BUILD-IT held a series of accreditation and quality assurance workshops this spring in both Danang and Ho Chi Minh City. These workshops were designed to address the needs and goals of the BUILD-IT strategic partners and reached over 500 participants.
The workshops taught participants how to align their universities with the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology criteria, and how to use the dissemination of software tools to aggregate assessment data streams and display them in an easy-to-understand format for data-driven program improvement and self-study reporting, which is necessary to achieve program accreditation.
One of the highlights in HCMC included a session focused on advanced classroom assessment and evaluation of student learning. The assessment session was designed to guide faculty in using methodologies that satisfy both classroom assessment needs, as well as support program accreditation and assessment purposes. In addition to formal workshops, participants also took advantage of individual coaching sessions for BUILD-IT strategic partners as they developed their assessment systems and drafted self-study documents.
Six strategic partner universities were actively engaged in the institutional accreditation workshop titled, Assessment of Institution Preparedness for AUN-IQA Certification Based on the Self-Assessment Report in HCMC. The workshop guided participants in developing rubrics for AUN Criteria and used the criteria to assign points for each criterion required in the SAR.
A shortened version of this workshop was given to key quality assurance people at Danang University of Science and Technology. A coaching session with key QA personnel of the HCM-VNU International University was also conducted to discuss their preparation for AUN-IQA Certification, as well as their ABET preparation.
Currently, QA and International Accreditation are top priorities for higher education in Vietnam. They are essential for advancing quality academic programs and curriculum that meet the needs of industry and professions in the area of workforce development. Both program and university level accreditation are key for achieving the university goals and the project goals of BUILD-IT.
By Le Thi Ngoc Dung