Academic Governance and Leadership in Vietnam: Trends and Challenges

Abstract

This paper provides a review of academic governance and leadership in Vietnam at both the national and institutional levels, focusing more on the public sector. It also provides an analysis of new policy developments aimed at achieving higher education reform. There have been significant changes over the last three decades regarding governance structures and mechanisms in higher education Vietnam. These changes have been in response to the need for more decentralization and greater consistency with international practices. Increased autonomy for public higher education institutions has been one major achievement. More attention is needed, though, regarding accountability mechanisms. The role of the academic community in higher education leadership also needs to be strengthened by providing more fully for participation by academic staff members in university decision-making process. The privatization of higher education has contributed substantially to higher education development in Vietnam, but the private sector continues to be a focus for ongoing debate because of a perceived need for more improvements.

Exploring Key Competencies of Mid-Level Academic Managers in Higher Education in Vietnam

“…For another thing, the low self-perceived ability to drive changes by mid-level academic managers is a result of a so-called survival culture that Vietnamese universities and academic departments have for long adopted. As observed by Salmi [48], the majority of faculties only react to changes when they are forced to go. Therefore, to empower mid-level academic managers to assume a more effective leadership and managerial position, in addition to advocating more institutional and departmental autonomy, heads of units should be encouraged to be proactive and responsive in making department decisions.…”

“…The functions and responsibilities of mid-level academic managers in Vietnam are still conceptualised under the state steering of higher education systems. Despite government initiatives to reform institutional governance, public universities in Vietnam remain heavily dependent on state funding to sustain their personnel, curriculum, and infrastructure [47][48][49][50]. MOET prescribes and monitors admission quotas, recruitments of academics, and curricular development.…”

“…MOET prescribes and monitors admission quotas, recruitments of academics, and curricular development. The capacity of middle managers to exert their authority and influence is therefore constrained under state centralisation and decision-making processes, which are characterised as being hierarchical and top-down [48]. For another thing, the low self-perceived ability to drive changes by mid-level academic managers is a result of a so-called survival culture that Vietnamese universities and academic departments have for long adopted.…”

How scientific research changes the Vietnamese higher education landscape: Evidence from social sciences and humanities between 2008 and 2019

“…In addition, the relationship between the research capacity of university lecturers and students' achievement has been questioned. Currently, the task of improving research capacity for lecturers is still not an attractive investment option for universities, especially in developing countries where universities often put more importance on the teaching function of faculty members (Pham & Hayden, 2019;Salmi & Pham, 2019;Tran & Nghia, 2020). Around the world, organizations, and scientific circles in Asia, Africa, and even Europe still face obstacles in their scientific publication process (Flowerdew, 1999).…”

Comparative views on research productivity differences between major social science fields in Vietnam: Structured data and Bayesian analysis, 2008-2018

“…However, there are struggles to publish internationally, while domestic scientific journals are usually low quality and lack credibility . Thus, while the scientific output from Vietnam is rising (Adams et al 2019; with the rise of specific fields in social sciences and humanities such as economics, or education (Vu et al 2019;Le et al 2019), there are specific demands to raise the quality of the environment (Salmi and Pham 2019;Phuong et al 2015), as well as the system that will elevate it such as academic publishing (Vuong 2019b).…”