Nearly 500 university leaders, Quality Assurance leaders, and other practitioners attended a series of four online dialogues and two training sessions on quality assurance and accreditation in higher education in September and October 2023.
The event series is part of our commitment to supporting the Viet Nam Quality Management Agency (VQA), Ministry of Education and Training, in enhancing Quality Assurance (QA) and accreditation in Viet Nam higher education for international integration, under a two-year workplan within the Memorandum of Collaboration (MOC) signed by British Council Viet Nam and the Ministry of Education and Training in October 2021.
Associate Professor Pham Quoc Khanh, Deputy Director General, VQA, Ministry of Education and Training, said in one of the training sessions for Quality Assurance Leads that, "Heads of Quality Assurance have a special role by directly managing and coordinating the implementation of self-assessment and quality improvement for their higher education institutions (HEIs). The training topics on leadership and data and information management, stakeholders, and monitoring and review in internal quality assurance (IQA) introduced by QAA and Vietnamese experts are in accordance with the priority of cooperation between VQA and the British Council. These topics support development of scientific and effective system thinking and methods for the heads of QA at Vietnamese HEIs.’
The workplan is part of our Going Global Partnerships programme, which is designed to support the development of a quality higher education system in Viet Nam by drawing on expertise from UK higher education and enhancing the international reputation of UK and Viet Nam HE systems through development of partnerships, connections, and trust.
Specifically, the workplan aims to support the internationalisation of higher education, system-strengthening, and, as a result, the enhancement of student outcomes in Viet Nam, by:
- Supporting Vietnamese universities to establish effective Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) by learning from UK best practice; and Vietnamese Centres of Educational Accreditation (CEA) to adopt UK quality standards in review and accreditation of programmes
- Contributing input to policy and/or the regulatory framework and practices to strengthen the system of QA and accreditation in Viet Nam
- Enabling a quality environment for students to benefit from quality programmes, and for UK and Vietnamese universities and professional bodies to open partnerships in transnational education and accreditation
- Opening up opportunities for partnership development to enhance quality programmes in Viet Nam, creating a platform for TNE development and international accreditation.
We commissioned the UK Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) to provide technical support to deliver the workplan with support from Vietnamese consultants during March to October 2023.
Expected outputs of the workplan include:
- A comparative review of quality assurance in the UK and Viet Nam
- A report of benchmarking and analysis of Internal Quality Assurance practices of five selected HEIs in Viet Nam
- A report to overview centres of education accreditation practices in Viet Nam - the need for change and capacity strengthening
- A recommendation report to advise large-scale improvements in QA in VN, facilitation of system alignment of QA between UK and VN, and Viet Nam’s recognition of accreditation by UK bodies
- A series of public seminars to disseminate the findings of the project
- An online training workshop for HE leaders in Viet Nam for effective quality management
- Recommendations on approaches for future UK-Viet Nam partnerships.
We also commit to provide continuous support to the enhancement of internal quality assurance and accreditation for higher education in Viet Nam, based on recommendations from the workplan reports which will be launched in November 2023.