In 2007, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) released Decision 65, setting up 10 standards and 61 criteria for tertiary education accreditation. After that, the ministry carried out accreditation, and 40 universities throughout the countries were recognized as meeting standards.

However, the names of the 40 schools have never been made public.

Nguyen Hoi Nghia, former deputy director of the Hanoi National University, when recalling the days, said that all the schools got accreditation certificates “quietly”.

“This was because the accreditation was just in very early stage in Vietnam and there were many problems in state management agencies,” Nghia said.

In 2012, MOET released Circular 62 on the process and frequency of tertiary education accreditation. However, only four years later did MOET begin taking serious measures to urge schools to undergo accreditation. 

Some education accreditation centers were established at Hanoi National University, HCMC National University, Da Nang University, Vinh University and the Vietnam Association of Universities and Junior Colleges.

In 2017, MOET released an ‘ultimatum’ that schools must conduct self-assessment and the work must be completed prior to July 1, 2017. The assessment by independent accreditation centers must be fulfilled prior to December 31, 2017. 

At that time, the director of an accreditation center commented that MOET was too ‘subjective’ when deciding that all the 236 schools must satisfy standards by the end of June 2018.

The director cited a report as saying that only 134 out of 236 schools had been assessed and they only met 55 percent of requirements. Of these, 132 schools met the requirements stipulated in Circular 65 (10 standards and 61 criteria) and two schools met the requirements in Circular 12/2017 (25 standards and 111 criteria).

Only one university was then found meeting most (56/61) of the criteria.

Accreditation process 

Vietnam now has three universities meeting Southeast Asian standards: Hanoi University of Natural Sciences, Hanoi University of Science & Technology, and International University, a member school of HCMC National University.

The schools meeting HCERES standards include the Hanoi University of Science & Technology, University of Civil Engineering, University of Technology of Da Nang, HCMC University of Science & Technology and Ton Duc Thang University.

There are 3,000 training programs, but the accreditation of the programs has been going very slowly.

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