Impacts of qualifications frameworks on higher education discussed

Da Nang (VNA) – The 5th National Workshop on the Impact of Qualifications Frameworks and Regional Quality Assurance Standards on Vietnam’s Higher Education opened in central Dang Nang city on May 30.

The three-day workshop was co-held by the Ministry of Education and Training and the European Union (EU) Support to Higher Education in the ASEAN Region (SHARE) with Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga and specialists from EU and ASEAN nations in attendance.

The three-day event, divided into four working sessions, will discuss the current state of the ASEAN Qualification Reference Frameworks (AQRF) and evaluate their impacts on Vietnam’s higher education.

Participants to the event shared views on how to improve compatibility of social needs and students’ ability to find a job through applying learning outcome standards and quality assurance. They also attend training courses to examine, assess and develop programmes based on outcome standards.

Speaking at the workshop, Deputy Minister Ga said the eight-level qualifications frameworks comprise five levels for vocational training and other three for higher education.

The frameworks have profound impacts on stakeholders, from policymakers, employers, to educational institutes and students, and allow fundamental changes in quality of higher education in the context of deep global integration and increasing demand for high-quality human resources, Ga noted.

In addition to the implementation of the qualifications frameworks, Vietnam will continue to assure education quality standards with approach to international and regional standards and this will be an essential part of the country’s comprehensive education reforms, he emphasised.

He also spoke highly of SHARE’s support to higher education in ASEAN, including Vietnam. The programme has created a bridge for educational cooperation between countries in the region, particularly in education quality assurance.-VNA