Vietnam vows to have 35 percent of universities accredited by year-end

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has decided that 35 percent of total universities and 10 percent of pedagogical junior colleges in Vietnam must be accredited by the end of 2017.



Vietnam has several accreditation centers which have just been put into operation.

Under the plan set up by MOET, the first-round external quality assessment of all training establishments will be completed by 2020, while 10 percent of training curricula will become accredited domestically and internationally.

MOET hopes that after three years, the training quality accreditation will be implemented regularly. The accreditation results will also be publicized for monitoting.

Experts, though applauding the MOET’s plan to make training transparent, have shown their doubts that the plan can be implemented as scheduled.

The problem is that there are only four newly operational accreditation centers, and they will be overloaded when having to work with hundreds of schools within a short time.

The four accreditation centers include one under Hanoi National University, the HCMC National University, Da Nang University and one belonging to the Vietnam Association of Universities and Junior Colleges.

A university lecturer in Hanoi said that MOET is too ambitious when planning to have 35 percent of universities and 10 percent of junior colleges accredited by the end of the year.

He said that in fact, schools have been told to make internal assessment and get accredited for many years. However, the work has been going as ‘slow as a snail’.

He also warned that accreditation will ‘do more harm than good’ if the work cannot be done in a thorough way and people don’t believe or trust accreditation results.

Meanwhile, MOET is optimistic about the plan. Mai Van Trinh, head of the Examinations and Education Quality Assurance Department, said though accreditation is new in Vietnam, accreditation centers have been cooperating very well with MOET and have finished the external assessment for 32 universities so far.

“With existing resources, we will fulfill our plan if we make every effort,” Trinh said, adding that MOET will apply measures to help improve the centers and make them stronger, while considering setting up more centers.

Nguyen Quy Thanh, director of the accreditation center under the Hanoi National University, said it would be better to ask if there are enough accreditation officers, rather than if there are enough centers.

Thanh said in the Philippines, there are only two agencies which do accreditation for 1,000 schools, while in the US six agencies accredit 4,000-5,000 schools.

Kim Chi / vietnamnet