Consultant to help improve business-related programs toward ACBSP standard

IMPROVING BUSINESS-RELATED PROGRAMS TOWARD ACBSP STANDARD

SCOPE OF WORK

INTRODUCTION

Vietnam aspires to become a middle-income country, driven by innovation, a dynamic workforce, and increasing competition in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The government of Vietnam and the private sector have recognized that higher education (HE) skills to date have not been sufficient to meet the country's growing demand for a highly educated workforce. Therefore, the modernization of HE remains a high priority.

Funded by USAID, the Partnership for Higher Education Reform (PHER) is a five-year initiative to modernize Vietnam's leading universities and strengthen Vietnam's higher education system in alignment with. The project's strategy centers around four key programs – Governance Excellence, Teaching and Learning Excellence, Research Excellence, and University-Industry Linkages – and targets three major Vietnamese universities: Vietnam National University-Hanoi (VNU-HN), Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM), and the University of Danang (UD), with higher-education policy advocacy and reform, technology and digitization, and gender empowerment as critical, cross-cutting tactics for success and long-term sustainability. The project is implemented by Indiana University (IU), with Vietnam Initiative Institute as a sub-awardee, for five years from 2021 to 2026.

As part of the project's work plan, IU and Vietnam Initiative jointly seek a consultant to support three (03) member universities to improve their business-related academic programs, preparing them for ACBSP Standards.  The detailed scope of work presented in the following sections, covering (1) providing capacity improvement for the project universities’ personnel in terms of internal assessment in accordance with the ACBSP Standards, (2) supporting project universities to conduct gap analysis between the Programs’ status in accordance with ACBSP standards and the action plan, and (3) follow up to consult project universities to improve the Programs.

BACKGROUND

Quality accreditation in higher education exists in many countries, including Vietnam. The aim of accreditation of the academic programs is under the Decree 38/2013/TT-BGDDT issued by Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training, regulating the accrediting process of the academic programs in the higher education institutions. The core elements of accreditation focus on ensuring and improving academic programs, identify the level at which academic programs meet the periodical time frame, provide evidence for authorities, society and beneficiaries about the quality of the academic programs, and provide evidence for learners to choose programs and employers to select their human resources. Thus, accreditation provides opportunities for institutional growth through self-study and evaluation and self-regulation.

THE ASSIGNMENT PURPOSE

1. The main objective: support 3Us improving their business-related programs to meet the ACBSP Standards.

2. Specific objectives:

• SO1: Raise awareness of ACBSP Standards among 3Us;
• SO2: Improve the capacity of the project Universities' personnel in improving toward the ACBSP Standards;
• SO3: Support project Universities during the self-study process to define the points gained and not attained by the program's requirements; what are the hurdles that Universities may encounter in the standardization process;
• SO4: Review corporate governance and suggest an overall system being developed for the Universities to be eligible for ACBSP.

SPECIFIC TASKS

• Provide participants with appropriate knowledge of necessary information and improve their comprehension of the ACBSP standard set (SO1);
• Assist and guide for internal assessment employees/internal assessment department in develop action plan and how to improve the Programs in alignment with ACBSP Standards (SO2) using demonstration-based examples;
• Collaborate with project universities to conduct gap analysis and propose action plan using ACBSP Standards (SO3);
• Follow up review corporate governance and suggest an overall system being developed for the project universities to be eligible for ACBSP (SO4).

DELIVERABLES

• 01 Training (5 days) and training package of ACBSP Standards. Training package will be finalized in close consultation with program manager of the project;
• 03 Gaps analysis of the status of programs in accordance with ACBSP criteria (01 for each project university);
• 03 Action plans for each project university ;
• 01 Activity report of consultation (online or on site) for 3 project universities.

QUALIFICATIONS

• a minimum qualification of a master’s degree in Education Studies; a PhD qualification will be an advantage;
• a strong experience (5 years) in development of evaluation criteria and guidelines on business program;
• knowledge and experience to design the guidelines for assessment of the implementation of business programs;
• knowledge of the higher education system in Vietnam, external QA mechanisms and Internal QA and prior work experience in conducting evaluations;
• a certificate of completing a training for peer reviewer in ACBSP Standards.

TENTATIVE TIMELINE

• Training dates: Week 2-3/ 03/2023
  Mode: In-person
• Consultation: Quarter 2 & 3
  Mode: On site and online

REQUEST TO SUBMIT

• CV, necessary credentials, and papers demonstrating 1-2 previous similar positions
• 01 Technical proposal paper (including contents, methods of implementation, and proposed outcomes)
• 01 Budget proposal

Proposals should be submitted to [email protected]

Deadline for submission: February 21, 2023