FTU President Bùi Anh Tuấn speaks at the opening ceremony of the ASEAN-Quality Assurance Forum 2019 in Hà Nội on November 7.  — Photo courtesy of FTU

HÀ NỘI — More than 250 delegates, from over 150 higher education institutions of 15 countries in the region and around the world, discussed quality culture in higher education institutions at the ASEAN-Quality Assurance Forum 2019 which opened in Hà Nội on Thursday.

The event, entitled “Networking for Building and Sustaining Quality Culture in Higher Education Institutions”, is hosted by the Foreign Trade University (FTU).

Speaking at the opening ceremony, FTU President Bùi Anh Tuấn said that quality assurance is a concern and mission seriously completed by every member of the university.

“Quality culture can be built and sustained only when each individual, department and faculty in the university understand, take proper care and responsibility, have smooth and systematic cooperation to meet the needs of stakeholders,” said Tuấn.

“Therefore, at this forum, we hope to exchange and learn experiences from countries in the region and the world in the field of quality assurance in general and quality culture building and sustaining in higher education institutions in particular,” said Tuấn.

“Our strategic objective of quality assurance towards 2030 is that quality culture at FTU as a whole becomes the core to performing research, training activities and community service,” added Tuấn.

At the event, Mai Văn Trinh, director-general of the Quality Management Agency under the Ministry of Education and Training said that quality culture has always been one of the key elements of the internal quality assurance system in every higher education institution.

Quality culture has played a decisive role in the sustainability of quality assurance activities. It is also the foundation for all activities of every higher education institution, including teaching, learning, researching and serving the community.

“The rapid and robust development of science and technology required higher education to make a breakthrough in order to meet the requirements of sustainable socio-economic development of every nation. Higher education also plays an important role in the innovation industrialisation and modernisation of a country, making a contribution to building and developing a learning society with broader studying opportunities,” said Trinh.

“Higher education, therefore, is required to continuously develop in scale, improve quality, maintain strong connectivity with businesses, and meet the expectation of employers. In order to achieve these targets, we must pay proper attention to building, maintaining, and developing quality culture at institutional, regional and national levels,” added Trinh.

During the four-day event, participants will focus on exchanging and discussing various topics, such as networking and sustaining quality culture in higher education institutions; the role of QA networks in the changing ASEAN higher education landscape; and digitalisation of higher education and its consequences on QA.

Participants will also propose solutions to connect higher education institutions and stakeholders and contribute to the process of building credibility between individuals and organisations.

The forum is an opportunity for local and international participants to exchange and share your knowledge and experiences in higher education quality assurance and other issues of common interest, especially the inter-regional cooperation between ASEAN and Europe.

The event also witnessed the official establishment of the ASEAN-QA Association (ASEAN-QAA).

The event is under framework of the ASEAN-Quality Assurance project since 2011 that aims to enhance capacity for staff working in quality assurance of higher education institutions. — VNS