The four universities are Hanoi University of Science andTechnology, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Da Nang University ofTechnology, and National University of Civil Engineering, all of which offerthe Excellent Engineer Training Programme (PFIEV) supported by the Frenchgovernment.
This is the first time that an international organisation hasevaluated higher education institutions in the country. The accreditation isvalid for five years, from 2017 to 2022.
Till date, 18 courses have been introduced under the PFIEVprogramme, and 16 of them have been evaluated and accredited by the FrenchEngineering Qualifications Commission (CTI).
In March, 2016, the CTI sent a delegation of experts to Vietnamfor the third time to evaluate the quality of PFIEV’s engineering degreeholders.
In April 2016, the Ministry of Education and Training sent aletter to the HCERES, requesting the evaluation and accreditation of the fourabove-mentioned institutions. All four universities then started preparingself-assessment reports to meet the HCERES standards.
After a preliminary survey by the HCERES expert group lastOctober, it was decided that all four institutions are eligible to conduct theaccreditation.
In January, the four universities completed and submitted theirself-assessment reports as required by the HCERES. By the end of February,HCERES set up two expert delegations, each consisting of seven members, allsenior experts in higher education management and training, to assess thereports.
The process of accreditation involved several steps aimed atexamining and evaluating practical activities, including quality assurance offacilities, teaching staff, training, research activities, managementinnovation, method innovation, students’ opinion polls, staff, managers, andalso the direction of development of the institution in the future.
Based on the analysis of the self-assessment reports and a three-daydirect assessment, the HCERES expert team decided to accredit these fouruniversities as having meet international university accreditationstandards.-VNA