Along with the mechanism of quality assurance and accreditation that higher education system in Vietnam has been operating, university autonomy is a crucial factor in university governance, creating flexibility and dynamism for higher education institutions (HEIs), and increasing competitiveness among HEIs in the process of creating knowledge and leading the society to develop. The article clarifies the essence of university autonomy, the relationship between quality assurance, accreditation and university autonomy in Vietnam, thereby proposing solutions to promote autonomy for institutions to improve the efficiency and quality of higher education.

University autonomy is regarded as the necessary condition to implement advanced university governance practices to improve and enhance the quality of higher education. It should be paid attention to how to grant autonomy to higher education institutions and how these institutions exercise autonomy to ensure the purpose of improving the efficiency and quality of higher education; at the same time, to ensure the fairness and accountability for society. Accreditation is one of the approaches in education management for higher education institutions to ensure their quality, while ensuring accountability for their quality to society. This paper focuses on the relationship between university autonomy and accreditation. First, the study presents practical issues regarding university autonomy, including the literature review of university autonomy across the world and in Vietnam. Second, the paper analyses the relationship of university autonomy with the affirmation of higher education institutions’ academic prestige. Third, the study analyses the accountability of higher education institutions, in which accreditation is implemented by institutions as a means for their accountability. Finally, the paper proposes four groups of recommendations for the state management organisation, accreditation agencies and higher education institutions to effectively implement university autonomy with Vietnamese higher education institutions for accreditation. Keywords Higher education institutions, accreditation, university autonomy, accountabilit References [1] Đặng Ứng Vận, Nguyễn Thị Huyền Trang (2017) Tự chủ ĐH Việt Nam: nội dung, nguồn lực và trách nhiệm. Tạp chí Khoa học giáo dục số 141 tháng 6/2 017tr 5-8.  [2] Thomas Estermann, Terhi Nokkala & Monika Steinel (2011) University Autonomy in Europe II The Scorecard. European University Association. Belgium.[3] Kelchen R. (2018) Higher Education Accountability Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN: 9781421424736. [4] https://www.wisconsin.edu/accountability/ truy cập ngày 10/12/2018.[5] https://ir.uoregon.edu/overview truy cập ngày 10/12/2018.[6] https://www.foriowa.org/accountability/, https://accountability.universityofcalifornia.edu/2018/, https://uwaterloo.ca/about/accountability, https://www.uvic.ca/home/about/facts-reports/accountability/index.php, http://accountability.tamu.edu/, https://apir.wisc.edu/institution/accountability-reports/.[7] http://cou.on.ca/about/more/university-accountability/, https://www.ucc.ie/en/gdpr/accountability/,

This study utilized the secondary data of recent accreditation results of undergraduate training programs, and in-depth interviews with five peer reviewers to assess the status of and the challenges facing those programs to meet the learning outcomes required by the Vietnamese Quality Framework (VQF). The results reveal that 605 training programs at university undergraduate level were accredited according to the Circular No. 04/2016-TT-BGDĐT that had been promulgated by the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training. Of these programs, two made up the bulk, namely Business and Management, and Education Science and Teacher Training. In terms of expected learning outcomes, the study showed a large number of the training programs in the fields of business and management, and education science and teacher training failed to meet criteria. The research results also identified limitations and challenges of the training programs relating to meeting the demands of expected learning outcomes regulated in the VQF. In addition, suggestions are made for ways higher education institutions and the authorities can contribute to improving the quality of training programs at higher education institutions.

Education quality assurance and accreditation is a vital quality management tool that helps higher education institutions, government agencies and the society to monitor the quality of higher education. In the organization of the quality assurance and accreditation activities in Vietnamese higher education institutions, the unification of views to measure the levels of quality assurance of the educational institutions in order to make appropriate judgements is a matter that receives particular concerns from not only higher education institutions, but accreditation agencies as well. This article discusses the toolkit for measuring the quality assurance level of higher education institutions, the process of developing and detailing the toolkit for its usage in the self-assessment and external assessment process in compliance with the set of quality assessment standards for higher education institutions issued by the Ministry of Education and Training. Besides, the authors also propose solutions for the implementation of the toolkit in quality assurance practices within higher education institutions and supporting assessors, accreditation bodies and government agencies for quality evaluation, monitoring and management.

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