Opening of the 50th AUN-QA external assessment session

Attending the opening session were Deputy Executive Director of the ASEAN University Network (AUN) Choltis Dhirathiti, representative of the AUN Secretariat Ing-orn Jeerararuensak and quality assurance experts Wan Ahmad Kamil Mahmood (team leader) and colleague Nakorn Srisukhumbowornchai.

On the side of VNU, there were Vice President Nguyen Kim Son, leaders of functional departments, schools, faculties, and units under VNU, along with the Board of Directors, staff, lecturers, and representatives of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

In his opening speech, VNU Vice President Nguyen Kim Son said that up to now, VNU has 15 training programs that have been accredited by AUN. Quality accreditation not only brings positive effects to accredited training programs but also has significance for other training programs at VNU. The number of accredited training programs is constantly increasing, clearly demonstrating the pioneering role of VNU in reforming higher education in Vietnam.

Overview of the meeting

The Vice President said that in order to improve the quality of education as well as help students compete globally, quality assurance must be considered a key task. Therefore, VNU is constantly improving the quality of training programs, striving to have 100% of training programs at VNU meet AUN quality standards by 2020, 35% of which meet regional and world standards.

Mr. Choltis Dhirathiti said that with the aim of developing human resources through higher education in the ASEAN region, the ASEAN University Network (AUN) was established in 1995. In order to promote quality assurance within universities in the region, AUN has launched an initiative to assess the quality of higher education according to the common quality assurance standards of the ASEAN region (ASEAN University Network - Quality Assurance, abbreviated as AUN-QA). By the end of this year, 161 training programs of 27 universities in 8 countries in Southeast Asia will be quality accredited.

Appreciating the proactiveness and positivity of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in particular and VNU in general in the assessment activities according to AUN standards, Mr. Choltis Dhirathiti hopes that this assessment will gradually contribute to promoting the recognition of academic achievements and training quality of VNU as well as strengthening cooperation with universities in the Southeast Asian region.

According to the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Nguyen Van Khanh, after 70 years of establishment and development, the University has always been considered the largest training and research center for social sciences and humanities in the country, with the mission of training high-quality, highly qualified human resources. Rector Nguyen Van Khanh believes that the evaluation results of the working group will help to see more clearly the strengths of the training program to continue to promote, and at the same time discover the limitations that need to be improved, in order to improve the quality of education and training.

Prof. Dr. People's Teacher Nguyen Van Khanh speaks at the opening session