Reorganizing the State Management Apparatus on Higher Education Quality in the Direction of Specifically Defining the Responsibilities of State Management Agencies

The State needs to establish an institutional framework for ensuring social responsibility of higher education institutions. This social responsibility framework emphasizes the responsibility of higher education institutions towards the following groups of subjects: i) The State and society in general; ii) learners and families; iii) university human resource users. Higher education must ensure effective implementation of the institutional framework, policies, and macro-orientation of the State on higher education with a focus on quality, fairness, and meeting human resource requirements of each stage of development. Higher education must be truly responsible for the socio-economic development of the locality and the country.

To enhance the social responsibility of higher education institutions, the Ministry of Education and Training can sign agreements on quality assurance with higher education institutions and sign commitments with the Association of Universities. In addition, it is possible to build a Charter on the quality of higher education with a commitment that higher education institutions signing the Charter must ensure quality, and at the same time, will be guaranteed priorities in investment and development.

4.3.4. Reorganize the state management apparatus on the quality of higher education in the direction of specifically defining the responsibilities of state management agencies, distinguishing the state management function and the function of providing public services.

To manage the state on the quality of higher education, organizing a suitable state management apparatus is an issue that needs attention.

Firstly, to innovate the functions and methods of operation of the National Education Council chaired by the Prime Minister in the direction of assisting the Prime Minister in directing the development strategy of education in general and higher education in particular. The National Education Council has a support unit that mobilizes a large number of experts, scientists, educators, economic and social activists... with prestige in different fields to participate in the process of building and evaluating policies, development plans, effectiveness of higher education activities and progress of strategic projects on higher education.

Second , the Ministry of Education and Training together with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs perform state management functions as assigned by the Government, focusing on

The three main tasks are: developing strategies, planning and plans for higher education development; developing policies and regulations for managing the content and quality of higher education; and organizing inspections and audits. In particular, it is necessary to focus on inspections and audits to ensure the quality and effectiveness of higher education.

Third, build a mechanism to link higher education with scientific research and the labor market. Strengthen planning, conduct regular forecasting and increase the provision of information on the human resource needs of society to orient training for higher education institutions so that universities and colleges can regulate the scale, occupational structure, and training level to suit the needs of the socio-economic sector. To do this, it is necessary to establish a human resource forecasting center under the Ministry of Education and Training. In addition, to strengthen the connection between scientific research and higher education, it is possible to study the establishment of a Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research to regulate the higher education system in general, creating momentum for the development of higher education quality.

Fourth, decentralize the management of planning, planning and investment for development of higher education. The Government unifies the management of planning for the network and structure of universities nationwide, including the overall planning for the development of universities by type, scale structure, quality structure (high quality, mass quality and local universities). The Ministry of Education and Training and relevant ministries and branches shall study and submit to the Government plans for specific types of schools to help develop the sector internally and serve the development of the central and local economy. Based on the overall planning of the whole country, of the sector, of the region, the People's Committees of provinces and cities shall develop local-level plans to submit to the Government on the need for universities in their localities. Develop a strategy for developing higher education and a 5-year plan as well as annual steps for the modernization of universities. The Ministry of Education and Training shall proactively coordinate with relevant ministries and sectors to study and propose to the Government the scale and resources for investment in higher education. Provinces and cities with universities have the right to decide to use local budgets and other sources of revenue to build and develop higher education to serve the provincial level.

Fifth , decentralize the management of the state budget and other sources of revenue. Clearly define the rights and responsibilities for managing and using the state budget of ministries, branches and organizations with universities. The Government authorizes the Ministry of Education and Training to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to manage the state budget to build and develop higher education. The Ministry of Education and Training coordinates with the Ministry of Finance to develop and promulgate legal documents to create conditions for universities to be proactive in their autonomy and responsibility to have many sources of revenue and reasonable expenditure according to the development process of the school.

Sixth, decentralize the management of assets and facilities. Clearly define the rights and responsibilities of state management of land and facilities for public universities. Provincial and municipal People's Committees plan and create favorable conditions for non-public universities in possible conditions so that these universities can use their own revenue to build and develop their schools. Clearly define the rights to manage and use assets and facilities of universities in the direction of: national assets, local assets and the school's own assets, ensuring autonomy and responsibility for universities.

Seventh , decentralization of management of organization and personnel. The Government decides on the establishment, dissolution, separation, and merger of universities. The internal organization of the school (apparatus and personnel) is left to the school to decide. Based on the staffing standards prescribed by the Government, the Ministries, branches, and localities with schools decide on the total staffing for universities. The specific staffing levels are left to the school to decide, moving towards abolishing the staffing system. The titles of professor, associate professor, and other teaching positions of the school in the university education system are left to the state's guidance.

Eighth , with the scale of the current university system being increasingly expanded, the management of accreditation work needs a large enough apparatus, capable of managing and ensuring the quality of accreditation work. Currently, in Vietnam, the Department of Testing and Quality Assurance is identified as the specialized management agency for testing and quality assurance. In some countries, the state management agency for higher education quality assurance is located in the Ministry of Education and Training.

apparatus of an educational management department. In some countries, the state management agency for quality assessment is a government agency operating with funding from the Ministry of Finance. Choosing the model of a state management agency for educational quality assessment is an important issue to ensure the effectiveness of the management process. In the current period, we can continue to use the model of a state management agency for assessment under the Ministry of Education and Training, but it is necessary to expand the scale of this agency. The Department of Testing and Quality Assessment must truly be a state management agency for quality assessment with a system of specialized departments and managers in the areas of assessment. At the same time, the Department of Testing and Quality Assessment also separates the function of providing public services on educational quality assessment with the establishment of the Center for Educational Quality Assessment. Separating the two functions: state management function and public service provision function is necessary for the state management agency on quality inspection to focus resources on the goal of managing quality inspection work.

In the long term, state management of higher education quality assessment will be a major issue in state management of education in our country. Higher education itself, according to the provisions of the 2005 Education Law, includes college, university and postgraduate education. The implementation of educational commitments will lead to the formation and development of many domestic and foreign higher education institutions in our country. Those educational institutions in our country need to be managed for quality to prevent the risk of exporting low-quality education and commercializing higher education. The responsibility of state management of assessment will become even more burdensome. Therefore, we also need a project to establish a state management agency for higher education quality under the Government. This state management agency will be an agency responsible for comprehensively managing the work of educational quality assessment, in which the content of state management of higher education quality assessment is a major content.

Another option also proposed here is to establish a higher education management agency at the general department level such as the General Department of Higher Education. In this General Department, there is a specialized management agency for the quality of higher education. The formation of the agency

Specialized and specialized higher education management agencies will specifically identify management subjects and enhance the responsibility of state management agencies for the quality of higher education.

Ninth, it is necessary to study and consider the formation of an intermediary organization between the Ministry of Education and Training and higher education institutions, to reduce the workload of state management agencies on higher education.

4.3.5. Improving the quality of staff and civil servants working in state management of higher education

The quality of the staff and civil servants determines the quality and effectiveness of state management of higher education. To create a new step forward in state management of higher education quality, the staff and civil servants need to be improved appropriately. Improving the quality of the staff and civil servants has a direct impact on the quality of institutions and the effectiveness of implementing state management institutions on the quality of higher education in practice.

State management of higher education quality is closely linked to the development of policies, standards, appraisal, assessment, publication of accreditation results and the development of policies related to accreditation. Therefore, improving the quality of cadres and civil servants doing state management work is an important issue that determines the effectiveness of state management. The quality of cadres and civil servants here includes knowledge, skills and attitudes. The first issue that needs attention is improving the level of legislative activities, rule-making, legal level, legal quality, and feasibility of laws related to state management of higher education quality accreditation.

To achieve these goals, there are many decisive factors such as: new legal thinking on education and training, the Party's policies and guidelines, the capacity of legal officers and legal agencies, educational management agencies, coordination between state agencies, democratization of legislative and executive activities, etc. In particular, it is necessary to focus on solving the following issues:

Improve the level of legislative and regulatory activities, improve the legal level in education and training management by law and strengthen social law.

Socialism requires the construction of a system of legal documents on higher education that is complete in quantity and ensures quality. It is necessary to build a team of legal staff with comprehensive knowledge of education, economics, law and politics, with the ability to draft documents and the capacity to implement the law in the conditions of the new mechanism. The terms used in legal documents on quality assessment of higher education need to be clear, concise, accurate and easy to understand, not using terms that are difficult to perceive, ambiguous, which can easily lead to inconsistent implementation and create loopholes, distortions and exploitation. In addition, with the goal of effectively implementing the work of assessing and evaluating the quality of higher education towards a quality and professional education, the education sector needs to focus on training experts and assessors who are not only good at their profession but also honest "judges", consultants, ready to help educational institutions solve difficulties in the process of applying quality assessment standards.

To improve the quality of the staff and civil servants working in state management, it is necessary to have a plan to train and foster the staff and civil servants managing the state on the quality of quality higher education. Every year, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to allocate a budget to encourage staff and international students to study the fields of accreditation, assessment, and improvement of school quality and efficiency. This will help develop the necessary human resources to implement initiatives and efforts to improve the quality of higher education in Vietnam in the future. Training can be carried out in many different forms (long-term and short-term training; training programs with or without degrees...). Along with improving the qualifications of the staff and civil servants managing the state on the quality of higher education, the issue of public service ethics also needs attention. The staff and civil servants must be truly impartial and objective in the management and evaluation process, and have a sense of responsibility for their work.

4.3.6. Perfecting inspection, examination and supervision work in state management of university education quality

Maintain discipline and ensure principles in state management of higher education; turn the inspection and examination process into a process of self-inspection and examination within the university.

higher education institutions; ensuring equity and contributing to improving the quality and effectiveness of higher education.

Strengthening and ensuring the autonomy and self-responsibility of higher education institutions will only be truly effective when carried out together with strengthening the state management of the Ministry of Education and Training as well as other ministries and branches. Organizing the inspection and examination system of higher education institutions at the ministerial level needs to focus on inspecting and examining the main management contents in compliance with regulations on higher education management. Inspection and examination activities at the ministerial level need to be innovated in form as well as implementation methods, ensuring quality, but in principle should not replace the inspection and examination activities of educational institutions, it is necessary to guide the inspection and examination work of institutions as a consultant. On the other hand, it is also necessary to focus on inspection and examination activities at the ministerial level. In the current period, inspection and examination work needs to focus on the state management contents of higher education as well as enrollment work; financial regime, tuition fees, granting of certificates and ensuring training quality...

Inspection and examination activities need to be innovated in the direction of being "consultants" in the training process for educational institutions. In order for inspection and examination to promote its important meaning, inspection and examination units need to have inspection and examination plans focusing on key issues such as ensuring the conformity of training content with the goals and missions of the industry and educational institutions.

It is necessary to focus on building a team of inspectors and examiners with sufficient capacity, experience, courage to think, courage to do, not afraid of collisions and good moral qualities through training, professional development, equipping and updating knowledge, skills, learning from experiences of countries with advanced education so that the inspection team can complete their work well.

4.4. Survey the urgency, feasibility and conditions to ensure the implementation of the solution

4.4.1. Survey the urgency and feasibility of solutions

To determine the necessity and feasibility of the proposed solutions, based on the proposed opinions of state management officials at the Ministry of Education and Training and the survey opinions of management officials at the Diplomatic Academy, Hanoi Foreign Trade University and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. With 120 survey forms, of which 90 were from higher education institutions and 30 from management units, the survey results showed that the proposed solutions are suitable for practical requirements. The necessity and feasibility of the proposed solutions are shown in the following table:

Table 4.3. Survey results on the necessity and feasibility of solutions


TT

Solution

Necessity

Feasibility

Midpoint

jar

Rank

Midpoint

jar

Rank

1

Innovating state management of higher education quality towards enhancing autonomy and accountability of

higher education institutions

2.95

3

2.88

3

2

Complete strategies, planning, and plans for higher education development (on orientation for higher education development, faculty development, and allocation policies).

finance by output quality)

2.96

2

2.91

2

3

Perfecting the state management institution on the quality of higher education (institution on quality assessment, establishment of independent accreditation organizations, stratification of higher education, institution on autonomy, accountability).

programs of higher education institutions)

2.98

1

2.93

1

4

Reorganize the state management apparatus

higher education

2.93

4

2.58

6

5

Improve the quality of staff and civil servants doing state management work

on higher education

2.93

4

2.87

4

6

Perfecting inspection and control institutions

higher education institution

2.9

6

2.79

5

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Reorganizing the State Management Apparatus on Higher Education Quality in the Direction of Specifically Defining the Responsibilities of State Management Agencies

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