Attending the seminar, from both sides there were the Directorial Boards, Heads of all functional departments, Rectors or Vice Rectors of all member colleges, Deans, and Directors of all university-governed centers.

The seminar also saw the attendance of Mr. Arjan Koeslag, the Project Chief Advisor, and of the representatives of the MOET. Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Toan, Hue University President and Prof. DSc. Bui Van Ga, his Da Nang University counterpart headed the two respective delegations.

At the seminar, leaderships of the two universities informed the development strategies of each side, and at the same time identified the position and role of Quality Assurance (QA) in proper fulfillment of duties to achieve the proposed strategic objectives. Mr. Arjan Koeslag, the Project Chief Advisor, shared his experience of managing the project on QA via the speech “QA in the context of Vietnam higher education: Current issues and upcoming challenges”.

The seminar discussed thoroughly the outcome of QA activities in the 2006-2008 period and the forthcoming plan. The delegates also exchanged experience in education quality management and in QA activities’ arrangement and implementation at both university and college levels. In an open atmosphere, a lot of valuable experience of such QA activities as self-evaluation of education quality, implementation of after-self-evaluation activities was exchanged between the delegates. Also, queries were raised, regarding methods, people in charge of deploying quality improvement plan proposed after self-evaluation, organization, functions of college-level QA sections, etc. Those honest opinions on quality issues expressed the delegates' concern about QA activities in the hope that QA activities after the project termination will taper off formalism and have real substance to help Vietnam higher education in general and the two universities of Hue and Da Nang in particular reach their goals of becoming globally accredited higher education institutions by 2020.

Through their closing speeches, the Presidents of the two universities, Associate Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Toan and Prof. DSc. Bui Van Ga, showed a strong commitment from leaderships of both universities to QA activities.

In a congenial atmosphere, for the first time, leaderships at all levels of the two large universities in Central Vietnam had a chance to exchange information and experience.

Reported by Trinh Thi Dinh/ Translated by Lam Vu