Tóm tắt luận Án tiếng anh bất cân xứng thông tin về chương trình Đào tạo Đại học giữa các bên liên quan nghiên cứu trường hợp các trường Đại học công lập tự chủ Ở việt nam

Therefore, the study "Information asymmetry of undergraduate training programs within stakeholders: Case study of autonomous public universities in Vietnam" is very necessary for the fo

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

Supervisor: Pro Dr TRẦN THỊ VÂN HOA

Reviewer 1:

Reviewer 2:

Reviewer 3:

The thesis was defended in front of thesis evaluation committee

at institutional level of National Economics University

INTRODUCTION

1 Necessity of the thesis

Education plays an important role in economic development, especially in developing countries Human capital theory since the 1960s has shown that human capital is a key factor affecting economic growth through improving the quality and productivity of labor Specifically: (i) Education is a prerequisite for economic growth and total factor productivity, thanks to the implementation and innovation of technology (Benhabib and Spiegel, 1994) (ii) Education is necessary for investment in physical capital Lack of human capital can hinder technical development and the ability to use

or create new technology, explaining why investment in physical capital does not move from rich to poor countries (Lucas, 1990)

Because of the awareness of the role of education in general and higher education

in particular, the Comunist Party and the State have identified education and training

as the top national policy, considering investment in education and training as investment in development to improve people's knowledge, train human resources and foster talents to develop intellectual potential, providing the country with a high-quality labor force The policy of developing higher education is expressed through: Vietnam's Education Development Strategy 2009-2020; Resolution No 29-NQ/TW dated November 4, 2013 of the 8th Central Conference, Session XI on fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education and training to meet the requirements of industrialization and modernization in the context of a socialist-oriented market economy and international integration; Revised Law on Higher Education 2018; Education Development Strategy for the period 2011-2020; Draft Strategy for Vietnam's Education Development for the period 2021-2030, vision to 2045 Therefore, in recent times, Vietnam's higher education has achieved many achievements: (i) The scale of training has continuously increased with 242 universities and 1.73 million full-time university students, 61,413 master's students and 6,434 doctoral students in the 2022-2023 academic year (ii) The teaching staff has increased

in quantity and quality with 82,474 lecturers, of which 31.94% have a doctorate degree

or higher, 0.93% and 6.41% have the title of professor and associate professor; The ratio of university students/lecturers reached 27.4 people (iii) The quality of higher education is increasing By the end of 2023, Vietnam had 261 training institutions that had completed external assessments and 194 institutions that had been accredited according to domestic standards, along with 9 institutions that had been accredited according to international standards Vietnamese higher education institutions continued to improve their positions in international rankings, with 6 institutions in THE WUR 2023, 3 institutions in QS Sustainability Rankings 2023, and 11 institutions

in QS Asia University Rankings 2023 In addition, 9 institutions were ranked in the Times Higher Education Influence Ranking, an increase of 2 institutions compared to

2022 (Ministry of Education and Training, 2023) (iv) Autonomy in higher education has had many positive changes in recent times Higher education institutions in Vietnam are granted autonomy and must be accountable for training quality and output standards to meet the needs of learners and society This responsibility is carried out publicly and transparently according to the provisions of the Law on Higher Education

2012 (amended and supplemented in 2018), Decree No 99/2019/ND-CP dated December 30, 2019 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Higher Education, the Regulations on organization and operation of higher education institutions issued by the School Council and other relevant legal provisions, specifically: Autonomy in determining enrollment targets, publicly announcing these targets, training quality, conditions for ensuring quality, employment rate of graduates, and financial information of the school

However, Vietnam's higher education still has many shortcomings such as: (i) The graduation rate is decreasing while the gap between new students and graduates is increasing, especially in the period 2017-2022, this trend is most evident (ii) The training structure is unreasonable and not linked to the labor market Vietnam ranked 137/140 countries assessed in the 2018 Competitiveness Index Report on the level of skill suitability of university graduates based on a survey with employers in each country (World Economic Forum, 2018) (iii) Training quality is still limited, many universities have not yet developed quality training programs (iv) Low coverage and inequality in access to higher education (WB, 2020) (v) The process of autonomy in public higher education is still slow and ineffective The reasons for the above situation are: First, the lack of investment capital for higher education development In

2016, the proportion of public spending on higher education accounted for 0.33% of GDP, lower than some countries in the region and the world (China: 0.87%; Thailand: 0.64%; Singapore: 1%, Finland: 1.89%; UK: 1.29%) (WB, 2020) By 2020, the proportion of public spending on higher education will be 0.23% of GDP (Ministry

of Finance, 2023) Second, the effectiveness of management and governance of higher education is still weak Third, information asymmetry in higher education is still large…

To achieve the goal of the higher education development strategy to 2030, vision

towards 2045 "Developing a high-quality, effective, fair, transparent and modern

higher education system, meeting the requirements and leading the country's economic development, meeting the learning needs of the people By 2030, Vietnam

socio-would be ranked among the 4 countries with the best higher education system in Southeast Asia", it is required that Vietnamese higher education system should have solutions to overcome the causes of limitations in the development of higher education

in the past Therefore, the study "Information asymmetry of undergraduate training

programs within stakeholders: Case study of autonomous public universities in Vietnam" is very necessary for the following reasons:

Firstly, information asymmetry in higher education training programs causes different losses to society Information asymmetry in undergraduate training programs will lead to two consequences: (i) Adverse selection and (ii) Moral hazard In which, adverse selection will lead to many losses to society, specifically: (i) Low labor quality, not meeting the needs of employers due to training not suitable for the labor market (ii) High dropout rate (iii) High unemployment rate and low labor productivity (iv) Cost of training human resources when training is ineffective due to lack of information

Second, there are not many studies on the asymmetry of information about higher education training programs within stakeholders in Vietnam

For autonomous public universities in Vietnam today, studies often focus on: Autonomy model, financial autonomy, the status of autonomy, and autonomy policy

In particular, there is no research on the asymmetry of information about training programs at autonomous public universities to confirm the role of accountability of universities to stakeholders since the implementation of the university autonomy mechanism

Third, it is inevitable that universities implement information transparency

In the period 2012-2023, Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) issued Circular No 36/2017/TT-BGDDT promulgating the Regulation on implementing transparency for educational and training institutions in the national education system The Circular is the basis for universities to strengthen their accountability and information transparency so that learners and the whole society can monitor their activities

In addition, in the Law on Higher Education 2018, Article 32 (Autonomy and accountability of higher education institutions) was amended and supplemented, emphasizing the contents of information disclosure

Fourthly, in the Draft on Building up the Framework for Higher Education Development Strategy for the period 2021-2030, with a vision towards 2045, 4 development strategies have been identified: (i) Quality culture strategy (ii) System optimization strategy (iii) Leveraged finance strategy and (iv) Digital university education strategy In which, the digital university strategy emphasizes the following contents: Completing the national database on higher education; Developing a sector-wide management information system that is interconnected with school management

software at higher education institutions; Developing and integrating data assessment and analysis tools; Feedback system, collecting opinions from stakeholders; Higher education quality assessment system

Thus, completing the information system on training programs and the feedback system from stakeholders is necessary to implement the digital university strategy in the new context

For the above reasons, as a member working in universities, the researcher chose

the thesis topic Information asymmetry of undergraduate training programs

within stakeholders: Case study of autonomous public universities in Vietnam to

contribute to reducing information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs among stakeholders, saving costs for society The thesis will approach the issue of information asymmetry on training programs from the perspective of management science

2 Research objectives and questions

2.1 General objectives

The thesis aims to contribute to further improving the theoretical and practical basis of information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs within stakeholders in autonomous public universities in Vietnam, and propose solutions to reduce information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs among stakeholders in the coming time

2.2 Specific objectives

the content and manifestations of information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs between stakeholders

- Analyze clearly the current situation and causes of information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs between stakeholders in autonomous public universities in Vietnam

- Propose viewpoints, orientations and solutions to reduce information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs between stakeholders of universities

in the coming time

3 Research subject and scope

b Space and time scope

of 2015, the training scale of the III major (Business, Management and Law) had the largest training scale, accounting for 25% - 31.5% of the total number of full-time students trained In addition, in 23 fully autonomous public universities, over 70% of the schools train students of the III major Second, these 3 large cities concentrate the largest number of autonomous public universities, and at the same time, research is conducted in 3 regions to see the differences in culture in the need for information on training programs between regions

- Time scope

The thesis studies the current situation of information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs within stakeholders based on secondary data collected in the period 2013-2022 At the same time, the thesis proposes orientations and solutions until 2030 Regarding primary data, the thesis collects through a questionnaire survey conducted from February 2022 to June 2023

4 Research methodology

4.1 Approaching methods

To fulfill the requirements, the thesis used the following approaches: Approach from the perspective of management science and approach combining theory with practice; Qualitative approach; Quantitative approach

4.2 Research procedure

To achieve the research objectives, the thesis has carried out the following research process: (i) Reviewing documents to find research gaps; (ii) Completing the research framework on information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs among stakeholders (iii) Collecting information to assess information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs among stakeholders at autonomous public universities The thesis information is collected from primary and secondary data sources (iv) Analyzing the current situation of information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs among stakeholders at autonomous public universities (v) Proposing viewpoints, orientations and solutions to reduce information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs among stakeholders

4.3 Data collection method

The thesis uses both secondary and primary data sources The collection of these data is carried out as follows: (i) Secondary data: The thesis uses the desk research method, collecting secondary data through the method of inheritance and synthesis of previous research documents (ii) Primary data: The thesis uses primary data from a questionnaire survey to obtain additional information to analyze the current situation

of information asymmetry on undergraduate training programs among stakeholders

5 Thesis’s new contributions

Academic and theoretical contributions

Firstly, the thesis is based on two theories to build up the content of the information exchange within stakeholders in the undergraduate training program, specifically: (i) The theory of the parties involved in the undergraduate training program by Freeman (1984) and the studies of Amaral and Magalhães (2002), Marić (2013), Nguyen Van Duong (2014), Slaba (2015), and the Ministry of Education and Training (2021) on stakeholders in the undergraduate training program On that basis, the thesis discussed the role of stakeholders in building the undergraduate training program (ii) The theory of information exchange by Akerlof (1970) and the studies of Joseph Stiglitz (2001) and Joseph et al (2010) on the characteristics of information exchange Therefore, the content of information exchange in the undergraduate training program between stakeholders is approached by the thesis according to two contents:

First, information exchange in the content of information, including the completeness

and timeliness of information Second, the BCX in the form of information provision

Second, the thesis is based on the 5-gap model of Parasuraman et al (1985) and Philip Kotler's (2021) study on customer satisfaction to propose two groups of criteria

to evaluate the BCX in undergraduate training programs between stakeholders: (i) BCX between the needs and accessibility of information of stakeholders (ii) Stakeholders' satisfaction with the level of updating and completeness of information

Practical contributions and recommendations

Third, the research results of the thesis points out 5 characteristics of information dissemination in the process of providing information of autonomous public universities in Vietnam to stakeholders in the past time, specifically: (i) The level of access to information about undergraduate training programs of stakeholders is lower than the information needs, in which the group of managers and lecturers has the lowest information dissemination (ii) There are differences in information dissemination according to the research area, in which Da Nang city is assessed to have a lower level

of information dissemination than Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (iii) The level of updating, completeness and satisfaction with information from undergraduate training programs are assessed differently among stakeholders, in which, the group of managers and lecturers has the highest average score and parents of students are the subjects with the lowest scores on all 3 aspects of information in undergraduate training programs (iv) The factors assessing Importance and Accessibility have a positive impact on Satisfaction with information provided about undergraduate training programs In which, the group of subjects reflecting the most changes in Satisfaction with undergraduate training programs is Employers (v) There is a difference between stakeholders in the impact of factors on Satisfaction with information about

undergraduate training programs provided

Fourth, based on the research results, the thesis proposes 5 solutions to reduce the situation of false information in undergraduate training programs in the coming time with the implementing subjects being autonomous public universities in Vietnam These solutions are: (i) Innovating the leadership thinking of universities on providing information about undergraduate training programs to stakeholders; (ii) Effectively exploiting the information management system of undergraduate training programs; (iii) Improving communication capacity in providing information about undergraduate training programs to stakeholders; (iv) Increasing investment in resources for information management of undergraduate training programs; and (v) Standardizing and diversifying the content and form of information provision to suit each stakeholder

6 Thesis organization

In addition to introduction, list of figures and references, followings are other chapters:

Chapter 1: Literature review

Chapter 2: Theoretical and practical bases for information asymmetry of undergraduate training programs within stakeholders

Chapter 3: Research methodology

Chapter 4: Reality of information asymmetry of undergraduate training programs within stakeholders in autonomous public universities in Vietnam

Chapter 5: Directions and solutions to mitigate information asymmetry of undergraduate training programs within stakeholders in autonomous public universities

in Vietnam

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Previous studies on higher education and training programs

To clarify the research direction, the thesis reviewed typical foreign materials based

on each of the following issues: First: Higher education: Content and role of higher ducation Second, undergraduate training programs: Content and content of undergraduate training program

1.2 Previous studies on stakeholders and training programs

The thesis summarized studies on stakeholders and undergraduate training programs based on different approaches namely internal and external; active and passive;

as well as direct or indirect stakeholders

1.3 Previous studies on information asymmetry of training programs

The thesis summarized information asymmetry in undergraduate training programs in the following aspects: (i) Content; (ii) Impact of information asymmetry

in undergraduate training programs (iii) Solutions to reduce information asymmetry in undergraduate training programs

1.4 Research gap

Through the overview of the research, the thesis drawed some of the following observations: (1) The studies all confirmed the existence of information asymmetry with different levels in each specific commodity market (2) Information asymmetry would lead to two consequences: (i) Adverse selection and (ii) Moral hazard (iii) Studies on the education market in general and higher education in particular often would focus on the following areas: (i) Training program development, (ii) Training quality, (iii) Financial autonomy, (iv) Information management system in training However, the studies still have some of the following problems:

Firstly, the information asymmetry of the training program has not been considered comprehensively based on the interests and needs of each market participant

Secondly, for autonomous public universities in Vietnam today, studies often focus on: Autonomy model, financial autonomy, the status of autonomy, and autonomy policy There has been no in-depth study on information asymmetry in undergraduate training programs at autonomous public universities in Vietnam

Thirdly, the study by Phan Hong Mai (2020) pointed out the causes of information asymmetry and the probability of loyalty of the research subjects each time the information group is improved to show the importance of information improvement The study has not calculated the Importance and Accessibility of factors to the Satisfaction

of information provided about the training program among stakeholders to thereby show which information group has the greatest impact on the satisfaction of stakeholders

The literature review reveals that:

- There are few research projects on the specific information on undergraduate training programs that universities provide to relevant parties, thus creating many shortcomings in choosing majors, choosing schools and undergraduate training programs for students and parents, as well as differences in admissions counseling between schools and the reality of students when studying at schools, leading to many losses for society In addition, there are currently no research projects that exploit the content and form of information on undergraduate training programs according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training under the 3-public regulation and the accreditation standards for training programs

- Currently, there are still large gaps in research on the information on undergraduate training programs in autonomous public universities to affirm the role of accountability of universities to relevant parties since the implementation of the university autonomy mechanism In particular, the content of the assessment of the relationship between the Importance and Level of Information Access to the satisfaction of stakeholders as a basis for proposing solutions to reduce the situation

of information asymmetry in undergraduate training programs at autonomous public universities in Vietnam has not been studied yet

Based on these gaps, the researcher decided to carry out a research to clarify the theoretical and practical issues related to information asymmetry in undergraduate training programs within stakeholders at autonomous public universities in Vietnam

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BASES ON INFORMATION

ASYMMETRY IN UNDERGRADUATE TRAINING PROGRAMS WITHIN

2.1.2 Rules and content of training programs

Educational programs must be designed and implemented in accordance with the following principles: (i) Results-based management (ii) Harmonization of interests

of all parties (iii) Guarantee for improvement of training quality

The content of higher education training programs includes main parts such as: objectives, learning outcomes; content, methods and training activities; organizational structure, functions, tasks; and academic activities The training program would determine the system of knowledge, skills, abilities and personalities that need to be equipped for students upon graduation The suitability or unsuitability, modernity, updating or obsolescence of the training program will affect the output results of students

2.1.3 Stakeholders related to training programs

Stakeholders related to undergraduate training program can be individuals or groups of individuals who influence or are influenced by the process of achieving the goals of an educational institution In particular, the roles of stakeholders will vary based on their influence on the higher education institution

There are different approaches to stakeholders in the undergraduate training program Within the scope of the thesis, the researcher only identified stakeholders

in the undergraduate training program at some autonomous public universities in Vietnam, including students, employers (enterprises), managers and lecturers, parents and high school students

2.2 Overview of undergraduate training program

2.2.1 Content of training program

Based on the viewpoint: First, the training program would determine the system

of knowledge, skills, abilities and personalities that need to be equipped for students upon graduation Second, the structure of a training program must have sufficient contents: Objectives, learning outcomes; content, methods and training activities; organizational structure, functions, tasks; and academic activities, the thesis determines the information needs about undergraduate training programs as follows: (i) First, general information (ii) Second, information to help learners make decisions on

choosing a training program

2.2.2 Modes and tools to provide information about training programs

Channels for providing/receiving information about undergraduate training programs can be classified in different ways: (i) Based on form of provision: Direct and indirect channels (ii) Based on the source of information, channels for providing information about undergraduate training programs can be divided into: Official sources and unofficial sources

2.3 Information asymmetry of undergraduate training program within stakeholders

2.3.1 Content

From the approach of undergraduate training programs and information asymmetry, the thesis's viewpoint on information asymmetry in undergraduate training programs within stakeholders is understood as follows:

Information asymmetry in undergraduate training programs between stakeholders in autonomous public universities is a situation where information about training programs is not fully provided and not updated by universities to stakeholders

At the same time, the inappropriate form of provision leads to adverse selection and ethical risks in the higher education market

As the viewpoint above shows, the manifestation of information asymmetry in undergraduate training programs of autonomous public universities is shown as follows: First, not fully provided and not updated Second, the inappropriate form of provision

2.3.2 Features and effects of information asymmetry of undergraduate training program

2.3.2.1 Features of information asymmetry

In the higher education market, there is an information asymmetry between the parties involved This asymmetry creates a gap between the parties and creates limitations in the training process, specifically: (i) Employers do not provide information about their labor needs (ii) Employers do not indicate where the opportunities lie in the labor market for workers, or the characteristics of the labor market that is lacking labor (iii) Universities also do not have a clear understanding of information about the labor market, leading to learners making wrong career choices and not understanding whether their current career choice is suitable for the market (iv) Information asymmetry occurs when students and parents are not provided with complete and accurate information about the training program, leading to decisions about choosing a school that is not suitable for the needs of the students

2.3.2.2 Effects of information asymmetry

The phenomenon of asymmetry in undergraduate training programs leads to two consequences: Adverse selection and moral hazard This thesis only consider the first consequence of information asymmetry, namely adverse selection, which means: Students choose undergraduate training programs that do not match their learning needs, leading to the decision to re-choose a major (drop out, transfer to another school) Employers recruit workers that are not suitable for the job position