Assessing Impacts of University Autonomy Policies on Universities’ Competitiveness in Vietnam

Abstract

This research aims to assess the impacts of factors in university autonomy policies on universities’ competitiveness in Vietnam. It has been revealed that since university autonomy policies were implemented, universities have paid greater attention to the formation and improvement of their competitiveness, targeting sustainable and stable development. The survey related to Vietnam’s universities’ competitiveness was administered to 486 individuals. Through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), five factors affecting institutions’ competitiveness were identified, including Academic and training autonomy, Financial autonomy, Organization and staffing autonomy, International cooperation autonomy, and Quality assurance autonomy. Hypothesis testing and regression analysis showed that institutions granted great autonomy tend to focus more on forming and improving their competitiveness, and financial autonomy is the factor with the biggest impact on their competitiveness. As a result, from the authors’ perspective, it is crucial that the Ministry of Education and Training quickly accelerate autonomy delegation, and each university invests more time and effort in forming and improving their competitiveness based on the level of autonomy granted.