FPT University has successfully obtained ISO 21001:2018 certification for its headquarters in Hanoi and its four campuses in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Can Tho, and Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh). This achievement underscores the university’s steadfast commitment to maintaining and enhancing educational management quality in line with international standards.
About ISO 21001:2018
ISO 21001:2018 is a global standard issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), specifically designed for educational institutions. It focuses on improving learning and teaching quality through effective system management. The standard applies to all types of educational organizations, from schools and training centers to non-formal education service providers.
FPT University became the first university in Vietnam to receive ISO 21001:2018 certification from Bureau Veritas Certification (BVC), a leading global certification body, in 2021. Currently, several other universities in Vietnam are also working towards implementing this standard.
Key principles of ISO 21001:2018 implementation
To achieve ISO 21001:2018 certification, FPT University has adopted the core Plan – Do – Check – Act cycle and applied 11 key principles, including:
- Focus on Learners and Other Beneficiaries: It focuses on meeting the needs and requirements of learners and other beneficiaries. It demonstrates an organization’s ability and commitment to address the requirements of every learner and achieve sustained growth.
- Visionary Leadership: It aims to create a unity of purpose and direct an organization to align plans, policies, strategies, resources, and procedures to achieve its objectives and mission. It requires the top-level management to demonstrate leadership and all the stakeholders and interested parties in determining the vision, mission, and objectives of the institutions.
- Engagement of People: It ensures that all people involved are competent, empowered, and engaged in delivering value. EOMS requires involving all the stakeholders and beneficiaries to manage the organization’s efficiency and effectiveness.
- Process Approach: It focuses on interlinking the various business operations to achieve predictable and expected outcomes. It aims to establish a coherent system and enables the organization to optimize its performance and system.
- Continual Improvement: Every successful organization follows the principle of continual improvement. It plays a crucial role in maintaining the current level of performance and monitors its internal and external factors to identify potential risks and opportunities.
- Evidence-Based Decisions: Decision-making is one of the most complex processes and can be subjective. This principle requires an organization to evaluate the prior information to understand the needs and requirements of the learners and prepare a curriculum based on the interpretation.
- Relationship Management: An organization must maintain a healthy relationship with the interested parties, stakeholders, and other beneficiaries to establish a well-managed supply chain.
- Social Responsibility: This principle states that an educational institution is responsible for the impacts of its processes and decisions. It aims to improve an organization’s social, economic, and environmental performance by adopting transparent and ethical behavior.
- Accessibility and Equitability: It focuses on the needs, interests, requirements, backgrounds, and abilities of the individual learners and creates a more flexible, transparent, and inclusive teaching-learning environment. It aims to create a child-centric educational system and offers services based on the learner’s needs and requirements.
- Ethical Conduct: This principle requires an organization to establish an ethical professional environment and avoid any conflict of interest. It promotes integrity and enables an educational organization to adopt honesty and fairness to establish the highest standards of professionalism.
- Data Security and Protection: Educational institutions collect and store a large amount of learner’s data, hence they are required to implement appropriate controls to ensure confidentiality and data security.
Based on these principles, FPT University has established a comprehensive quality handbook that includes policies, objectives, mission, vision, and core values. Additionally, it has developed 13 quality procedures covering leadership, human resources, facilities assurance, quality assurance, admissions, academic training, student affairs, program development, scientific research, partner relations, community engagement, internationalization, globalization, and brand communication. These efforts ensure compliance with ISO 21001:2018 requirements while fostering continuous internal evaluation and improvement.
The successful certification of all campuses reflects FPT University’s commitment to sustainable development in education. By providing an internationally standardized learning environment, the university aims to equip students with comprehensive knowledge, skills, and creative thinking, while continuously enhancing training quality to meet the rigorous demands of global education.