Introduction

The Master's in Information Technology program

Lac Hong University (LHU) has identified higher education quality assurance as a pivotal factor for sustainable development in the context of regional and global integration. Accordingly, since 2012, the Office of Educational Testing and Quality Assurance (OETQA) has been established as a specialized unit responsible for advising the Board of Rectorate on organizing and implementing the university’s quality assurance activities. Since then, quality assurance has become an official and continuous activity at LHU.

In order to capture the big picture of the quality of the education programme of Master of Information Technology offered by the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies this self-assessment report (SAR) is prepared in accordance with the guidelines from ASEAN University Network’s Quality Assurance (AUN-QA, Version 4.0). This is the official outcome of a joint effort of all members of the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies (FPS) and Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) with ample support from the Board of Trustees and Board of Rectors in continuously improving the educational quality at both programme and institution levels. This is one of the key steps to satisfy the assessment criteria required by AUN-QA and other international/regional accreditation bodies. For instance, in 2017 and 2023, we achieved quality accreditation at the institutional level from the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).

Additionally, in June 2024, we underwent an AUN-QA institutional assessment at version 3.0, achieving a satisfactory result. This SAR consists of 4 major parts and closely follows a set of 8 criteria mentioned in the Guide to AUN-QA Assessment at Programme level Version 4.0. Specifically, Part I provides a brief introduction and overview of LHU and FPS and FIT and serves as the opening of the SAR whereas Part II presents a detailed description and the self-assessment of the Master of Information Technology programme in the consequence of 8 criteria specified by AUN-QA. An analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the programme is discussed in Part III with some practical recommendations to close the gaps identified and key action plan to implement such recommendations. Finally, Part IV contains appendices of glossary and related supporting documents and evidence. From our first version of SAR and based on our self-evaluation, the Master of Information Technology programme satisfactorily meets the majority of the AUN-QA requirements.