2016 UNITED BOARD FELLOWS PROGRAM
Report by Ton Quang Cuong Uiniversity of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi 2016 United Board Program Fellow Summer Course in Boston College (US)
August 2016
Acknowledgement I would like to thank the following people and organisations generously gave their time, enthusiasm to encourage me in high-density lecturing and experiencing during Boston summer 2016.
Professors and staff of: Boston College Gobal Leadership Institue Lynch School of Education Center for International Higher Education Hongkong Office of UB President Nancy Chapman VP Ricky Cheng Ms. Vivica Xiong Mr. Kevin Henderson
Executive Summary Leadership in Higher education (HE) 21st century is not only a phenomenon but, as a concept of interest on continiuing redifining nowadays. The exchange and learning experience between countries is inevitable in an internationalization and globalization context. Boston Summer courses have brought complete information, useful to be able to thinking/re-thinking, orientation and propose new solutions to enhance the quality and competitiveness for Vietnam HE example. With 15 intensive thematic lectures and over 20 challenging problems of different aspects on HE in the internationalization context, and 4 site visits “Boston Summer course� draws on desktop research and aims to inform discussions, focusing attention on the key issues under deliberation and suggesting practical means to enhance ledearship concept in HE trends. Hence, international perspective and experience could be general consensus from policy and abilities in term of internationalization curriculum, leadership approaches, staff development, accreditation and quality assurance that I learnt may rise many questions for long-term approach of Vietnam HE context. Boston, Summer 2016
Summer Institute 2016 at Boston College (US) funding by the United Board Fellows Program really stimulates a leadership sense and interest of Higher Education (HE), leadership innovation, experience and skills which I am passionate about. Embarking on the Program I experienced and learnt by various activities that prioritise good leadership approaches and innovation of the universities experience (lecturing, observation, interaction, learning and sharing experience, sites visit etc.).
Take a decent day, ready to learn a wisdom (Vietnamese prov.)
The Boston courses represented crucial issues of HE being challenged by international and regional context, maintained constructive dialogue and developed a meaningful response for my case. Internationalization of HE, internationalization of curriculum Relatively, internationalization of HE can be usualy defined as process of cross-border, staff/student exchange, implication/import of abroad program/curricula, employment oversea staff, i.e. using “external” resource for “internal” modification or purposes with new preffered “benefit”. However, this “intentional process” must be understood as “making meaningful contribution to society” ofcourse inbound and outbound as a whole and depends on context! This definition reflects also to internationalization curriculum both “at home” and “abroad” and “no one model fits all” (Betty Leask; Hans de Wit, 2015). An outcome of this concept may be useful for redefining of very dilemma of “integration curriculum” in Vietnam education nowadays. The first step of internationalization in Vietnam context, may be key implement is mobility. In my field of teacher education the concept of mobility can be defined not only simply movement but network (i.e mobility without movement), and covered themes of students, staff, researchers, curriculum providers and resources mobility.
Internationalization of HE as “the intentional process of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose,functions and delivery of post-secondary education, in order to enhance the quality of education and research for all students and staff, and to make a meaningful contribution to society” (Hans de Wit, 2015)
“Internationalization of the curriculum is the processof incoporating international, intercultural and global dimension into the content of the curriculum as well as the learning outcomes, assessment tasks, teaching methods and support service of a program study” (Betty Leask, 2015)
Strategy for staff development towards the national labor market? Philip Altbach provoking questions “Is there national labor market?”, “Does academic staff live on salary?” are my thought crossing series topics as Organization Leadership Strategy (Mohan Subramaniam), Leader's Role in Strategy Development (Michael Pratt), Staff Engagement and Faculty Development (Philip Altbach), Global Perspectives on Teaching and Learning (Laura Rumbley), Negotiations and Conflict Resolution (Richard Nielsen) and visits of universities and colleges in Boston. Hence, successful strategies for staff development in internationalisation context would not only focus on asking for resources (inputs), but would also put corresponding efforts into assessing the impact of staff at all levels by investing in systematic data collection, analysis and dissemination in defferent levels as macro, meso and micro. Staff develoment also plays significant role in “stratified HE” (research, applied and training institutions) and forces competition among HE in Vietnam. The “stratified HE” and internationalization tendencies provide new opportunity and challenge for changing quality of staff, academic work. However, English language use barriers the active engagement of faculty and the access to international knowledge in Vietnam HE. For Vietnam HE case, to achieve the desired results, institutions need to alignment with the institutional mission in an evidence-driven manner, to become more focused not only on defining strategy beyond the movement/mobility of people (teachers, researcher, providers) but also on assessing the impact on people with engagging stakeholders. In this context we should have to redifine the role of students and fund-rising concept.
Accreditation, quality assurance, HE ranking HE quality assurance increasingly is the most recognized concept and risen to the top policy issue in national level. However, the duality of benefit – risks inside quality assurance may be focused on approach, strategy and tools of development for evaluating HE in context. For example, the intergrity, transparency, and public disclosure (Standard 9, NEASC, 2016) forces new trend and focus on realistic objective rather than bureaucratic, formal in some countries. Once, accreditation is a process of “self-look into the mirror” for improvement, the ranking in some context seems the opportunity to “compare” one institution to another. This approach of explanation for ranking is struggling to define the goals and value itself among HE institutions in Vietnam, particularly in dilema of public good vs private good. In SUM Again, there is no model fits all. Each institution can chose appropriate and more comprehensive ways of its visionary and development depending on context with “negotiation” among “ethic network” to define capabilities, culture, values. In this situation the term of leadership in internationalization increasingly has risen as most significant factor to build success.
Key Implement for practice at University of Education, VNU Hanoi in the next decade -
Revise and re-build new curriculum embeded internationalization “at home� component to provide personalized and customized learning
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Build visionary that meet social demand-driven more than only supply-driven and with main stakeholders participation
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Create culture values that focus on the role of the teachers and learning outcomes rather than on a collection of individual academic subjects
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Expand network (ASEAN) to do research-based and practice oriented at the same time (ASEANOLOGY)
News
Now Journal International Higher Education (CIHE) in Vietnamese Visit: http://ihe.fpt.edu.vn/gioi-thieu/
Faculty seminar on Trends of American Higher Education (as a reflection of Boston Summer Institute) Faculty of Teacher Education, VNU-UED Hanoi 11 Aug 2016