Innovation Approaches in Vietnam and Thailand Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

In the 4th industrial revolution era, instead of following the entrepreneurial approach of traditional third-generation universities, nowadays, a university is redefined as an ecosystem that innovates not only "for itself" but also "for others". Thus, university transformation is described with three key characteristics: radical mindset changes, holistic innovation facilitation, and ecological and social norm encouragement. It responds well to the demands of entrepreneurial spirit, innovative approaches, digital transformation, personalized education, and ecological and social norm promotion. The responsiveness to this university model can be assessed by the criteria and indicators of the new rating system of the University Performance Metrics (UPM). Practically, UPM has been applied to benchmark the universities of Vietnam and Thailand. The results indicate that while facilitating the research quality focus, higher education institutions need to develop the innovation-driven university model, supporting the universities' autonomy in implementing their activities.