, 2005) Higher Education Act 2012 provides the objectives, principles,and subjects of HE accreditation in article 49 Higher Education Act 2012 includesarticles guiding details on QA and accreditation for HE The responsibilities of HEIsunder QA are mentioned in the article 50, duties, and powers of the HEIs under qualityassurance stated in article 51, accreditation agencies in article 52, and the results of HEaccreditation included in article 53 (Thanh, 2013) Prime Minister’ Instruction No 296/CT-TTg on Feb 27, 2010 on HE management renovation during the period 2010-2012issued by Prime Minister requires universities to establish Internal Quality Assurance(IQA) A new university will be permitted to recruit students by MOET if it meetsrequirements defined in Decision No 07/2009/QĐ-TTg HEIs annually submit report toMOET 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 externalreview as well as conduct mid-term review every 2.5 years Mechanism of an

internal quality assurance in a university (existence of regulation, guidelines, or otherreference points) are mentioned in the regulation No 76/2007/QD-BGDDTpromulgated by MOET to require universities to establish QA Center and conduct self-evaluation every five years.

Decree 86 dated in 2018 states general provisions on accreditation requirementsfor joint education and training engaged with foreign partners and the foreign-investededucational institutions in the Article 4 The accreditation of HEIs with the engagement

of foreign partners will commit to current policy documents in Vietnam (Decree 86,2018) The other documents represent guidelines for program and institutionalaccreditation, for example, self-assessment of program (Guidance 1075), externalevaluation of programs (Guidance 1076) and self-assessment of institutions (Circular767) 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 Forthe self-evaluation, HEIs have implemented the self-evaluation for both institutionaland program levels since 2005 Until April 2019, 251 HIEs including 218 and 33colleges have written the self-evaluation reports (MOET (2019a), (see Table 4.3)

Table 4.3 Number of HEIs conducting self-evaluation reports

Kinds of Number Conducting self- External Recognition HEIs of HEIs evaluation reports Evaluation

Number Ratio Number Ratio Number Ratio

Colleges 60 33 55 6 10.00 3 5.00

Source: MOET, 2019a

With 85.08 percent of HEIs conducting self-evaluation reports However, there hasbeen a gap between two accreditation cycles Many HEIs did not continue externalevaluation after the stage of self-evaluation The number of HEIs updated self-evaluationreports 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 thesake 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 wereawarded accreditation certificate (see Table 4.5) Majority HEIs (50 percent) wereevaluated 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 percentrespectively Six out of 295 HEIs accounting for 2.03 percent (all are universities) wereinternationally recognized by organizations including AUN-QA and HERCES (see Table4.5) As it can be seen from table 4.5, no colleges in Vietnam have been internationallyevaluated Majority of universities (five out six) were accredited by HERCES, which isfamous in the field of technology (see Table 4.5) Table 4.5 indicated that merely 02 HEIsnamely VNU University of Science and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology weregranted by AUN-QA in 2017 VNU University of Science was the first university inASEAN was awarded AUN-QA certificate under institutional standards Only Ho ChiMinh City University of Technology were granted by both HCERES and AUN-QA in

2017 (see Table 4.5)