Consultants for Institution Performance Assessment

INTRODUCTION:

Vietnam aspires to become a middle-income country, driven by innovation, a dynamic workforce and increasing competitiveness in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The government of Vietnam and private sector have recognized that higher education (HE) reforms to date have not been sufficient to meet the country’s growing demand for a highly educated and skilled workforce. Therefore, modernization of HE remains a high priority.

Funded by USAID, the Partnership for Higher Education Reform (PHER) is a five-year initiative to modernize Vietnam's leading universities and strengthen Vietnam’s higher education system in alignment with USAID's Higher Education Program Framework. The project’s strategy centers around four key programs – Governance Excellence, Teaching and Learning Excellence, Research Excellence, and University-Industry Linkages – and targets three major Vietnamese universities: Vietnam National University-Hanoi (VNU-HN), Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City (VNU-HCM), and the University of Danang (UD), with higher-education policy advocacy and reform, technology and digitization, and gender empowerment as critical, cross-cutting tactics for success and long-term sustainability. The project is implemented by Indiana University (IU) in the course of five years, from 2021 to 2026. As part of the project’s workplan, IU seeks to conduct an Institutional Performance Assessment (IPA) with the detailed scope of work presented in the following sections. The IPA serves as input for the institutional capacity development activities.

ASSESSMENT PURPOSE:

The purpose of this assessment is to conduct a snapshot of the institutional performance of the three partner universities and their 24 member universities (hereafter called the HEIs) to provide relevant support in governance, teaching and learning, research and innovation, and industrial linkages.

This assessment is NOT an external evaluation or accreditation of the HEIs, but only for the purpose of the PHER’s design and monitoring and evaluation of its support to the HEIs and serves as input for the Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) approach for the 12 PHER activities over the 4 pillars. However, results of the assessment can also be reference to the HEIs for their internal strategy development and decision making.

SPECIFIC TASKS:

The assessment team, consisting of three Higher Education (Assessment) consultants, is expected to carry out following activities:

• Assessment design development;
• Collect and analyze existing data/information related to research questions;
• Conduct interviews with the three partner universities and their member HEIs to collect additional data on their institution performance;
• Conduct a validation workshop with the three partner universities and their member HEIs;
• Write a draft assessment report for each of the 3 Us with the overall purpose that after 5 year implementation of the PHER project, the project and the 3 Us can measure the change “before-after” PHER’s support;
• The three assessment reports, one for each of the 3 Us, contain an executive summary, background information, methodology, key findings, and recommendations for all affiliated HEIs, and a set of appendixes to present the assessment results for each of the 3 Us and their 24 member universities; and  
• Finalize the 3 reports in consultation with the three partner universities, PHER, and USAID/Vietnam.

ASSESSMENT TEAM:

The assessment will be conducted by a dedicated team of three external consultants. We are looking for a team of one Team Leader and two Higher Education Experts, details as below:

Team Leader:

Responsibilities:

• Developing the assessment workplan and design, and ensuring its validity, reliability, and quality, and incorporating relevant comments from PHER Chief of Party;
• Leading the assessment process, including but not limited to reviewing relevant documents, consultation meetings, site visits to the 3 Us and their 24 member universities including validation workshops;
• Overseeing the process including coordinating roles with other consultancy team members in communication with the PHER Chief of Party;
• Leading the quality assuring data collection, storage, analysis, and triangulation;
• Drafting the assessment reports for the 3 Us in line with USAID and PHER standards; and finalizing the three reports and presentations on the basis of comments received by the 3 Us and the PHER project;
• Providing regular updates to PHER Chief of Party; and
• Together with the Chief of Party of the PHER project serving as a focal point to communicate with USAID/Vietnam throughout of the assessment.

Qualifications:

• Experience in leading and conducting institutional performance assessments on higher education;
• Extensive experience with Vietnamese higher education system;
• A critical thinker with high analytical capacity;
• Proficient in qualitative assessments;
• Excellent oral and written skills required;
• Extensive experience in data analytic softwares, e.g. SPSS, Excel, etc.;
• Strong English and Vietnamese language oral and written skills required.

Higher Education Experts (2 x pax)

Responsibilities:

• Contributing to the development of the assessment design, reviewing relevant documents, and particularly the conceptual framework;
• Participating in subject interviews and on-site visits with Team Leader;
• Participating in the team meetings;
• Participate in final analysis, data synthesis, and report writing;
• Provide input/comments on the final assessment report.

Qualifications:

• Strong background in higher education system of Vietnam and quality assurance and accreditation area;
• Experience conducting research/assessments on HEI’s assessment;
• A critical thinker with high analytical capacity;
• Extensive experience in data analytic softwares, e.g. SPSS,  Excel, etc.;
• Strong English and Vietnamese language oral and written skills required.

Submission

Applicantsshould submit:

1. Updatedresumes in English;
2. Cover letter in English indicating why the applicant is suitable for thisposition along with current contact details of at least three referees in English;
3. Similar consultancy projects/reports completed before in English.

via email to our recruitment email atrecruitment@sangkienvietnam.org. Please quote the position title in the subject line: “Candidate’s full name _Consultant IPA”.

Deadline for application:5.00 p.m. (Hanoi time), May 5, 2022.

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