The Standard of Quality for HEIs in Vietnam: a step in the right direction?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of the Standard of Quality for higher education institutions in Vietnam which was developed in response to an urgent call for a fundamental reform to enhance the quality of educational provision, particularly of teaching and learning.Design/methodology/approach – The standard and some related legislative documents such as the Education Act 2005 and the national curriculum frameworks are critically reviewed against a student‐centred approach in education, the theory of constructive alignment, and definitions of quality. In addition, the experiences of the second author, who was involved in the first phase of the Accreditation Program, proved to be invaluable in shedding light onto the evaluative criteria proposed in the standard.Findings – While the establishment and development of the standard have been welcomed as the right step in addressing quality‐related concerns across the sector, its evaluative criteria do not appear to point in ...