Adjusting the standards for assessing the quality of higher education institutions

Accordingly, the draft Circular on Regulations on quality assessment of university education institutions has just been announced by the Ministry of Education and Training for public consultation, to replace Circular No. 12 issued in 2017.

A university must have at least one graduating class.

The draft provides a set of standards for assessing the quality of higher education institutions, the accreditation process and the accreditation cycle applicable to universities, including foreign-invested institutions operating in Vietnam; domestic education quality accreditation organizations and organizations and individuals related to university education quality accreditation activities.

Điều chỉnh tiêu chuẩn đánh giá chất lượng cơ sở giáo dục ĐH tại Việt Nam - Ảnh 1. — A university recognized as meeting educational quality standards must meet the criteria in 15 standards.

Specifically, the process of assessing the quality of university education includes 4 steps: self-assessment, external assessment, assessment results appraisal and recognition of meeting educational quality standards. The assessment cycle is 5 years.

A university recognized as meeting quality standards must meet the following conditions: have at least one graduating class; must be externally assessed and have a written request for an educational quality assessment organization to consider recognizing it as meeting educational quality standards.

Important content is emphasized in the new standard

Regarding the set of assessment standards, if in the 2017 circular, the Ministry stipulates 25 standards with 111 criteria, the draft rearranges them into 15 standards and 60 criteria to suit new realities.

Some standards are grouped together while some content is separated into separate standards to emphasize the importance of that content in the current context.

For example, combine standards 1 and 2 of the old circular (vision, mission and culture; governance) into one standard "vision, mission, culture and governance"; combine old standards 3 and 4 (leadership and management; strategic governance) into the standard "leadership and strategy".

The "resource management" standard in the old regulation is emphasized and specified into the "human resources" standard in the new draft.

Standard 5 of the 2017 circular is "policies on training, scientific research and community service", but in the new draft, it is divided into 3 separate standards: training policies, scientific research policies, and community service policies.

At the same time, two old standards including "enrollment and admission" and "design and review of teaching programs" are grouped into the standard "training policies" in the new draft...

The 15 criteria for assessing the quality of university education facilities stated in the draft include:

Standard 1 : Vision, Mission, Culture and Governance

Standard 2 : Leadership and strategy

Standard 3 : Human resources

Standard 4 : Financial and material resources

Standard 5: Networks and external relationships

Standard 6 : Training policies

Standard 7 : Policies on scientific research

Standard 8 : Community service policies

Standard 9 : Quality assurance system

Standard 10 : Internal quality assurance information system

Standard 11 : Quality Improvement