A Governance Framework for University Impact Assessment

Abstract

Higher education is being required to contribute more directly to national development, yet most instruments through which the state currently measures university performance are originally designed for other purposes. Not many are designed to steer the intermediate space between minimum compliance and frontier research performance, where most universities in an absorption-stage economy compete. This paper reframes the problem as one of governance rather than measurement, and develops a governance theory of policy-instrument portfolios organised around distinct governance objects. Drawing on that theory, the Vietnamese Multidimensional Impact Assessment Framework (V-MIAF) is derived as a steering instrument for the currently under-occupied governance space. Five domains are specified, namely workforce skill fit, economic value of knowledge, venture sustainability, collaborative integration, and institutional integrity, with integrity operating as a substrate that conditions the legitimacy of contribution generated elsewhere. Documentary analysis of 2024 institutional reporting from four Vietnamese universities illustrates the analytical visibility the account creates, and a two-gate design couples V-MIAF to Circular 20/2026 and the Autonomy Decree. The contribution is a governance-theoretic account of university impact assessment, an integrity-substrate design, and a portable conceptual logic.