HÀ NỘI — Four universities in Việt Nam have been evaluated and accredited for meeting international standards by the High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES) in France.

The four universities are Hà Nội University of Science and Technology, Hồ Chí Minh City University of Technology, Đà Nẵng University of Technology, and the National University of Civil Engineering, all of which offer the Excellent Engineer Training Programme (PFIEV) supported by the French government.

This is the first time that an international organisation has evaluated higher education institutions in the country. The accreditation is valid for five years, from 2017 to 2022.

Till date, 18 courses have been introduced under the PFIEV programme, and 16 of them have been evaluated and accredited by the French Engineering Qualifications Commission (CTI).

In March, 2016, the CTI sent a delegation of experts to Việt Nam for the third time to evaluate the quality of PFIEV’s engineering degree holders.

In April 2016, the Ministry of Education and Training sent a letter to the HCERES, requesting the evaluation and accreditation of the four above-mentioned institutions. All four universities then started preparing self-assessment reports to meet the HCERES standards.

After a preliminary survey by the HCERES expert group last October, it was decided that all four institutions are eligible to conduct the accreditation.

In January, the four universities completed and submitted their self-assessment reports as required by the HCERES. By the end of February, HCERES set up two expert delegations, each consisting of seven members, all senior experts in higher education management and training, to assess the reports.

The process of accreditation involved several steps aimed at examining and evaluating practical activities, including quality assurance of facilities, teaching staff, training, research activities, management innovation, method innovation, students’ opinion polls, staff, managers, and also the direction of development of the institution in the future.

Based on the analysis of the self-assessment reports and a three-day direct assessment, the HCERES expert team decided to accredit these four universities as having meet international university accreditation standards. — VNS