Is there a productivity growth in private universities in Vietnam? Revisiting the 2005 Higher Education Reform Agenda

Since the undertaking of the reform policy, Vietnamese private higher education has made remarkable contributions to a nation's socio-economic development via providing high qualified human resources to the labour market. In integration of the world's higher education, the 2005 Higher Education Reform Agenda (HERA) has proposed an increase in private enrolments to 40% of total tertiary enrolments by 2020. Whether this target could be achievable as planned is still questionable. This paper aims to measure a productivity growth of private universities using the Malmquist productivity index and examine if they can obtain the target of the 2005 HERA. The findings indicate that private universities have regression in productivity at 8%. The main source of this regression results from a decline of technological innovation at 14%. Private universities could potentially fail to obtain the target of the 2005 HERA. Policy implications are suggested for enhancing efficiency and productivity of private universities.