Beckers and Kogan (1980, cited by Paewai, 2011) described different level within the higher education system, in which groups tend to share value and functions: individual academics, academic units, the university and the central authority. It is believed that these levels have different influence on the changes of the University. For that reason, this study tried to involve the participant from different levels in a University in order to see different perspectives toward the issue of quality assurance as well as the process of its implementation. Accordingly, the participants of this study were: Rector (Vice rector) of the University, Dean (Vice Dean) or the Faculty and Director (Vice Director) of the QACs. These groups of people were considered as respondents because of their key roles in the process of approving, managing and supervising the development of quality assurance structures and the implementation of quality assurance process in their Universities. It was believed that these people with their great responsibilities for educational process in their Universities can provide rich information about the topic, thus increased the possibilities to collect reliable and relevant data for the study.
Beneficia
ry
Non- Beneficia
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Regarding the role of Rectors toward the issue of internal quality assurance, due to their responsibilities for activities in the strategic apex, for strategic plan, missions and goals of the Universities, the Rectors are believed to have good insight about organizational structures and capacity in their Universities. Moreover, they are the persons who directly perform the decisions and policies imposed from MoET. Therefore, they can have better understanding about the internal as well as external factors that may support or hamper the implementation of IQA in their Universities. Accordingly, this study tried to involve 10 Rectors/Vice Rectors, one of each University. However, only 4 Rectors/Vice-Rectors from 4 Universities took response to researcher’s request. An overview of the characteristics of the Rectors/Vice- Rectors or President of the Universities was summarized as Table 3 below:
Table 3 Summary of the characteristics of University Rectors/ Vice Rector/President
University Rector/Vice Rector/
President
Gender Experience as a Rector/Vice Rector/President
Qualification
Vinh University Male 2 years Associate Professor
Can Tho University Male 5 years Associate Professor
Da Nang University Male 2 years Associate Professor
Hoa Sen University Female 16 years Doctor
Further to the Deans of the Faculty, as working in the middle line according to organizational structure in Universities, Deans of Faculty are likely to address some critical successful factors in relation to quality management. Additionally, having responsibilities as regards local coordination and management of teaching and learning, the Deans seem to be the key persons in communicating and tracking different kinds of goals and in making information flow up and down. Therefore, interviewing the Deans can provide valuable information of how the responsibilities in relation to quality assurance are devolved through the University, or how decision-making on quality assurance is structured in the University. More importantly, Deans are expected to have good insight of the teaching-learning activities taking place in the primary process; therefore, it would be informative to interview Deans about the quality assurance process that covers teaching-learning activities in their faculties in order to investigate the actual QA activities in the Universities.
With regards to the Directors of QACs, due to their main responsibilities for QA activities in the Universities, their role towards this study is quite important. They are expected to provide detailed information about Universities’ approach for their quality-oriented activities. Additionally, the interviews with the Directors of QACs can also help investigate whether the University has the processes in place to ensure the quality. Furthermore, as far as the influence of international projects on IQA implementation in the Universities is concerned, it is believed that the Director of QACs, particularly the QACs in beneficiary Universities, would provide information on how the trainings by these international projects can benefit the Universities in terms of quality assurance structure and processes. For their important role, this study tried to involve 10 Directors/Vice Directors of QACs, one from each University. Only one person declined an interview, so the final sample of Directors of QACs comprised 9 persons. Table 4 below summarized the background of QACs’ Directors/Vice Directors.
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Universities Gender Years of experience in QA work
Qualifications
Vinh Uni Male 5 years Master’s degree
Can Tho Uni Male 6 years Bachelor
Thai Nguyen Uni Male 6 years Master’s degree
Hue University’s College of Education Male 2 years Doctor
Humanity and Social Science Uni Female 5 years Doctor
Uni of Economics Ho Chi Minh City Male 6 years Master’s degree
Duy Tan Uni Male 5 years Master’s degree
Hoa Sen Uni Female 5 years Master’s degree
Binh Duong Economics and Technology Uni Male 2 years Master’s degree
In general, the total number of the interviews held 10 Universities was 19 interviews as shown in Table 5: Table 5 Number of person interviewed per Universities
University QAC’s
Director/Manager/Assistant Manager
Dean Rector/Vice Rector/ University President
Total
Vinh Uni 1 1 1 3
Can Tho Uni 1 1 1 3
Da Nang Uni 1 1
Thai Nguyen Uni 1 1
Hue University’s College of Education 1 1
Humanity and Social Science Uni 1 1 2
Uni of Economics Ho Chi Minh City 1 1 2
Duy Tan Uni 1 1 2
Hoa Sen Uni 1 1 1 2
Binh Duong Economics and Technology Uni 1 1 2
Total 19 Beneficia ry Non- Beneficia ry Ben eficia ry Non- Beneficia ry
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