Critical factors of offshore Master of Business Administration education programmes in Vietnam : multiple perspectives

The study aims to understand and identify from key Vietnamese stakeholders’ perspectives what the critical factors are for the successful design, delivery and management of offshore MBA education programmes. The study will provide comprehensive insight and understanding of the identity, nature and criticality of factors crucial to the long-term viability and ultimately the sustainability of offshore MBA programmes in Vietnam. The findings of the study are valuable to current and future foreign educational providers and local partner institutions, students, sponsors, the community and other relevant stakeholders. The research is based on a qualitative paradigm and uses the case study approach. Three case organisations, all current providers of offshore MBA education in Vietnam are used. Both primary and secondary data is collected. Primary data is collected via interviews and focus groups with representation of a number of key stakeholder groups from each of the case organisations while secondary data is collected from official documents from these three case organisations. It is envisaged that such a broad spectrum of views from different stakeholders will provide good insight into and add greater validity of the factors local Vietnamese deem are valuable and need to be factored in the design, delivery and management of offshore MBA programmes. The study found that, in the main, stakeholders prefer the international MBA programmes because it allows the transfer of critical contemporary knowledge and the transfer, from the foreign partner, technical hardware (such as infrastructure, technology, and machinery) and managerial ‘software’ (skills such as leading, managing, problem-solving, negotiation etc) essential to effectively operate and compete in a global marketplace. The findings also show that stakeholders generally have had good experiences with their case organisations, and that their expectations have mostly been met. However, programme quality is a key concern across all stakeholder groups and covers a broad range including most importantly programme and curriculum design, programme delivery, namely the expertise and contribution of teaching staff, and programme management. A key emergent finding is the need to factor the Vietnamese context in teaching and learning. Given that Vietnam is an emerging economy, stakeholders felt that the programme needs to be flexible enough to embrace the specific needs of the local business and industry. The findings highlight the need for increased networking between programme providers and the business sector. Another key finding relates to more rigorous student selection and admission criteria as these are deemed to be vital for the overall control of programme quality and sustainability. All stakeholder groups perceive that offshore MBA programmes have a potentially large and positive impact on the local Vietnamese economy; well qualified graduates can make great leaders and managers and contribute directly and indirectly to the national budgets. Therefore, the government needs to ensure that offshore education programmes are given a priority in policy implementation