The higher education responding to the fourth industrial revolution (referred as "university 4.0") in this study is identified as a model of innovation – driven smart university. Here, the innovation is the philosophy, object as well as solutions for growing university’s values; while the concept of smart means the infostructure and technical conditions for running the teaching and learning activities based on advancements of 4.0 technologies. The core features of the innovation - driven smart university are described in the so-called "543" model, which consists of: entrepreneurial education (model “5 in 1”); innovation – driven academic researches; innovative ecosystem (model “4 in 1”); smart university; operating mechanism (model “3 in 1”); int  ernationalization and community responsibilities. The framework with criteria for the "university 4.0" model in accordance with quality assurance and university ranking approaches has been developed. Indicators for meeting these criteria can be used by universities for benchmarking themselves to QS 4-star standards or Top 200 universities in QS Asia university ranking table. Keywords: University 4.0, smart university, innovation-driven university, innovative ecosystem, start-up, entrepreneurial spirit, cyber - physical system.

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<p>This research draws from theories of graduate employability and transferable skills and the TASE project’s 13 graduate competences model, to explore the evaluation of the various stakeholders concerning the degree to which VNU graduates have acquired general competences. The survey measured three variables: (i) importance, (ii) achievement and (iii) priority, using the four categories of ‘none’, ‘weak’, ‘considerable’, and ‘strong’. Between February and December 2018, a total of 818 informants agreed to participate, including 168 employers, 152 alumni, 189 students who had just graduated in 2018 or were about to graduate, 51 lecturers and university managers, and 258 students. The importance of the 13 general competences was rated more highly than graduate achievement. The ability to uphold professional, moral and ethical values was rated by VNU employers as of greatest importance and the highest achievement. Similarly, VNU students and alumni rated this ability as their highest achievement. The ability to conduct research and the ability to understand, value, and respect diversity and multiculturalism were rated as of lowest importance by VNU employers. The former (ability to conduct research) was rated as of lowest importance by VNU alumni and their lowest achievement by both VNU alumni and VNU students. VNU students rated the latter ability (to understand, value, and respect diversity and multiculturalism) as of least importance. The ability to initiate, plan, organise, implement and evaluate courses of action was rated the lowest achievement by VNU employers. The ability to apply knowledge in practice was considered of greatest importance by both VNU students and alumni, but for the latter group this ability ranked equally with the ability to communicate clearly and effectively. Students gave most of their own general competences a significantly lower rating than that given by employers to alumni achievement.</p><p><strong>Received</strong>: 26 June 2019<br /><strong>Accepted</strong>: 13 March 2020<br /><strong>Published online</strong>: 19 May 2020</p>

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift to new ways of working, prompting companies to reimagine how, where and by whom work gets done (World Economic Forum & Watson, 2020). This shift was already under way with the technological changes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Employers are looking for workers who are able to learn new knowledge and skills, adapt to the workplace, be sufficiently flexible to move jobs, and expand on the knowledge learnt at university. Applying the theory of generic competences and the model of thirteen generic competences for university graduates of the Tuning Asia - South East project (TASE), this research investigates the perspectives of VNU stakeholders about the generic competences of VNU graduates. In particular, this paper discusses the employers’ perspective of VNU graduates’ generic competences. Although employers rate all generic competences as important, they evaluated graduates’ achievement of seven generic competences as being at a less than satisfactory level. The findings of the research point to the need for the university to focus more on developing generic competences throughout the delivery of programs.