From November 6 to November 8, 2020, ASEAN University Network (AUN), Vietnam National University Hanoi (VNU) and its member units held the Closing Ceremony for the 187th AUN-QA assessment at program level online as planned.

At the closing ceremony, AUN-QA's assessment team presented preliminary comments on four training programs of VNU. The two programs of VNU-HUS, Bachelor in Materials Science and Bachelor in Land Management, were given detailed comments and recommendations in order to improve the training quality, meeting the needs of international integration.

According to the assessment team, the program of Bachelor in Materials Science, Faculty of Physics, VNU-HUS has strengths in the curriculum and learning outcomes because it was developed according to the CDIO model (Conceive - Design - Implement - Operate) under the initiative of MIT Institute of Technology, USA, with benchmark to the program of Materials Science and Engineering of Stanford University, USA, and alignment with the mission and vision of VNU as well as VNU-HUS. The staffs teaching in the program of Bachelor in Materials Science are of high quality with 89% having Ph.D. degrees; each staff publishes on average 0.5-1 ISI articles/ year. Other activities such as student monitoring system and ensuring students’ health and safety are fully implemented to help students have a good study environment. All of the above helps increase the rate of students having jobs (one year after graduation) to 95-100%.

Through interviews with stakeholders, AUN-QA's assessment team found that: employers and alumni highly appreciated the quality of the program of Bachelor in Materials Science. In particular, many students have won graduate scholarships at the world’s prestigious universities, from which they can continue to study, expand their knowledge, and make contributions to science.

According to the AUN-QA's preliminary assessment, The Bachelor in Land Management, Faculty of Geography, VNU-HUS has a number of strengths such as being designed based on outcomes and actual needs of society. The rate of students having jobs after graduation is quite high and employers are satisfied with the quality of students. This year, the number of students enrolled in Land Management doubled compared to the previous year, which is a clear demonstration of the "satisfaction" of students who have been studying in the program.

The assessment team of AUN-QA highly appreciated the teaching staff of the Land Management program, saying that this is a team of "great potential, positive, available, open for quality improvement”. In particular, the "research culture" is growing in the projects that the staff of the Faculty have been implementing and the rapidly increasing number of ISI/ Scopus publications in recent years.

The assessment team also commented that the modern facilities and equipment of the Land Management program have helped students get familiar with new technology and have more opportunities to practice, thus promoting their active learning.

Speaking at the Closing Ceremony, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Bao Son, Vice President of VNU, said: “The AUN-QA’s 187th assessment for training programs of VNU was implemented and completed on schedule. In order to point out the strengths and areas for improvement in the training programs, the assessment teams have been working very hard with documents, conducting many online interviews. Comments and recommendations of the AUN-QA assessment team will be used as suggestions and guidelines for quality improvement of our training programs”.