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

USAID Partnership for Higher Education Reform (PHER)

SCOPE OF WORK

for national expert(s) to provide technical assistance on

Management Information System (MIS)

Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM)

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 business and academic units in VNUHCM 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 VNUHCM 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.

PHER seeks to support VNUHCM and its member institutions in taking the steps necessary to prepare for the installation of a centralized data center and launch a fully integrated Management Information System (MIS) under the World Bank VUDP project. Accordingly, PHER seeks a national consultant or group of consultants who is/are qualified to provide technical assistance to university leaders and staff as they prepare data operations for a transition to the new MIS.

The PHER support for MIS development is intended to help VNUHCM plan the steps  necessary (data governance, data architecture, and human resources development) to ensure a careful integration of disparate information systems and launch of a more coherent, comprehensive MIS. A reformed MIS should enable the University to collect, generate, and utilize reliable data while allowing the corporate entity to better coordinate with its member universities.

This assignment will be conducted in both English and 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

This work is expected to commence on or about July 2024. The work will take place both in-person and online from July 2024 to December 2024. The expert(s) will undertake in-person visits to Vietnam National University - HCMC. The details of the work are as follows:

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 master level of education and/or relevant qualifications (three years experience for the work/skills required for the tasks);
• has expertise and experience in the implementation of university 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 July 14. 2024 with title “Consultant on MIS + Full name”