Abstract:
Attempts have been made in Vietnam over the past two decades to respond to recent trends of internationalisation and globalisation in higher education. As a result, quality assurance was introduced in Vietnam to improve the quality of the entire sector. Academics are considered as one of the key players in the reform plan of the Vietnamese government. This paper discusses the development of the quality assurance approach in Vietnamese higher education reform and how it could be further developed to improve higher education quality based on the analysis of current practices related to academic staff development. Data collected from documentation and in-depth interviews were analysed for patterns and themes. Thirty-six participants from three universities volunteered to take part in this research. The study shows that assuring the quality of the academic staff in Vietnam is an urgent need. The role of the quality assurance approach, however, seems to be limited in this aspect. Therefore, the Vietnam QA mechanism and policies are suggested to be re-visited to ensure that minimum standards are maintained as well as to promote institutional commitment and attempts to improve the quality of the entire system.