The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has just issued Circular No. 20/2026/TT-BGDDT regulating the quality accreditation of higher education institutions, replacing Circular No. 12/2017/TT-BGDDT, marking an important shift in the thinking of managing higher education quality in the spirit of the Law on Higher Education (amended) in 2025.
The new Circular is issued to fundamentally innovate quality accreditation work, shifting from a "standard" approach to "continuous quality improvement", approaching regional and international standards, thereby improving the quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the Vietnamese higher education system.
Compact, modern, internationally integrated
The Circular is built on the basis of inheriting current regulations, and selectively referring to international standards, especially the quality assessment standard set of the ASEAN University Network (AUN-QA).
One of the outstanding innovations is the streamlining of the assessment standard set: from 25 standards, 111 criteria to 15 standards, 60 criteria, structured into three main groups including: Strategy, System and Results. This approach helps reduce duplication, focuses on core requirements and fully reflects the quality management cycle of higher education institutions.
In addition, the evaluation method is also innovated in a substantive direction, based on the operation and efficiency of the quality assurance system, instead of just stopping at checking dossier compliance.
Strong shift from "compliment" to "quality improvement
The Circular clearly establishes the transition from accreditation based on "compliance with regulations" to "continuous quality improvement". Accordingly, quality is assessed not only at the level of meeting minimum standards, but also at the level of educational institutions achieving goals established by themselves, in accordance with legal requirements and social needs.
Notably, the Circular stipulates three assessment levels including: achievement, conditional achievement and non-achievement. The "conditional achievement" mechanism allows educational institutions to have time to complete the remaining limited criteria, ensuring both maintaining quality standards and creating conditions for timely improvement.
Reduce procedures, increase transparency
The Circular integrates all assessment guidelines and forms in the appendix, replacing the previous loose promulgation, thereby reducing administrative burdens and creating favorable conditions for implementation.
At the same time, the new regulation strengthens the requirement for publicity and transparency: educational institutions must publish self-assessment reports and external assessment reports, enhancing accountability to society. Post-inspection work and the mechanism for revoking inspection certificates are also supplemented to ensure quality is maintained in substance.
Affirming the role of the internal quality assurance system
The Circular emphasizes the principle: education quality must be created from within each educational institution. Accordingly, schools must build and operate an effective internal quality assurance system (IQA), associated with development strategies, based on specific data and measurement indicators.
This is a shift from an external accreditation-based management model to an internal quality management model, contributing to the formation of a quality culture throughout the system.
Contributing to improving management efficiency and accountability
The issuance of the Circular not only replaces a legal normative document, but also creates a modern legal framework for the work of ensuring and accrediting the quality of higher education.
The Circular contributes to improving the management efficiency and accountability of higher education institutions; Strengthening information transparency, serving learners and society; Promoting international integration in higher education; Contributing to improving the quality of human resources.
According to the Circular, the quality accreditation cycle for higher education institutions is 5 years, and it clearly stipulates the process of self-assessment, external evaluation and recognition of meeting quality standards.
In the context of Vietnam's higher education being deeply integrated, the Circular is expected to create a strong motivation to promote educational institutions to innovate governance, improve training and research quality, and meet the requirements of national development in the new period.
