A number of these private universities have created a conducive environment to encourage student achievement and commitment. However, there are other institutions that were set up for quick profit making. The issues of standards and quality control must be addressed if private universities in Vietnam are to become reputable institutions able to produce high-quality graduates. Management style is another important change that has fundamentally transformed Vietnam's system of higher education. Soviet-style central planning, the hallmark of Vietnamese universities until the 1980s, has been replaced by decentralized management.
Universities welcome their newfound freedom with great enthusiasm.
But the delegation of power from the center to the universities has not been accompanied by an increased accountability on the part of the universities. The absence of adequate checks and balances has led to growing corruption and declining quality of instruction. Accordingly, the central authorities have decided to establish an accreditation mechanism in the near future. Part of a World Bank loan for education will be used for this purpose, and experiences with systems in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Thailand will be studied. The switch from central planning to a market-oriented economy has led to discontinuation of the central system of job placement of university graduates.