Strengthening the partnership of university and enterprises in Ha Noi, Viet Nam The case of university of labor and social affairs

Gascon Year Written : 2013 – 2014 ______________________________________________________________ Creating and strengthening the university - enterprise partnership is a very important s

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UNIVERSITY OF LABOR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

_

A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School Southern Luzon State University, Lucban, Quezon, Philippines

in Collaboration with Thai Nguyen University, Socialist Republic of Vietnam

UNIVERSITY OF LABOR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

A program offered by Southern Luzon State University,

Republic of the Philippines in collaboration with

Thai Nguyen University, Socialist Republic of Vietnam

has been approved by Oral Examination Committee

JOANNA PAULA A ELLAGA, DBA NELLY I MENDOZA, DBA

MELCHOR MELO O PLACINO, PhD

Chairman Endorsed by: Recommended by:

CECILIA N GASCON, PhD APOLONIA A ESPINOSA, PhD

Accepted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Business Administration

_ WALBERTO A MACARAAN, EdD

Date Vice President for Academic Affairs

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I also want to thank all my professors and the staff of the SOUTHERN LUZON STATE UNIVERSITY and THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY for their interesting lectures, which provided me the necessary knowledge to write this dissertation, as well as to work for my future

In order to have a good dissertation with scientific quality and practical significance, I needed to collect some information from employers and graduates Without their very useful ideas and information, my dissertation cannot be completed I want to give my sincere thanks to them for their valuable cooperation and kind help

I would like to thank all commentators who provided valuable comments to improve my dissertation

I wish to express my special thanks from bottom of my heart to honor

my dear departed parents who brought me into this world and raised me Also, I am indebted to all the members of my family, who kept encouraging and providing me favorable conditions when I was taking this course

I am grateful to all my classmates and my friends who helped me collect materials in the preparation of the dissertation Their assistance helped

me to save my limited time to focus on writing

v useful materials in books, internet, and newspapers

NGUYEN XUAN HUONG - RICARDO

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In order to complete this dissertation, I needed help and supports from many people Their supports provided great contribution to my work I am deeply indebted to all of them

I wish to express my special thanks from bottom of my heart to honor

my dear departed parents who brought me into this world and raised me Also, I am indebted to all the members of my family, who kept encouraging and providing me favorable conditions when I was taking this course

I am grateful to all my classmates and my friends who helped me collect materials in the preparation of the dissertation They also encourage

me when I faced difficulties Their assistance helped me to save my limited time to focus on writing

NGUYEN XUAN HUONG - RICARDO

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CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ……… iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ……… iv

DEDICATION ……… vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……… vii

LIST OF TABLES ……… ix

LIST OF FIGURES ……… x

LIST OF APPENDICES ……… xi

ABBREVIATIONS ……… xii

ABSTRACT ……… xiii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Introduction ……… 1

Background of the Study ……… 4

Statement of the Problem ……… 8

Research Questions ….……… 9

Research Objectives ……… 10

Hypothesis of the Study ……… 11

Significance of the Study ……… 11

Scope and Limitations of the Study ……… 12

Definition of Terms ……… 13

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND STUDIES Related Literature and Studies ………….…… ………… 18

Theoretical Framework ……… ……… 20

Conceptual Framework ……… 36

III METHODOLOGY Research Design ……… 42

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Research Instrument ……… ….… 44

Data Gathering Procedure ……… …….…… 32

IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ……… 35

Profile of ULSA ……… 48

Policy Relating to University - Enterprise Partnership … 50 ` Data Analysis and Interpretation ……… 51

V SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION Summary of Findings ……… 77

Conclusions ……… 80

Recommendations ……… 82

BIBLIOGRAPHY ……… 91

APPENDICES ……… 96

CURRICULUM VITAE ……… 124

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4 General Information of Surveyed Leaders and Enterprises 52

6 Reasons for Not-Employing Bachelor’s Degree Graduate

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10 Working Weaknesses of Bachelor’s Graduates from ULSA 59

11 Solutions to Acknowledge the Contribution of Enterprises 74

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1 Letter of Invitation to Participate in the Survey 97

4 Surveyed Results of Leaders of Enterprises 108

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ULSA : University of Labour and Social Affairs

CEO : Chief Executive Officer

CRM : Customer relationship management

EUE-Net: European Programme of Entrepreneur’s mobility within

Universities MOET : Ministry of Education and Training

MOLISA: Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs

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Title of Research : STRENGTHENING THE PARTNERSHIP OF

UNIVERSITY AND ENTERPRISES IN HANOI, VIETNAM: THE CASE OF UNIVERSITY OF LABOR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Researcher : NGUYEN XUAN HUONG (RICARDO)

Degree Conferred : DOCTOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Name and Address

of Institution

: Southern Luzon State University Lucban, Quezon, Philippines and Thai Nguyen University, Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Adviser : Dr Cecilia N Gascon

Year Written : 2013 – 2014

Creating and strengthening the university - enterprise partnership is a very important strategy for universities to achieve the goal of “improving the training quality to meet labor demands for the socio-economic development…” Like other universities, strengthening the university - enterprise partnership plays a very important role for the future development

of the University of Labors and Social Affairs (ULSA) This study is expected

to make some small contributions for the future development of the university

The main objective of this study is to develop strategies that will strengthen the partnership of ULSA and enterprises in Hanoi that will improve the training quality provided by the university

In this study, 117 leaders or chief executive officers (CEOs) of enterprises and 147 graduates were surveyed using two types of questionnaires for each group of respondents These two questionnaires were semi-structured and used both open and close questions CEOs were surveyed to find out among other things whether they are willing to participate

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they want to receive in return Graduates were surveyed to collect information about their jobs, their needed skills and the acquired knowledge after graduation, their recommendations for improving the training quality of ULSA, among others

There were five major findings in this dissertation First, current training

programs of ULSA have low quality This due to the mismatch between the formal training acquired from schooling versus the actual skills required in

their jobs Second, ULSA has little experience in cooperation with

enterprises Third, there are many potential opportunities for ULSA to strengthen its partnership with enterprises that have not been tapped It was found that enterprises are able and willing to cooperate with ULSA in many

activities Fourth, enterprises will be willing to create and maintain their

partnership with ULSA if the university offers appropriate policies These policies include those for ensuring harmonious benefits for enterprises in such

a way that can create an “equal and mutually beneficial” cooperation, those acknowledging the cooperation/ distribution from enterprises, and some

supplementary activities Fifth, although the central Government of Vietnam

realized the significance of university-enterprise relationship on the training quality, there are not enough policies to create favorable conditions to promote university-enterprise partnership in Vietnam

After all, some important recommendations can drawn for ULSA for strengthening its partnership with enterprises ULSA should design and implement activities to improve its training quality These activities need to focus on improving and upgrading the training curricula as well as changing

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create and strengthen the partnership with enterprises There are many potential opportunities for ULSA to create and strengthen its partnership with enterprises in the areas of in training, services and research In order to realize these potential opportunities, the university should implement a set of suitable policies/ solutions These policies need to ensure harmonious benefits for enterprises in such a way that can create an “equal and mutually beneficial” cooperation, acknowledge the cooperation and distribution from enterprises ULSA should cooperate with the Vietnam Network of Economic Universities to design policies for promoting university-enterprise cooperation

in Vietnam which may then be submitted to MOET and other relevant authorities

Chapter I INTRODUCTION

In the Strategy for Education development of Vietnam in 2011-2020, the Government exposed seven limitations in the current educational system

of Vietnam This showed that Vietnamese educational quality is low, the training curriculum contents are heavily theoretical, and universities have not adjusted their training programs based on demands of the society (Vietnamese Government, 2012, pp 4-5) In this Strategy, the developmental goal for vocational and university training is “improving the training quality to meet labor demands for the socio-economic development…” (Vietnamese Government, 2012, p 9) To achieve this goal, the Vietnamese universities need to fulfill many activities to improving their training programs, of which, creating and maintaining a close partnership with employers is an important one

Employers are regarded as “indirect” customers of universities because they do not “buy” training services (main products of universities) provided by universities but they “buy” working ability or skills of graduates This means they will buy the “outcomes” of training services Thus, if employers do not hire graduates because they have inappropriate working abilities, it may be worthless for students to attend training courses provided by universities For this reason, universities should create and maintain relationship with employers to collect information about labor markets, such as which skills and knowledge do employers want their employees to be trained, future Based on the collected information, universities can change the contents of their training

programs, teaching methods, and other aspects, in such a way that these programs provide knowledge and skills that are most-needed by the students

By doing so, it will be easy for their graduates to find jobs in which they can apply what they have been trained on

Thus, we can say that it is very important for universities to manage a good partnership with employers, of which most are enterprises However, very few Vietnamese universities have regular relationships with enterprises (Vietnamese Government, 2012, p 7) It is a fact that Vietnamese education

in general and at university level in particular has many weaknesses One of these weaknesses is that graduates lack the skills and knowledge required in the labor markets There are many reasons for this weakness One is the old way of thinking Many universities think that they can teach what they want and students must study what the universities provide Moreover, most Vietnamese universities focus too much on the short-term goal that is to attract students taking their current training programs, but too little on whether students can find jobs after graduation As a result, universities do not often pay much attention on the relationship with employers because this needs time and money With regard to Vietnamese enterprises, most of them are not interested in establishing relationship with the university because they gain very few benefits from this relationship

The University of Labor and Social Affairs (ULSA) is a state university under the control of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs of Vietnam It has four training programs at the bachelor level1 They are Human Resource Management, Accounting, Insurance, and Social Work Annually,

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The university will start the fifth program (business administration) in October, 2013

about two thousand students graduate from the university The statistical data

of the university shows that only about 70% of the graduates can find jobs within a year from the time they receive the bachelor degree, and of which, less than 50% can find jobs in their chosen fields of study Most graduates, including those having jobs in their selected fields, gave the feedback that many topics they had studied at the university were not useful in their work and they needed to be retrained when starting their jobs This shows that a current training program of the university does not match the demands of labor markets There are some reasons for this problem but the main one is that there is almost no participation of employers in designing training programs of ULSA The university does not have any network of cooperating employers When the university designs or adjusts training programs, normally, there are only one or two representatives of employers Moreover, drafts of training programs were given to them just at the beginnings of meetings In addition, these drafts consisted of only names of subjects in training programs without detailed description of contents in each subject Hence, their ideas about training programs did not contain much value

The last survey undertaken by ULSA to collect information about labor demands and comments on its training programs was in 2005 with the participation of about three hundred employers Since then, the university has adjusted its training programs several times without the involvement of employers As mentioned earlier, this is one (main) reason why ULSA’s training programs are somewhat inappropriate, and, as a result, graduates face difficulties in finding jobs

Realizing the importance of ULSA’s partnership with employers, the

researcher chose the topic “Strengthening the Partnership of University and Enterprises in Ha Noi, Viet Nam: The Case of ULSA” The researcher hopes

that the results of this study can contribute to the future development of the university

Background of the Study

In modern business philosophy, the customer is regarded as the only boss of any organization Producers should produce and sell products or services that are most appropriate to customers’ demands All decisions of firms should be made in order to attain the ultimate goal, that is, to meet customers’ needs In other words, we can say that firms should try their best

to satisfy their customers’ desires In order to achieve this goal, organizations should create and manage a good relationship with their customers

Although the term “customer relationship management” (CRM) has been used since the early 1990s, recently, it received more and more attention by not only firms but also many other kinds of organizations CRM is

an integrated approach to identifying, acquiring, and retaining customers By enabling organizations to manage and coordinate customer interactions across multiple channels, departments, lines of business, and geographies, CRM helps organizations maximize the value of every customer interaction and drive superior corporate performance (Buttle, 2009, p 4)

A university can be thought as a “special” kind of business For universities, there are two groups of customers The first group consists of students who are immediate customers who directly contact and buy training services provided by universities As mentioned earlier, universities should

provide those training services, namely knowledge and skills, that students want to receive However, students do not “consume” training services as

“final goods” but as “intermediate goods” This means that they absorb training services provided by universities for creating their “working ability”, and then they will sell it to employers Thus, universities can be regarded as intermediaries between students and employers In reality, students are young and have very little information about labor markets Very often, students do not know what employers want them to do, or, in other words, which skills and knowledge they should receive when studying in universities Thus, what students want to study may probably not coincide with what they should study If universities provide only knowledge and skills that students want, in the short-run, they will attract many students to participate in their training courses However, in the long-run, fewer and fewer students will enter these universities if what they provide to students (also what student want to study) are not fit for what employers want them to study Or we can say that students will not want to take training courses provided by those universities if they can not find jobs in the future

The second group of university customers consists of all kinds of employers, including firms, government agencies or any organizations Sometimes, employers can be directly buy services provided by universities, such as technical advice However, this group is normally considered as

“indirect” or “ultimate” university customers

Universities should create and maintain relationship with employers to collect information about labor markets, such as which skills and knowledge the employers want their employees to be trained on in the future Based on

the collected information, universities can change the contents of their training programs and modify their teaching methods in such a way that the programs provide knowledge and skills that are most-needed by the students By doing

so, it will be easy for their graduates to find jobs where they can apply what they have been trained on

Relationship or linkage between universities and enterprises is a topic which has been studied by foreign as well as Vietnamese researchers This topic has often been examined in one of three approaches In the first approach, universities were regarded as the main beneficiary from the relationship, in which they received information from enterprises on how to improve their training services Conversely, in the second approach, enterprises were regarded as the main beneficiary of the relationship, in which they received advice and advanced technologies from universities for improving their businesses In the third approach, enterprises and universities are supposed to be mutually equal beneficiaries from the relationship This relationship then becomes a partnership In addition, the topic can be

examined at international, national or provincial levels In the article, “Training association between universities and enterprises in Vietnam,” presented in

Volume 4 of the scientific journal of Ha Noi National University, Trinh Thi Hoa Mai discussed the objective demands to associate both universities and enterprises In this paper, Mai proposed eight recommendations for universities and enterprises to promote their association, such as designing curricula, creating a network of former students, and enterprises involved in deciding marks to students However, Mai’s study lacked evidence to support some arguments

The final report (2010) of the EUE-Net (European University Enterprise Network) which is a project funded by the European Commission, presented four main objectives, of which the first one was “Increasing the presence of the entrepreneurs within the University by design, experiment and promotion

of innovative mobility schemes involving entrepreneurs” (EUE-Net, 2008, p.5) This project produced eleven formal outcomes, including those related to the development of framework documents at European level such as Quality of Practical Placements in Enterprises (WP1), EUE-Net CDO Sub-Network and European unified employment database (WP2), Teaching and Learning Entrepreneurship in Europe as a general competence (WP3) and the organization of a Workshop on “Entrepreneurship mobility” that resulted in a set of Guidelines for a European Programme of Entrepreneur’s mobility within Universities (EUE-Net, 2008, p.11)

In the dissertation titled “The relationship between enterprises and universities/ research institutes: A study in Vietnam” in 2010 by Nguyen Thi Thu Hang at the University of Technology, National University of Ho Chi Minh City, Hang surveyed 269 managers of enterprises, 32 university leaders, and

40 leaders of research institutes in Ho Chi Minh City The main objective of this dissertation was to identify factors that affect the relationship between enterprises and universities/ research institutes, and the benefits that enterprise can get from the relationship In the study, she presented 15 factors affecting the relationship between enterprises and universities, and 10 factors affecting the relationship between enterprises and research institutes, including those have positive and negative effects on these relationships She also proposed some sets of solutions for developing the cooperation between

enterprises and universities/ research institutes These proposed solutions were acceptable Limitations of this dissertation included the low validity of generalization because the survey was undertaken only in Ho Chi Minh City and the absence of effects of macro variables

In Vietnam, there have been very few researches about opportunities and areas in which universities can create the relationship with enterprises to improve their training “quality” In other words, very few researches provided answers to whether or not enterprises are willing to help universities and what they want to receive in return In addition, the results have a low validity level

of generalization

In June 2012, ULSA highlighted its Mission “to provide high-quality training ‘products’, contributing to the development of human resources for industrialization, modernization, and globalization of Vietnam” In order to carry out this mission, as well as for the long-term development of ULSA, the university committed to improve its training programs to cater to the demands

of the labor markets by creating and maintaining a good partnership with employers In this partnership, both parties are mutually benefited

Statement of the Problem

It was earlier stated that ULSA has a very weak relationship with enterprises The university has not undertaken any survey to collect information from employers about labor demands in order to develop effective training programs On the contrary, contents of its training programs were decided based mainly on what it could provide In addition, most of the students had no opportunity to participate in practical visits to enterprises or to fulfill trials when studying in the university These can be some of reasons

why its graduates faced difficulties in finding jobs

This study tackled the research problem of ULSA’s weak partnership with enterprises leading to the incompatibility between what their graduates have studied and what they need in their jobs

More than ninety percent of ULSA’s graduates said that they lacked practical skills and knowledge, and had low ability in using foreign languages for their jobs

Although there were some researches about improving enterprise linkage/ relationship, they often studied universities in general, not any specific one Moreover, there were very few researches about university-enterprise partnership (not relationship) Besides, each university has its own conditions and may have different training methodologies Some solutions to improve university-enterprise linkage proposed in previous researches may

university-be useful for many universities but probably may not university-be useful for ULSA In addition, ULSA’s graduates can work for any kind of employers However, about ninety percent of them worked for enterprises Thus, in this dissertation, the ULSA-enterprise partnership, and not the partnership with employers in general, was chosen as the topic of the study

Research Questions

The following questions were addressed in this dissertation:

First, is there any opportunity for ULSA to cooperate with enterprises in

order to improve its training quality? To respond to this question, the researcher tried to find out whether enterprises were willing to cooperate with and help the university to improve its training services

Second, in which areas can ULSA develop a good partnership with

enterprises? For this question, the researcher tried to find out the activities in which ULSA can cooperate with enterprises and take advantage of its operation

Third, which solution can ULSA use to improve its partnership with

enterprises? For this question, the researcher tried to find out what enterprises wanted to receive in exchange for helping the university improve its training quality In other words, the study determined which policies ULSA can use to attract the enterprises to participate and establish a permanent relationship with them

Fourth, can ULSA improve its training quality through creating,

maintaining and taking advantage of its partnership with enterprises? For this question, the researcher focused on finding out whether or not it was easier for ULSA’s graduates to find their jobs; and whether or not the enterprises gave priority to hire ULSA’s graduates if the university has a good partnership with them

Research Objectives

The main objective of this study was to develop strategies that will strengthen the partnership between ULSA and enterprises in Hanoi that will improve the training quality provided by the university Specifically, the study sought to:

• Characterize and analyze the internal and external factors affecting the quality of trainings provided by ULSA;

• Identify, define and analyze the mismatch of the training courses provided by ULSA with what is needed by the industries;

• Identify approaches that will increase the training quality provided

by ULSA

Hypotheses

Because ULSA has not had any real “partnership” with enterprises, it was not possible to collect pre and post data for the purpose of this study Thus, testing techniques could not be applied to the hypothesis However, comparative tools were used to prove the hypothesis In order to answer research questions and attain the research objectives, the following hypotheses were tested:

• Enterprises are eager to cooperate with ULSA if they can benefit from this cooperation

• It will be easier for ULSA’s graduates to find jobs if the university has a good partnership with enterprises

• Getting money is not the main motive of enterprises when helping ULSA improve training quality

Significance of the Study

This study attempted to analyze the current training quality of ULSA In the analysis, the researcher identified the causes that led to (probably) low training quality of ULSA Specific areas in which ULSA can develop and maintain its partnership with enterprises to improve its training quality were also identified Moreover, a set of recommendations were proposed to encourage enterprises to cooperate with the university, as well as to improve this relationship Thus, the study was deemed significant for the following beneficiaries

First, ULSA can get updated surveyed information about jobs for its

graduates and what the University wants to change in ULSA’s training programs The university can also get information on whether or not enterprises are eager to cooperate with them and what activities they are willing to cooperate on More importantly, the university can think of proposed recommendations as the reference for improving the quality of its training programs in the future

Second, ULSA’s current and future students are the next beneficiaries

If the university has a better relationship with enterprises, its students may benefit from training programs which are more appropriate to the demands of the labor markets because enterprises will participate more in the training processes Consequently, it would be easier for graduates to find jobs that confer to their specialized training at the university

Third, enterprises can gain from the partnership with ULSA By

cooperating with the university, they would benefit from favorable policies In addition, enterprises can save time and money on retraining ULSA’s graduates because they have participated in training programs designed to meet the demands of labor markets

Fourth, other universities and individuals can use this dissertation as a

reference if they are interested in the topic

Lastly, through this dissertation, the author would have the opportunity

improve his knowledge about the topic as well as his research competence

Scope and Limitations of the Study

Scope

• Content: The university-enterprise relationship contains many different aspects/ activities In some aspects, enterprises can directly benefit

from the relationship, but in some other aspects universities can be direct beneficiaries The study focused mainly on aspects of the partnership that ULSA can take advantage to improve its training quality Benefits that enterprises can gain from the partnership will be regarded as solutions that ULSA should realize Moreover, although ULSA has training programs at many levels, including master, university, college, and technical levels, this study focused only on university training because this is the major training activity of the university

• Location: Hanoi, Vietnam

• Duration of Study: 3 years covering the period 2009 to 2011

• Subjects/Respondents: Leaders of enterprises and ULSA’s graduates

Limitations

• The following were the limitations of the study: The research period was quite short (only three years) because the first university students graduated from ULSA in 2009

• ULSA has only training programs in social fields Thus, results can

be most useful for universities having training programs in the same fields Other universities can use these results only as reference

• The mismatch of the graduates’ qualifications and enterprises’ requirements were not examined across all fields of study

Definition of Terms

In this study, the partnership between ULSA and enterprises to improve its training quality was examined In order to achieve the research

objectives, some key terms needed to be clarified:

Enterprise means an economic organization having its own name, having

assets and a stable transaction office, and having business registration

in accordance with law for the purpose of conducting business

operations (Law on Enterprise of Vietnam)

In Vietnam, enterprises are classified into four kinds as presented in Table 1

Capital*

No of labor force

Capital

No of labor force

I Agriculture,

forestry, and

aquaculture

10 or less people

Equal or less than

20 billions VND

From 11

to 200 people

More than 20

to 100 billions VND

From 201

to 300 people

II Industry and

construction

10 or less people

Equal or less than

20 billions VND

From 11

to 200 people

More than 20

to 100 billions VND

From 201

to 300 people

III Trading and

services

10 or less people

Equal or less than

10 billions VND

From 11

to 50 people

More than 10

to 50 billions VND

From 51

to 100 people

Source: Decree No.56/2009/NĐ-CP

* Capital is the preferred classified criterion

Enterprises not belonging to those three kinds are grouped into “large” enterprises

Very small and small enterprises are sometimes added up into one kind, namely “small”

External factors are outside influences that can impact a business Various

external factors can impact the ability of a business or investment to achieve its strategic goals and objectives These external factors might include competition; social, legal and technological changes, and the economic and political environment

Internal factors are inner strengths and weaknesses that an organization

exhibits Internal factors can strongly affect how well a company meets its objectives, and they might be seen as strengths if they have a favorable impact on a business, but as weaknesses if they have a deleterious effect on the business

Partnership is a contractual relationship between two or more parties (can be

organizations or individuals) in order to carry out joint activities

Training or training process is a purposive, organized process for shaping

and developing knowledge, skills, techniques, attitudes, behaviors, both theoretical and practical aspects, in order to create the ability of individuals to fulfill a certain work In other words, training process is the systematic process for providing knowledge, skills in a specific

program to trainees (Tiep, 2008)

In the third national workshop about improving the training quality of Vietnam in June 2002, Dr Vu Kim Dung presented a summary of university training quality He mentioned three points of view about training quality The first is that training quality is evaluated

by "inputs" According to this point of view, a university will have a good/ high training quality if it has high-quality "inputs" Some important

“inputs” are excellent students, professional and prestigious training staff, sufficient financial resources to invest in teaching facilities

The second point of view is that training quality is evaluated by

"outcomes" Outcomes are “products” of training services Quality of

“outcomes” is considered as the ability of graduates to fulfill their works which will be evaluated by employers (Dung, 2002)

The third point of view is that training quality is evaluated by

"academic values" This is a traditional point of view shared by many western universities According to this point of view, training quality is determined mainly by the evaluation of specialists about “academic ability” of the training staffs (Dung, 2002)

In Decision No 65/2007/QĐ-BGDĐT dated 1 November 2007 signed by the Minister of Education and Training of Vietnam (MOET),

training quality of a university is defined as gaining objectives set by the university, meeting objectives of university training stipulated in the Education Law, fitting with demands of human resources for the local and national socio-economic development This definition is compatible

with that given by the international educational quality accreditation of the university The Decision also stipulated ten “standards”, including many criteria related to the aspects of all three points of view mentioned above

The main purpose of this study was to find solutions for improving ULSA’s training quality through partnership with enterprises For this purpose, the researcher chose to follow the “outcome” point of

view about training quality In this study, training quality of a university

is defined as a compound index about the working competence and the ability to apply acquired knowledge in work by its graduates The

competence and ability will be evaluated and recognized by employers

University is an educational organization (including a set of colleges,

universities, research institutes in different fields) which provides training programs in higher education (Law on Higher Education of Vietnam, article 4)

Chapter II REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents the review of theoretical and research literature

on university-enterprise relationship that served as the foundation for the study, starting with some experimental researches about university-enterprise relationship In the next section, the researcher did a review of some theoretical framework for university-enterprise relationship The last section presents the conceptual framework of the study

Experimental Research of University – Enterprise Relationship

University-enterprise relationship is a topic studied by researchers in many countries, including Vietnam Certainly, both universities and enterprises can benefit from cooperating with each other However, this topic has often been examined in one of three approaches In the first approach, universities were regarded as the main beneficiary from the relationship, in which they received information from enterprises for improving their training services Conversely, in the second approach, enterprises were regarded as the main beneficiary from the relationship, in which they received advice, advanced technologies from universities for improving their businesses In the third approach, enterprises and universities are supposed to be mutually equal beneficiaries from the relationship It can be seen that only in the third approach, the relationship/ linkage between university and enterprise can be regarded as a partnership

Training association between universities and enterprises in Vietnam

(Scientific Journal of Ha Noi National University, volume 24, 2008)

Trinh Thi Hoa Mai presented an argument that although universities and enterprises act for their own benefits, cooperation between them was an objective demand of both universities and enterprises In this association, enterprises will provide information to help universities improve their training programs in such a way that their graduates will have skills and knowledge appropriate to the demands of labor markets This association will directly benefit universities In her point of view, enterprises should participate in this association because they could hire those graduates with lower retraining costs In terms of solutions, she proposed eight recommendations for universities and enterprises to promote their association Some of her proposed solutions were that universities should design policies to allow leaders of enterprises to participate in developing the curricula, provide more opportunities for students to practice in enterprises or internships during their study program, and leaders of enterprises can participate in giving marks to the students These proposed solutions are acceptable and feasible

However, Mai’s study lacked evidence to support some arguments such as, that training organizations were often not interested in jobs of their students after graduation but the study did not present any statistics to prove this argument Second, her proposed solutions were not specific She said that universities should design policies to allow leaders of enterprises to participate in developing curricula but these policies that they should implement were not specified in the study In addition, there is a disagreement

on her argument that enterprises provide information to universities for

improving training programs because of the benefits that enterprises could derive for themselves If enterprises help universities to improve their training quality, universities will benefit from this activity but enterprises may be

potentially (not surely) benefited because graduates can decide whether or

not to work for them Enterprises do not assure that they will hire students from those universities they helped Thus, it is less convincing, especially in Vietnam that enterprises help the university to improve training quality because they think they can directly benefit from the activity

In the study on “The relationship between enterprises and universities/ research institutes: A study in Vietnam” (the author surveyed 269 managers of enterprises, 32 leaders of universities, and 40 leaders of research institutes in

Ho Chi Minh City Hang followed the technological management approach which examines the statement that “technological innovation helps enterprises

to raise their operating efficiency Universities and research institutes will help enterprises to develop and innovate Thus, enterprise should associate with them” The main objective of this dissertation was to identify factors and their effects on the relationship between enterprises and universities/ research institutes, by creating and maintaining the relationship, enterprises can get benefits Hang used econometric models to estimate factors affecting the university-enterprise and research institute-enterprise relationships She presented 15 factors affecting the relationship between enterprises and universities, and 10 factors affecting the relationship between enterprises and research institutes, including those that have both positive and negative effects on these relationships She also proposed four sets of solutions for developing the cooperation between enterprises and universities/ research

institutes Some of her major proposed solutions were (1) the chosen association mechanism should be based on mutual benefits on both sides; (2) enterprises should have the initiative in finding and associating with universities and research institutes, and place orders with them; and (3) CEO

of enterprises should commit and participate in these associations (Hang

2010, p 20) These proposed solutions were acceptable However, she did not show how to implement these solutions Other limitations of this dissertation included the low validity of generalization because the survey was undertaken only in Ho Chi Minh City and the absence of effects of macro variables

In the study on “Innovation of university education – important prerequisite for achieving the target of ‘attaching training to social needs,” Dao Huu Hoa proposed some solutions to innovate university training towards the direction of attaching training to social needs One of his proposed solutions was “strengthening practical skills for students” He said that, to achieve this goal, enterprises need to participate in training by undertaking practical courses at work for students Furthermore, universities should invite entrepreneurs, CEOsto give (practical) lectures or subjects to their students (Hoa, 2008, p 141)

In the study on “Promoting university – enterprise relationships” Mr Tran Van Nam pointed out many benefits that enterprises, universities and students could gain from university-enterprise relationships For universities, the benefits were receiving advice on the development and modification of training programs, improving students’ capability, exchanging information on new technologies, demands…, and contributing to create jobs for students

(Nam, [2012]) He also indicated four limitations in university-enterprise relationships in Vietnam, including (1) lack of experience of enterprises in cooperating with universities, (2) both sides were not really interested in the cooperation, (3) the cooperation was not professionally organized, and (4) the Government had not developed policies to promote this relationship Furthermore, he proposed some set of solutions to improve university-enterprise relationships in Vietnam His proposed solutions were strengthening the exchange of information between universities and enterprises, enhancing mutually beneficial activities for both sides In additions he presented some policy recommendations to the government to promote the cooperation, such as tax exemption and preferential funds (Nam, [2012])

In the article titled, “Training models based on the demands of the

business sector” (the author, Phung Xuan Nha presented an argument that

the university-enterprise relationship was successful only if both sides can get some benefits The biggest benefit that enterprises could gain from the relationship was that they can hire workers who had appropriate knowledge and skills This cooperation also brought many benefits to universities, including information and financial resources He also pointed out the basic conditions for successful training models based on demands of enterprises The first condition was the recognition and commitments by leaders of universities and enterprises The second one was that universities need to have a department responsible for cooperation with enterprises Next, universities should have more self-control in their training activities and should get support from the Government in speeding up the cooperation His

arguments were reasonable but they were too general and lacked supporting evidences

The article titled, “Binding training and employment - universities and

enterprises” (Scientific Journal of Ha Noi National University, volume 25, 2009) mentioned the current picture of university-enterprise relationship in

Vietnam, which focused on the inappropriateness between trained skills and knowledge and working demands The author, Tran Anh Tai, indicated four main reasons which led to this situation, including lack of training orientation for students, heavy intervention by the Government, low competition among universities to attract students, and imbalance between theoretical and practical contents in training programs In the second part, the author proposed six solutions for binding training and employment, universities and enterprises One of the proposed solutions was to speed up university-enterprise relationship to collect information about labor markets and to revise training programs All proposed solutions were reasonable and acceptable but the author mentioned nothing on how to implement them

The report of a study by GTZ-CIEM in 2006 titled, “The linkages

between universities/research institutes and small and medium enterprises,”

(GTZ – CIEM, 2006) provided the assessment of existing universities/

research institutes and enterprises linkages (UREL) in Vietnam on training, services and consulting, and research activities It also analyzed the roles of different actors, including enterprises and universities, in UREL in Vietnam To promote UREL in Vietnam, the authors proposed three sets of recommendations for universities/ research institutes, enterprises, and the Government These recommendations showed that all three partners

(universities/ research institutes, enterprises, and the Government) must realize the importance of UREL Universities/ research institutes and enterprises must be active in undertaking appropriate activities, and the Government should play the role as a supporter (by favourable policies) to promote UREL in Vietnam

In the final report of the European University Enterprise Network, Net (2010), the project funded by the the European Commission, had four main objectives, namely: (1) To increase the presence of entrepreneurs within the University by designing, experimenting and promoting innovative mobility schemes involving entrepreneurs, (2) Tuning Entrepreneurship - defining generic entrepreneurial skills for the students, (3) Enhancing the quality of practical placements of students, and (4) Development and networking at European level of university entities linking universities and enterprises to form a Network of Career Development Offices (EUE-Net, 2008) In order to attain these objectives, EUE-Net adopted a systematic approach, in which all important aspects are grouped into sub-networks and key activities This project produced eleven formal outcomes, including those related to the development of framework documents at European level such as Quality of Practical Placements in Enterprises (WP1), EUE-Net CDO Sub-Network and European Unified Employment Database (WP2), Teaching and Learning Entrepreneurship in Europe as a general competence (WP3) and the organization of a Workshop on “Entrepreneurship Mobility” that resulted in a set of Guidelines for a European Program of Mobility for Entrepreneurs within Universities (EUE-Net, 2008) Although we cannot access these outcomes, it was easy to see that the project was designed to help universities Because

EUE-this was a project on an international scale, comprising of 55 organizations from 29 European countries, it needed a huge budget Benefits of the project are undeniable but it is very difficult for other countries, especially a developing country like Vietnam, to imitate this project

In the article on “University- industry linkages: potential and realization

in developing countries – Thai experiences” (Tech Monitor, Jan-Feb, 2007), Daniel Schiller and Javier Revilla Diez said that “appropriate and inexpensive technologies are critical to the upgrading of small and medium-sized enterprises In developing countries, university-industry linkages are an important means to transfer local knowledge and to supplement the acquisition and adaptation of international knowledge and technologies But effective transfer mechanisms are a necessary prerequisite for successful university-industry linkages” (Daniel S and Javier R D., 2007) In this article,

they indicated several obstacles that potentially hampered these linkages

These obstacles included Capability gap (weak technological and absorptive capacity of Thai industry), Credibility gap (inflexible recruitment procedures and the autonomy of individual researchers), and Lack of consistent policies for university-enterprise linkages (Daniel S and Javier R D., 2007) They

also examined four characteristic linkage mechanisms that potentially promoted the Thai innovation system through university- industry linkages Finally, they recommended actions to strengthen SME technology capabilities through university-enterprise linkages These actions included public money granted to universities or institutes that are trying to become more entrepreneurial and direct support for university-enterprise linkages (Daniel S and Javier R D., 2007) Vietnam and Thailand have many similar economic