National expert(s) to provide technical assistance to universities on Management Information System

USAID Partnership for Higher Education Reform (PHER)

SCOPE OF WORK

for national expert(s) to provide technical assistance to universities on Management Information System (MIS).

This work will take place with:

The University of Danang (UD)

I. BACKGROUND

The Partnership for Higher Education Reform (PHER) is a five-year initiative to help strengthen Vietnam's leading public universities. The project activities are funded by USAID to support targeted reforms to improve institutional leadership and administrative capacity, improve teaching practices to enhance student learning outcomes, elevate university research capacity to international standards, network Vietnamese researchers to maximize access to global knowledge, enable university graduates to better engage with the labor market, and help university faculty to leverage their research for innovation.

• Governance: This pillar supports the building and strengthening of institutional performance management systems based on agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) supported by a comprehensive Management Information System (MIS) that provides consistent, reliable data for decision making and for accreditation of institutions and programs. This includes the establishment of a robust internal quality assurance (IQA) system at each of the target universities. Improved governance will help the leadership of public universities in Vietnam make better informed decisions as they exercise greater autonomy and focus on academic quality. 
• Teaching & Learning: This pillar supports the expansion of faculty capacity to design state-of-the-art courses, digitize curricula, support the development of priority online courses and programs, improve student learning assessment techniques, and develop graduate students in the teaching profession. This pillar will also support technical assistance to help prepare faculty and administration for international accreditation reviews of academic programs and institutions. The objective is for improved teaching and learning at Vietnam’s public universities to increase learning outcomes, enhance recognition of high-quality academic programs, and improve the employability of graduates.
• Research & Innovation: This pillar supports the enhancement of research capacity so that the scientific outputs of public universities in Vietnam meet international standards, increase knowledge sharing among specialists, grow the number of publications in recognized journals, and align research activities to the social and economic needs of the country.  This will take place through faculty exchanges, visiting scholar programs, research conferences, webinars, workshops, and short course training on research methodologies and academic specialties. The key vehicle for this pillar is the establishment of Vietnam International Academic Networks (VIAN) to help scientists across Vietnam connect more readily with fellow experts from around the world. The objective is for VIAN activity to lead to greater knowledge sharing, broader promotion of research taking place in Vietnam, and enhanced opportunities for joint research and publications with partners abroad.

The PHER project also seeks deeper exploration of policy areas vital to the improvement of Vietnamese public higher education by supporting analytical work on the areas of technology and digitization, as well as gender equity. These cross-cutting policy areas are essential to success across the four pillars and to support the long-term sustainability of higher education reforms in Vietnam.  

PHER focuses on reforms at three major Vietnamese public universities and their member universities and respective institutes and academic programs:

• Vietnam National University - Hanoi (VNU)
• Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM),        
• The University of Danang (UD)

II. OBJECTIVE OF ASSIGNMENT

Through the Institutional Performance Assessment (IPA) of university governance conducted in 2021 immediately after the launch of PHER, it was ascertained that:

Most academic units in UD along with its member universities were found to use a wide variety of systems to collect, process, organize, and analyze operational data, often lacking secure ways to store and communicate information. Departments across UD use a range of commercial and idiosyncratic homegrown software for managing vast amounts of institutional data and information. Many of these systems are outmoded and the data characteristics insufficiently standardized. The lack of an integrated, comprehensive MIS prevents the data aggregation needed for the sort of analytics to readily inform university decision making.

The MIS development at UD will encompass a wide range of deliverables including improving core information systems and adding capability in areas where it does not currently have automated systems.  PHER has primarily focused its MIS efforts on development of a decision support environment for all levels of management.  UD seeks national expertise on this to assist in coding and conducting related issues in the implementation process of the MIS reform and governance processes to ensure success. The coding will be for items including the data and modeling for a data warehouse, outcomes on data quality, data security and data access of the MIS. 

PHER seeks a national consultant or group of consultants who is/are qualified to provide technical assistance. The purpose of the assignment is to provide technical support to UD on strengthening its MIS. The intervention of MIS should cover personnel, processes, and technology, etc. used in the organizational context of each university. The enhancement of MIS is expected to enable UD to collect, generate, and utilize reliable data for decision making while allowing them to better coordinate and support their member universities. The main task is to lead the MIS activities to fulfill the items of the work plan in following sections.

This assignment will be conducted in Vietnamese and all reporting can be written in either English or Vietnamese. PHER will provide interpretation/translation as needed. All activities should ensure equitable treatment irrespective of gender, disability or ethnic background.

III. TIME AND LOCATION

The timing is negotiable but the work is expected to commence in August 2024. Working days are planned for both face-to-face and online working sessions over the period September 2024 to December 2024. The expert(s) will undertake in-person visits to the University of Danang. Further details to be provided below.

IV. TASKS, DELIVERABLES, TIMELINE AND LEVEL OF EFFORT

V. BUDGET (working time)

60 working days both virtual and in-person sessions.

VI. SUPERVISION AND REPORTING

The consultant(s) will work under the direction of the PHER team.

VII. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Essential:

• holds a Bachelor degree or higher and/or relevant qualifications (over five years experience for the work/skills required for the tasks);
• has sound understanding on Viet Nam higher education system;
• has expertise and experience in the implementation of MIS systems;
• is able to plan and deliver a program of work to support participating universities (including their related agencies) to strengthen their continuous quality improvement system;
• has the skills to drive the implementation of activities in collaboration with key persons at the universities;
• can prepare and deliver effective interactive workshops/trainings/coaching sessions on MIS systems;
• can demonstrate active listening and effective mentoring skills with people at different levels in the university hierarchy;
• can demonstrate flexible availability for coaching sessions;
• has delivered comparable work successfully before and can show a plan for the conduct of this work with the universities.

Preferred:

• has experience working at Vietnamese universities;
• holds qualifications related to higher education or MIS;
• can commit well in advance to a schedule for workshops and coaching.

VIII. APPLICATION

The application documents include:

• A letter of motivation
• CV with three references
• A technical proposal
• Financial proposal, indicating the expected consultancy fee
• Application documents should be sent to [email protected] by September 8, 2024 with title “Consultant on MIS + Full name”. However, the post will remain open until filled.