Toward System-Wide Resource Sharing in Vietnamese Teacher Education through a Shared Portal Model

Abstract

Amid ongoing reforms to teacher education in Vietnam, the government’s higher-education restructuring places renewed emphasis on cooperation across the network of teacher-education universities. In this context, interlibrary collaboration and resource sharing are critical to expanding access and improving the quality and efficiency of provision. This study assesses library information, resources, and services; examines usage; and elicits stakeholder views on cooperation models across seven universities of education. This study used a cross-sectional survey conducted in late 2024 with a total of 2,346 participants, including library users, library staff, and institutional managers. Findings reveal sizeable disparities among institutions alongside strong, cross-stakeholder readiness to collaborate and near-consensus on the necessity of doing so. Respondents converge on a portal-first design—namely, a shared, centralised discovery-and-request platform with single-sign-on authentication—as the most practical and widely supported model. Enabling conditions prioritised include interoperable management systems, robust IT infrastructure, harmonised cooperation policies, and sustainable funding; professional development emerges as a crucial, yet currently underweighted, prerequisite. From the results of this study, it is suggested that a phased implementation offers a feasible pathway to durable, system-wide resource sharing. Such an implementation requires the alignment of software stacks, standardised policies, and investments in staff training.