Empowerment and Equality: Advancing Women’s Leadership in Vietnamese Higher Education

Last registered on June 13, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Empowerment and Equality: Advancing Women’s Leadership in Vietnamese Higher Education
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0016153
Initial registration date
May 31, 2025

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
June 13, 2025, 6:35 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
Viet Nam
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Kim Nguyen
Affiliation
University of Sheffield
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2025-02-01
End date
2025-08-31
Keywords
Education, Gender
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
We examine the preferences of university staff in Vietnam regarding the selection of the Vice Chancellor. We use different treatments to explore the factors influencing the choice of a university leader as well as the social preferences involved in the decision-making process. Our goal is to recruit 600 participants who are staff members at universities in Vietnam.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Nguyen, Kim. 2025. "Empowerment and Equality: Advancing Women’s Leadership in Vietnamese Higher Education." AEA RCT Registry. June 13. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.16153-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention (Hidden)
We conduct a baseline study to understand the preferences of university staff regarding different CVs for the university Vice Chancellor position. After establishing these preferences, we run a similar treatment where participants are asked to predict the choices of other participants. If their predictions are correct, they will receive additional compensation for each accurate prediction. There are four prediction questions, each corresponding to one of the four sets of CVs.

Participants are randomly assigned to one of two groups. In the baseline (control) group, participants are asked to choose which Vice Chancellor they would prefer. In the treatment group, participants are asked to guess the average choice made by participants in the baseline group.

Intervention Start Date
2025-06-15
Intervention End Date
2025-08-20

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
University staff tend to select male candidates as Vice Chancellor, even when the CVs are identical to those of female candidates.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The main variables are gender, research achievement (measured by the number of publications and grants), years of leadership experience, and any leadership awards. No constructed variables are used.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We include incentivised questions to examine university staff preferences for a leader based on research achievements, leadership experience, leadership awards, and gender.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
We publicly advertise the experiment through official and social media platforms in Vietnam. We also send the invitations directly to universities in Vietnam. After receiving registrations, participants will be randomly selected using the randomise function in Excel. Each selected participant will be assigned an ID and a treatment group, and then sent the experiment link.
Randomization Unit
Individual.
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
450 universities in Vietnam
Sample size: planned number of observations
600 participants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
We send the invitations to all universities and randomly select the participants from all of the registration.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
548
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Sheffield
IRB Approval Date
2025-02-13
IRB Approval Number
066300
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials