Since 2022, the USAID Partnership for Higher Education Reform has delivered a series of five leadership development cohorts for senior university leaders and administrators from Vietnam. These programs, hosted by Indiana University, support higher education leaders in becoming change agents for reform at the three largest public university systems in Vietnam.

The programs have provided learning opportunities to 137 participants, including 34 women, from Vietnam National University Hanoi (VNUHN), the University of Danang (UD), and Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNUHCM). The program covers a vast range of areas critical to innovation in higher education, including effective leadership and governance, quality of teaching and learning, research capacity to meet international standards, linkages to industry.

Participants engaged with the spectrum of academic and administrative leaders across Indiana University to better understand the various roles, responsibilities, capacities, services, and strategies for development. The objectives were for the Vietnamese delegates not only to gain knowledge and experience regarding the governance and management of modern public universities but also to reflect on how innovative approaches could be adapted and applied to the context of Vietnam’s public universities. The participants were challenged to consider how they could spearhead and drive reform and transformation in their respective institutions. The delegates conferred with Indiana University experts to consider how best to move forward with solutions to major issues.

“The program is intensive and interactive. Along with presentations and discussion, we had opportunities to visit several academic, administrative, and technical units within and outside of IU to gain first-hand knowledge and experience”, Ms. Nguyen Luu Thuy Ngan, Vice President of VNUHCM-University of Information Technology, shared her experience in the third cohort in May 2023.

Photo 1 Ms. Ngan and other delegates visited the Big Red 200 supercomputer at Indiana University – Photo credit Nguyen Luu Thuy Ngan

She explained that the experience, awareness, and knowledge gained through the capacity  development program have been extremely useful for her, especially what she learned about university-industry linkages, community service, management information system, which are areas important to her own work. How IU is willing to proactively engage industry in supporting research projects, albeit these ones may not be able to bring immediate benefits to the industry investors.

“I was inspired by what IU has done, motivating me to develop two policies, including the regulation of graduate internships and industry engagement with academic programs.” Draft versions are being edited and are expected to be officially issued in early November 2023. “It takes two semesters to implement in order to see the impact of the two policies on the university, students, and industry”, Ms. Ngan added.

“Some impacts from the course are unmeasurable. After working with colleagues at Indiana University who have devoted several years to public universities, we feel confident and encouraged in the path we have chosen and the strategies that we have been implementing”, she emphasized.

Photo 2: Ms. Ngan gave a presentation on class introduce VNUHCM’s academic programs – Photo credit: Nguyen Luu Thuy Ngan

For example, in recent years, the role of universities in community service has been discussed and practiced at VNUHCM-University of Information Technology. After seeing the model and results at IU, Ms. Ngan thinks it is necessary to concretize community service into recruitment and evaluation criteria to promote that culture in public universities. “A policy on community service in team development is expected to be issued in 2024-2025 as it is a part of the university’s strategy”, Ms. Ngan shared.

She also shared that VNUHCM-University of Information Technology has been implementing digital transformation by developing a dashboard to support their work. “When I came to IU, I saw that IU has some dashboards to track statistics to adjust policies, giving us more ideas to develop ours in Vietnam”, Ms. Ngan said.

Ms. Ngan and other participants in the leadership capacity development programs are ambitious seeds for better governance and management in modern public universities in Vietnam. All the participants are expected to create an impact at their higher education institutions, as small changes can lead to big impacts in management.