In early June, the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City fully prepared six programs’ ABET self-study reports. Completing these self-evaluations is a milestone in IUH’s ongoing multi-year multi-departmental effort to align their learning and quality outcomes with ABET’s world-class model for higher education. This is the first phase of evaluation and will be followed by ABET assessors traveling to IUH for an official site visit during 2021. In the coming year, IUH with gather evaluation data for their programs’ continuous improvement processes. This lead time further prepares them for a strong evidence-based evaluation.
Hybrid delivery face-to-face at IUH and digital in the USA
In 2016, when BUILD-IT offered to coach its university partners through comprehensive ABET preparations, IUH ambitiously rose to that challenge. Back then relatively few Vietnamese institutions had achieved ABET accreditation. The prospect of in-depth reforms and re-alignments would fundamentally change IUH’s processes for learning assessment and targeted outcomes. Supported by committed leadership, BUILD-IT’s US and Vietnam-based experts, and a motivated team of quality specialists, IUH reached their first milestone in March 2020 when they hosted three US-based external experts on their campus for a practice visit and in-depth review of their draft self-study reports.
IUH Quality Specialist joins ABET experts online
When the pandemic closed global travel in 2020, IUH and BUILD-IT adapted June’s scheduled follow-up site visit to hybrid delivery. June’s visit saw IUH’s quality specialists gathering face-to-face to review documents with US-based experts over live streaming video. To assure that their ambitious plans to accredit six programs within 2021 remain on track IUH’s quality assurance team worked long nights spanning global time zones to prepare their application.
Reflecting on his team’s dedication IUH’s Vice-Rector Le Van Tan shared, “Transitioning June’s follow-up meeting online was effective and timely. Even though these challenging times, we are proactively moving towards our goals”.
Why is ABET important?
ABET accreditation assures the confidence that a collegiate program has met standards essential to prepare graduates to enter critical STEM fields in the global workforce. Graduates from an ABET-accredited program have a solid educational foundation and are capable of leading the way in innovation, emerging technologies, and in anticipating the welfare and safety needs of the public. For more on ABET accreditation please read on at https://www.abet.org/accreditation/