Staff Perceptions Of The Impact Of Institutional Accreditation

This research is inspired by the compulsory implementation of institutional accreditation in higher education in Vietnam.The main aim of the study is to explore staff perceptions of the impact of this external quality assurance mechanism on private higher education institutions,through a case study of three private universities,each with different capacities and characteristics.The mixed method study was applied to fully explore the matter.Based on the extant literature on quality assurance in higher education,three issues were raised: the lack of studies on the impact of external quality assurance on private universities,unidentified reasons behind staff perceptions and attitudes toward external quality assurance,and the limited role of academic staff in the accreditation process.This suggests the importance of staff involvement and empowerment;the need to share the focus from entirely on the public higher education sector to an equally shared coverage of the private counterpart,as well as the need to fully understand the changes taken place as a result of the implementation of external quality assurance.Forty-three staff members in three private institutions,selected based on their tuition fees,participated in the study.A closed-ended questionnaire was administered to all participants.To obtain more in-depth responses about the impact of accreditation,individual interviews were conducted with six participants.The findings suggest that the staff members overall had a positive perception of the impact of institutional accreditation.The three main perceived benefits of accreditation included the increased awareness among staff of quality assurance,its role as a catalyst for institutions’ change and enhancement,and the improvements in managerial practices.However,the study found support for the view that accreditation seemed to have been geared toward accountability rather than improvement.Many staff members observed that accreditation did not lead to a significant increase in teaching and learning quality or facilities improvement.In conclusion,the study argues that though accreditation in private higher education institutions in Vietnam has gained some preliminary success,there is still a mismatch between policy and reality.A number of important implications at the national,institutional and individual levels for more effective accreditation are identified.