The quality assessment standards in Circular 04/2016/TT-BGDDT dated March 14, 2016 were based on the 3.0 version of the program assessment standards of the ASEAN University Network Quality Assurance (AUNQA).
As AUNQA has upgraded its assessment standards to a new version (4.0), Vietnam needs to update accordingly to both suit the domestic context and ensure international and regional integration, especially as the MoET develops a reference report on the Vietnamese Qualifications Framework aligned with the ASEAN Qualifications Framework and revises and supplements the national qualifications framework in the 2024-2025 academic year.
The draft amendment has integrated specialized guidance and forms into the accompanying annexes. The set of standards in the draft consists of 8 standards (instead of 11 in Circular 04 above), 52 criteria, along with an annex on guidance for assessing criteria and an annex of necessary forms. This has eliminated overlaps in the assessment process under the current circular.
The draft also stipulates 10 conditional criteria, which are mandatory criteria for a training program to meet quality standards. This regulation is suitable for the current context and the status of program development in Vietnam while being compliant with international practices on quality assurance.
According to the regulations in Circular 04, the assessment of criteria includes 7 levels from 1 to 7, while the draft currently offers only 2 levels (pass/fail). The approach of assessing criteria at 7 levels is not common in quality assurance in many countries and international assessment organizations.
Vietnamese higher education institutions have undergone accreditation up to the second cycle and have about 10 years of experience in implementing higher education quality assurance activities, so it is necessary to adjust the assessment method correspondingly.
The results of the quality assessment analysis of more than 1,200 training programs assessed according to domestic standards from 2017 to the present show that the unmet criteria (below 4 points) are mainly related to the design, development, and evaluation of the program.
This also shows that building training programs that meet training outcomes and assessing learners, taking feedback from stakeholders to serve the improvement of training program quality are weaknesses that need to be regulated for institutions to pay attention to.
