Higher Education Massification and Quality Assurance in Vietnam: A Case Study of Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

During the past few decades, the massification process in Vietnam proceeded rapidly. Besides the achievements, the rapid expansion of higher education has resulted in various issues, especially an increase in low-quality programs and the mismatch between industry requirements and university graduates’ knowledge and skills. The Vietnamese government is well aware of the need to address the challenges brought by the massification process. A focus for them is the is setting up of the quality assurance (QA) mechanism with astrong emphasis placed on a standard-based accreditation system. This chapter will provide an overview of massification in Vietnam’s higher education during the last two decades and the efforts of the government to develop the national QA mechanism. It also presents the internal quality assurance (IQA) system of Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City as a case study to show that in the context of Vietnamese higher education where the national framework for QA practice still needs time to be improved, higher education institutions (HEIs) need to actively develop and improve their own IQA to catch up with regional and international developments.

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Introduction

During the last two decades, higher education has expanded around the world more than ever before. In line with the global trend, the massification process in Vietnam has proceeded rapidly as a result of an impressive economic growth and a culture that highly respects learning. However, besides these achievements, the rapid expansion of higher education has resulted in raising various issues, especially an increase in the existence of low-quality programs and a mismatch between industry requirements and the knowledge and skills possessed by university graduates. The Vietnamese government is well aware of the need to address the challenges brought by the massification process. One primary focus has been the establishment of a quality assurance (QA) mechanism. At present, the mechanism is relatively complete. However, strong emphasis is placed on a standard-based accreditation system while other more complex and sensitive QA elements have not yet been developed or implemented. In such a context, the extent to which a Vietnamese higher education institution (HEI) invests in internal quality assurance (IQA) could determine its place on the QA development map. This chapter provides an overview of the massification of Vietnam’s higher education during the last two decades and efforts initiated by the government to develop a national QA system. It also presents the IQA system of Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM) as a case study to demonstrate that within the context of Vietnamese Higher Education, the national framework for QA practice still needs time for improvement. As such, HEIs need to actively develop and improve their own IQA to catch up with regional and international developments.

Massification in Vietnam’s Higher Education

In the last few decades, higher education has expanded around the world. In line with this global trend, the massification process in Vietnam has proceeded rapidly as a result of impressive economic growth and a culture that highly respects learning. During the period 1995 to 2012, the number of higher education students has dramatically increased from 354,103 to 2,177,299, while the number of universities and colleges has risen from 110 to 421. ¹ Since 2000, much of the growth in the system has been in the form of new and expanding private sector institutions. Thang Long People-Founded University, the first nonpublic institution was established in 1988 served as a pilot project. Subsequently, the number of non-public HEIs in Vietnam grew impressively in number. By 2012, 54 universities and 29 colleges had been established, accounting for 19 percent of the total institutions and 14 percent of the total number of students in the HEI system. ² Improving and widening domestic provision has been a recent priority of the Vietnamese government. Increasing the higher education participation rate is considered one of the key elements to achieve the development goal of becoming an industrialized economy by 2020. In its “Socio-Economic Development Plan 2006–2010”, the government aimed to increase enrollment in universities and colleges by 10 percent annually. The goal was to reach a ratio of 200 students for every 10,000 people by 2010 and 450 students for every 10,000 people by 2020. ³

However, the lack of strong management tools directed at improving academic and administrative quality has raised concerns about a possible overall deterioration of the system. In January 2014, the government halted enrollment in 207 undergraduate programs at 71 universities and colleges due to a lack of qualified teaching staff. In addition, the labor market is still in need of graduates with appropriate knowledge and skills, while the overall output of HEIs has outnumbered industry demand in terms of the number of graduates they produce. Many graduates experience difficulties in finding jobs, while others end up unemployed or underemployed (Tran 2010). Quality issues are among the key factors that have led to the increase in the number of Vietnamese students going abroad for higher education—termed “education refugees” by many domestic academics. According to the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), the number of Vietnamese students pursuing studies overseas in 2013 reached 125,000, representing a 15 percent increase over 2012 and the largest year-over-year jump since 2008–2009 (ICEF 2014). It is widely acknowledged in Vietnamese academic community and among international observers that the system requires significant improvements in both the standard of its programs and the outcomes for graduates. As stated by a 2008 World Bank Report titled “Vietnam: Higher Education and Skills for Growth”, “the fast growing Vietnamese economy and the increasing need for innovation and high quality skills is putting demands on a higher education system that is not yet fully equipped to respond” (World Bank 2008).

The Development of Quality Assurance in Vietnam

The Vietnamese government is well aware of the need to address the challenges brought by the massification process. Hence the setting up of a QA mechanism has been a top higher education priority. Compared with its development in many other global settings, quality assurance is relatively new to Vietnam. Modern QA was initially introduced into the country’s higher education system via the World Bank’s First Higher Education Project in the late 1990s. This scheme provided some funding to the first institutional QA centers—the Center for Education Quality Assurance and Research Development (CEQARD) in Hanoi and the Center for Educational Testing and Quality Assessment (CETQA) in Ho Chi Minh City—established at two national universities (Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam National University, Hanoi). Before that, no mechanisms for QA existed other than the original scrutiny required for approval of a new institution. All university operations were placed under the strong control of MOET, and its management was considered as a guarantor of quality (Sheridan 2010). With the expansion of the higher education system, the government has taken new steps to support an enhanced level of QA. In 2002, an accreditation unit was established inside the Department for Undergraduate Education (now the Department for Higher Education) of MOET. In 2003, the unit was separated from the Department of Undergraduate Education and was officially named the General Department for Educational Testing and Accreditation (GDETA). According to Decree 85/2003/NĐ-CP, GDETA operates directly under the supervision of MOET. GDETA acts as a national governmental agency to supervise all QA activities for the whole national education system; participating in the policymaking process including the development of quality standards. At the institutional level, with lessons learned from the first two QA centers at the two national universities, other HEIs in the country, mainly regional universities whose organizational structures are similar to the two national universities, also established their own QA units in the early 2000s. In late 2007, the establishment of a QA unit in the organizational structure of a university or college was a compulsory requirement of the quality standards for accreditation at institutional level promulgated by MOET. ⁴

With the support of the World Bank (HEP1 Project) and the Dutch government (ProfQim Project), a standard-based accreditation system has also been developed. Based on the inputs of universities as well as from local and international experts, MOET formulated a set of ten quality standards and 53 criteria as the core of a provisional regulation for the accreditation of universities which was published in 2004. ⁵ The ministry also implemented an institutional accreditation pilot project for 20 universities in Vietnam. One of the outcomes of this pilot project was the revised set of ten standards issued by MOET in November 2007 as the regulations for accreditation of universities. ⁴ Also in November that year, the set of ten quality standards for accreditation of colleges was issued. ⁶ At the program level, it was not until March 2016 that a set of 11 criteria for higher education accreditation at the program level was issued by MOET via circular number 04/2016/TT-BGDĐT. The majority of these requirements are similar to the third version of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) University Network-Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) criteria for quality assessment at the program level, which were issued by the AUN in 2015. ⁷ Further information about this organization will be presented later in this chapter. With such changes, accreditation was no longer regarded as a voluntary activity. In 2015, the results of higher education accreditation at both institutional and program levels were listed as one standard to stratify HEIs by the government in decree number 73/2015/NĐ-CP. To gain qualification through the standards set out by this decree, all HEIs must be accredited. In addition, during the past few years, four centers for education accreditation have been established, including the VNU Center of Education Accreditation (VNU-CEA) of VNU-Hanoi and the VNU-HCM Center of Education Accreditation (VNU-HCM-CEA) of VNU-HCM, the Center of Education Accreditation—The University of Danang, and the Center for Education Accreditation of Association of Vietnam Universities and Colleges (CEA-AVU&C). Up to April 2016, only the centers of the two national universities have implemented accreditation activities, which are limited to the institutional level. No educational programs have been accredited by domestic accreditation agencies at that point.

Today the national QA framework in Vietnam can be seen as somewhat complete with internal QA units within all HEIs, and the establishment of external QA agencies and external QA standards & processes. However, the system is far from being perfect. Several issues remain that need to be addressed so that the mechanism can bring about positive impacts on the quality of higher education. These considerations include the following:

• 1. Three of the four centers for education accreditation are under the direct supervision of public universities funded by the government. This has raised concerns for the independence status of these external QA agencies.

• 2. The standard-based accreditation system does not promote diversification of HEIs, a consideration that many hold to be very much necessary for Vietnam’s higher education system. It is worth noting that the higher education system in Vietnam is very complex with its combination of national and regional universities, research institutes, academies, comprehensive universities, specialized universities, technical and vocational colleges, teacher training colleges, community colleges and professional secondary schools.

• 3. At present, the national QA framework relies only on a basic system of accreditation. It is highly desirable that other elements be included to stimulate a quality culture. The implementation of IQA within HEIs has resulted from the need to meet the requirements by MOET rather than the inner drive for continuous improvement.

• 4. In the presentation titled “Higher Education Quality Assurance in Vietnam and Improvement for Better Collaboration”, Pham XuanThanh, former general deputy director of GDETA pointed out that QA at the program level is not well developed (Thanh, P. X. 2013).

• 5. There remains a serious lack of QA experts in higher education.

As a result of all these factors, the impacts on the quality of higher education teaching and learning of QA are still limited and vary from institution to institution. In such a context, the emphasis on IQA of each HEI plays a decisive role in pushing the institutions beyond the minimum standards. The following sections present the IQA system of VNU-HCM as a typical case study of such efforts.

IQA System of Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City

Background

VNU-HCM was established in January 1995 as a national multidisciplinary university, formed by the merger of various prestigious universities in Ho Chi Minh City. VNU-HCM is currently comprised of six member universities, one research institute, one school and a number of affiliated centers and units. The member universities and research institute include the University of Technology, the University of Science, the University of Social Science and Humanities, the International University, the University of Information and Technology, the University of Economics and Law and the Institute for Environment and Resources. VNU-HCM’s structure is presented in Fig. 6.1.

Fig. 6.1

VNU-HCM’s organizational structure

With a total of 5662 faculty members, admin staff members and researchers, the university now provides graduate and postgraduate education to over 60,000 students, including ⁸ :

• 114 undergraduate programs

• 114 master’s programs

• 84 doctoral programs

VNU-HCM is one of the two national universities in Vietnam (the other is Vietnam National University, Hanoi—VNU-Hanoi). Under government decree no. 186/2013/NĐ-CP, these universities enjoy special privileges. Their rectors are also appointed by the prime minister. In comparison to other public sector HEIs in the system, these two universities are also different, in that they have more academic and financial autonomy. For example, they have more freedom concerning budgetary decisions where they do not need to refer to the ministry for approval (Sheridan 2010). They also have the freedom to develop educational programs that are not included in the MOET-approved directory. In addition, as mentioned above, VNU-HCM and VNU-Hanoi are the first institutions to establish their own QA units, even before the establishment of GDETA, to test whether a QA mechanism would work in Vietnam. Without a national regulatory framework for QA practices by the time it was established, VNU-HCM learned from international and regional experience, especially AUN, to develop its own IQA system.

VNU-HCM’s IQA System

As Sanyal and Martin (2007) suggest in their definitive chapter on quality in the GUNI (Global University Network for Innovation) volume on QA, IQA ensures that an institution or program has policies and mechanisms in place to ensure the fulfillment of its own objectives and standards while external QA is performed by an organization external to the institution. From this perspective, it can be said that VNU-HCM has developed a relatively complete IQA system. The IQA system may be seen as the outcome of a collective effort to respond to the challenges brought by the massification process and to be aligned with international and regional developments in QA.

VNU-HCM’s QA unit was founded in 1999. Since then, other components of the IQA system have been gradually established. As an umbrella organization of six member universities, VNU-HCM chose to develop an IQA system based on a studied balance between centralization and decentralization. It consists of three levels: the overarching VNU-HCM level with a QA council and CETQA, followed by the institutional and faculty levels. This structure makes it possible for leadership guidance to be exercised through all levels while allowing for the active participation of member institutions. Functions and responsibilities of the system’s individual components are clearly specified. Figure 6.2 shows how VNU’s IQA system is structured.

Fig. 6.2

VNU-HCM’s IQA system

At the top of the system, the QA council sets the direction and strategy for QA practice for the whole system. The QA units of the member universities develop their strategies in alignment with the VNU council and their own context. CETQA is a standing unit of VNU-HCM, playing the main role in coordinating, promoting and monitoring QA activities among member institutions. CETQA is under the direct guidance of the QA Council and vertically related to the other units of VNU-HCM’s QA system. It is to some extent the bridge between the QA council and the QA units at the institutional level. The center plays double roles in the QA practice within the system: on the one hand, it performs IQA functions by supporting the member universities to improve their QA activities and organizing workshops for QA officers of these institutions, and on the other, it acts as an external agency to conduct site visits and the evaluation of member universities at both institutional and program levels.

In addition, the QA units at the institutional and faculty levels are in place at all VNU-HCM’s member universities. These units directly implement QA activities, including QA planning, QA staff development, curriculum design and improvement, conducting surveys, collecting feedback from stakeholders and development of QA procedures. Based on the typical characteristics of individual institutions, each unit will develop its own way to effectively run the QA system with the ultimate goal of enhancing educational quality.

Quality Policy of VNU-HCM

The VNU-HCM’s complex structure of multiple member universities and over 5000 staff complicates internal quality discussions. For this reason, if no other, when making reference to quality in this structure, it is important to speak the same language. Having a shared idea about quality is critical. Therefore, to promote a common understanding, VNU-HCM has adopted the following definition of quality:

Quality is achieving our goals and aims in an efficient and effective way, assuming that the goals and aims reflect the requirements of all our stakeholders in an adequate way. (VNU-HCM’s Quality Handbook 2015)

From this reference point, each member university can build its own operational definition of quality and strategy for QA. With the goal of becoming one of the top Asian higher education systems and a hub for scientific, technological and cultural development in its home country, during the last decade, VNU-HCM has placed emphasis on QA to continuously improve its training toward regional and international standards and to promote a consistent understanding of quality. In VNU-HCM’s strategy for the periods of 2011–2015 and 2016–2020, QA is one of its top concerns. At the VNU-HCM level, the QA policy statement for the entire VNU-HCM system maintains the following principles and practices:

• 1. Quality is the top priority in VNU-HCM’s development plan.

• 2. Quality must be thoroughly integrated in every activity of affiliated members.

• 3. Quality is diversity and autonomy—acknowledging the diversity among VNU-HCM’s members. Open for assessment from different international and regional organizations such as AUN, ABET, et cetera.

• 4. Quality is continuous improvement—encouraging initiatives on increasing quality within VNU-HCM’s systems and organizational structures.

• 5. Emphasis is placed first on QA activities, which must be implemented effectively and synchronously before engaging in accreditation and ranking.

• 6. Quality must be bottom up—prioritizing assessments at the program level.

(VNU-HCM’s Quality Handbook 2015)

Based on these quality policies, VNU-HCM has developed the orientation for the system’s QA practice as featured in Fig. 6.3.

Fig. 6.3

Orientation for QA practice at VNU-HCM (adapted from the presentation titled “Quality Assurance at Viet Nam National University Ho Chi Minh City: Development and Integration” of Nguyen Hoi Nghia—Vice President of VNU-HCM at the workshop held by VNU-HCM on “Quality Assurance and Accreditation in higher education: ways toward international integration” on November 13, 2014) (Nghia, N. H. 2014)

As indicated from these policies, VNU-HCM has placed emphasis on educational technology and QA as a starting point before participating in accreditation and then joining the ranking process. Promoting innovation in educational technology through curriculum design, teaching and learning methods and so on, is an effective way to achieve the objective of providing high quality human resources to meet increasingly high demands of the globalized community.

Furthermore, a dominant premise is that effective implementation of QA activities will lay the foundation for continuous improvement, paving the way for subsequent successful quality assessment according to regionally and globally accepted sets of criteria. Following accreditation at the program level, VNU-HCM moved on to institutional accreditation prior to participation in the ranking process at an appropriate time.

Internal Quality Assessment at Program Level

From the university’s perspective, quality assessment “embraces all methods used to judge the performance of QA practices and activities at institutional, system or programme level” (AUN-QA assessor training workshop, 2013). In VNU-HCM’s QA practice, quality assessment at the program level is considered the main driver towards maintaining and improving education quality because this is the best way to engage the real quality of members and create more impact on the whole system. At present, focusing on the program level is appropriate for resource mobility at VNU-HCM. Internal assessment activities are annually organized in all VNU-HCM member units. They are also the foundations for consolidating and developing VNU-HCM’s quality culture.

With the support and approval from AUN, VNU-HCM is using AUN-QA criteria in its quality assessment at the program level. AUN was founded in 1995 and consists of leading universities in the region. Its main objective is to encourage and promote higher education cooperation and development in order to enhance regional integration in achieving global standards (ASEAN University Network 2016a). The initiative of quality assessment in accordance with AUN-QA was undertaken in 1998 in order to strengthen and sustain QA practices in ASEAN universities (ASEAN University Network 2011). The AUN-QA model was chosen as it was appropriate for the system for a number of reasons, including:

• 1. The AUN-QA set of criteria, tailor-designed for ASEAN higher education, is non-prescriptive and therefore could be used to assess the quality of programs of various fields. This is appropriate for quality assessment at VNU-HCM given that it is a multidisciplinary university.

• 2. The AUN-QA model for Program Level—3rd Version (as featured in Fig. 6.4) places emphasis on stakeholder needs and satisfaction which is aligned with regional and international trends. In an increasingly globalized world, HEIs are no longer ivory towers. From 2007 to 2013, every educational program offered by Vietnamese HEIs has had to follow the curriculum framework issued by the MOET. By the beginning of the year 2013, under Circular No 57/2012/TT-BGDĐT, the rector has the right to issue the curricula of the HEIs within his charge. This means that Vietnamese HEIs no longer needed to follow the MOET’s curriculum framework and could from this point decide on their own curricula. As mentioned in the first part of this chapter, the rapid expansion of Vietnamese higher education system within a short period has resulted in various troublesome issues, especially the rapid increase in low-quality educational programs and the mismatch between industry requirements and the knowledge and skills of university graduates. Employing the framework of the AUN-QA model, VNU-HCM’s member institutions are encouraged to take into consideration stakeholder needs to develop and assure the quality of the curriculum.

Fig. 6.4

AUN-QA model for program level—3rd version (adapted from guide to AUN-QA assessment at program level version 3.0)

The AUN-QA model has become increasingly popular in the region. From 2007 to 2015, it has been utilized in more than 161 undergraduate and graduate programs in 27 Universities in 8 ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste (Document presented to AUN-QA Chief Quality Officers’ Meeting, 2016b). Therefore, the use of AUN-QA criteria for internal quality assessment could facilitate increased regional integration and the preparation of programs for external quality assessment by AUN.

From 2009 to May 2016, a total of 36 programs have been internally assessed following the internal program quality assessment process illustrated in Fig. 6.5. The assessed programs covered almost every area of training of VNU-HCM: the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences, technology and economics.

Fig. 6.5

Internal programmatic quality assessment process of VNU-HCM

Based on the QA policy and strategy issued by VNU-HCM’s QA council, member universities will develop their plan for internal quality assessment, which nominates the specific programs to be assessed. Those programs that have been approved by the QA council will then prepare a self-assessment report. CETQA is in charge of the organization of internal assessments, including the setting up of assessment teams. These will work according to an assessment process similar to those developed by independent accreditation agencies. This arrangement is possible because the assessment team will not include lecturers or staff from the host universities. The activity creates a balanced combination of “internal” and “external” engagement as assessors come from VNU-HCM’s member universities and other prestigious Vietnamese HEIs. At present, 48 lecturers and staff of VNU-HCM have attended AUN-QA program assessor training workshops. The number of assessors will increase in the next few years to accommodate the requirements of this activity as VNU-HCM is developing a plan to expand and upgrade its assessor network. Assessment results are submitted to CETQA, and the center subsequently reports to the QA council and member institutions. The results are used to develop improvement plans at VNU-HCM institutional and departmental levels. In addition, the good practices revealed through this process will be shared among VNU-HCM’s member universities.

Through the years, internal quality assessment at the program level has proven to be an effective way to monitor and improve education quality, promote innovation in teaching and learning, and bring quality awareness to lecturers and support staff. The impact is not limited to some elements of universities (department or faculty) but has extended throughout the whole institution, drawing the active participation of stakeholders such as faculty, support staff, students, alumni and employers. The activity also helps strengthen the link between QA units at the VNU-HCM level and those at an institutional level, gradually building up a quality culture within the system.

Program internal quality assessment has also helped the institutions to prepare for external quality assessment. Up to January 2016, a total of 23 educational programs offered by VNU-HCM’s member universities had successfully undergone AUN-QA quality assessment and achieved AUN-QA quality certificates. The assessment scores have significantly increased during the last few years. In 2015, two programs from the International University achieved scores of 5.0/7 and 5.1/7 for AUN-QA quality assessment (in the fields of the Bachelor of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial & Systems Engineering)—the second highest scores in the region. In addition, in 2014, the University of Technology became the first Vietnamese HEI to achieve ABET accreditation in two majors: computer science and computer engineering. Many degrees awarded by VNU-HCM’s member universities are recognized beyond Vietnam in the USA, Australia, Asian or European countries, paving the way for higher instances of regional and internal integration.

However, besides these achievements, QA practice at VNU-HCM still faces many challenges, including:

• the lack of QA experts and quality innovations;

• the resistance of a number of lecturers and staff to the process because it is financially and time-consuming;

• the uneven development in QA practices among member universities;

• because of globalization, higher education keeps changing, and as a result, it is not easy to attune the QA system to external developments.

These challenges could slow down the progress of quality assurance if timely solutions are not found.

Conclusion

The rapid expansion of Vietnamese higher education presented new challenges for the government as well as for HEIs in assuring and improving overall quality. During the last two decades, a national QA mechanism has emerged in Vietnam and a standard-based accreditation system has developed. However, there is still much to be done before the significance on the overall patterns and processes of higher education quality can be quantified. Since it takes time and resources to improve the QA system at the national level, it has been necessary for HEIs to focus on their own IQA practices in response to the challenges presented both by globalization and the attendant processes of massification. HEIs are no longer ivory towers. The level of expectation that stakeholders, including students and industry, have in terms of the demand they place on education service providers has also elevated. The efforts made by VNU-HCM can serve as a good example of how a Vietnamese HEIs may respond to similar challenges.

Notes

• 1. The data are sourced from MOET at different times. The 1995 data is extracted from World Bank Country Study: Vietnam-Education Financing, which was published in 1997 (Table 2.5) and is accessible at http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1997/09/01/000009265_3971113151139/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf, accessed on June 2, 2016. The 2012 data is extracted from the statistics provided on the website of MOET, which is accessible at http://www.moet.gov.vn/?page=11.11&view=5251, accessed on June 2, 2016

• 2. Source: MOET. Accessible at http://www.moet.gov.vn/?page=11.11&view=5251, accessed on June 2, 2016

• 3. Socio-Economic Development Plan 2006–2010, attachment to Government Resolution No. 25/2006/NQ-CP, dated October 9, 2006.

• 4. Decision number 65/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT dated November 01, 2007, on the promulgation of the Regulation on Quality Standards for accreditation of universities.

• 5. Decision number 38/2004/QĐ-BGDĐT dated December 02, 2004, on the promulgation of the provisional Regulation on the accreditation of universities.

• 6. Decision number 66/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT dated November 01, 2007, on the promulgation of the Regulation on Quality Standards for accreditation of colleges.

• 7. Guide to AUN-QA Assessment at Program Level, version 3.0.

• 8. Source: VNUHCM’s Prospectus.