Two Vietnamese universities have refused to attend the Ministry of Education and Training’s education quality accreditation.

Students of Ton Duc Thang University

According to the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), 208 universities finished the education quality accreditation and were certified to ensure training quality criteria in 2017 by June 30 this year.

However, Ton Duc Thang University in HCM City and Hanoi University of Business and Technology refused to attend the accreditation. 

Dr. Le Van Ut, Ton Duc Thang University’s head of Development Management Board, said that in 2015 the university joined an international education quality accreditation. 

MOET recently sent a group of inspectors to the university for checking the training quality based on criteria which are almost the same to those of the education quality accreditation. So, the university refused to participate in the accreditation, Ut added.

He noted that MOET should let universities to have the right to select prestigious international accreditation organisations. This was necessary for them as a way to globally integrate. It was time-consuming for universities to take part in too many accreditation programmes especially when the content was nearly the same.

In the next two years, Ton Duc Thang University will have to receive 12 inspection delegations by different agencies. 

Nguyen Tat Thanh University has also favoured international accreditation organisations based on QS Stars rating system and from now to 2025 the university will continue this. 

Dr. Bui Tran Phuong from NES Education Organisation, said that the MOET’s education quality accreditation does not rank the order of universities, but just shows their level. So it is easy to understand why universities want to choose international accreditation organisations. They can clearly know their ranking internationally.

International accreditation organisations are totally independent, which will be more objective and fairer, Phuong said.

According to Associate. Prof. Dr. Tran Xuan Nhi, former deputy minister of Education and Training, currently, Vietnam has four education quality accreditation centres with three of them belonging to universities. This would result in the lack of transparency during the accreditation process.

Dtinews, VTV, VietnamNet