Developing Indicators to Assess Financial Income Sustainability of Higher Education Institutions in Vietnam

Abstract

Under the context of massification and enhanced autonomy of higher education, the trend of higher education institutions to proactively seek new financial income apart from the two traditional ones, i.e. governmental allocation and tuition fee, is inevitable. This, indeed, is paramount and contributes to the sustainable development of higher education institutions. In this study, based on international practices and experiences, indicators were developed to assess sustainability of financial income at higher education institutions in Vietnam. These indicators are composed of two constituents: (i) HHI – an indicator that assesses the relative financial sustainability of a higher education institution; and (ii) RPS – an indicator that assesses the absolute financial sustainability of a higher education institution. These indicators may be employed as a state governance instrument to monitor higher education institutions, or may also be used as an institutional instrument to monitor the sub-units.