Accreditation in Vietnam’s Higher Education System

Governance in higher education in Vietnam – a move towards decentralization and its practical problems

“…GDETA is a department under MOET. With less than 10 years of experience and limited human resources, the responsibility of establishing an accreditation system, of coordinating the tests for entrance examinations into universities and also of monitoring the quality of the whole system from preschool to tertiary education sounds too much for GDETA (Westerheijden et al 2010). GDETA has always been under-resourced for its responsibilities and overloaded with commitments (Westerheijden et al 2010).…”

Reform of Higher Education in Europe

“…All higher education institutions, despite perhaps some misgivings among the academic body, readily introduced the new types of degrees as soon as the legal change of 2003 formalised them (Westerheijden et al, 2008). All new students started in 'Bologna-type' study programmes from that year onwards, and in 2007 only a few thousand 'old' students with delayed progress were left in the old structures (Westerheijden et al, 2008, p. 24).…”

“…a more applicative and multidisciplinary nature of the curriculum (Westerheijden et al, 2008). A move towards more competency-based learning was also a continuing trend in the nonuniversity sector (Witte, 2006, p. 251).…”

“…A move towards more competency-based learning was also a continuing trend in the nonuniversity sector (Witte, 2006, p. 251). In contrast, the new university bachelors were considered less specialised and more multidisciplinary, whilst the new university master programmes led to stronger specialisation and a more pronounced research orientation (Westerheijden et al, 2008). Yet, the desired broadening of education instead of immediate immersion in a single discipline or subject remained exceptional, as the increased demands for specialised masters implied that the breadth of the bachelors was harder to achieve (Westerheijden et al, 2008, p. 19).…”

“…The slowness of impacts is due to time lags (there are still few cohorts that went through the whole of the renewed system), but also because it seems that the 'collective wisdom' of students needs time to develop, e.g. mobility between sectors was weak at first but increased in later years; similar expectations seem to exist for the exit of university bachelors to the labour market (Westerheijden et al, 2008).…”