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This study aimed to utilize Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA) for a thorough evaluation of policy documents concerning the digital transformation in Vietnam's higher education sector.

Adopting a quantitative ethnography approach, this research employed ENA to analyse a curated collection of 21 documents that specifically addressed higher education (HE) and digital transformation within Vietnam. The study also incorporated qualitative content analysis, utilizing the constant comparison method as outlined by Onwuegbuzie et al. (2009), for data coding. ENA facilitated the examination of connections among various policy aspects.

The study revealed a consistent overarching theme in Vietnam's digital transformation policies during and post-pandemic, focusing on key areas such as ADMINISTRATION, VISION, QUALITY, and INFRASTRUCTURE. However, a temporal shift in emphasis was observed: during the pandemic, policies were more focused on ADMINISTRATION and INFRASTRUCTURE, while post-pandemic, there was an increased emphasis on COLLAB, VISION, and TEACH_LEARN.

This research represents one of the initial efforts to showcase the utility and significance of ENA in analysing policy documents. It underscores ENA's potential in elucidating the complex interplay of policy elements in the context of digital transformation in higher education, particularly within a developing country setting.

Recognition that not every climate adaptation policy is a good one has shifted attention to new tools and methods to measure the adequacy and effectiveness of adaptation policies. This study aims to propose and apply and applies an innovative adaptation policy assessment framework to identify the extent to which climate adaptation policies in Vietnam exhibit conditions that are likely to ensure a sufficient, credible and effective adaptation.

In total, 21 conditions, categorized under five normative principles and covering critical issue areas in adaptation domain, form the climate adaptation policy assessment framework. The principles were double-checked and tested in case studies through observations and analyses of policy documents to ensure that each condition should be distinct and not overlapping across principles. To see if the principles and attendant conditions were able to capture all relevant aspects of adaptation, the authors used structured expert judgment. In total, 39 policy documents pertaining to climate change adaptation were selected for qualitative document analysis. In-depth interviews with local officials and experts were conducted to address data gaps.

The study reveals major weaknesses constituting a reasonably worrisome picture of the adaptation policies in Vietnam since several critical conditions were underrepresented. These results shed new light on why some adaptation policies falter or are posing adverse impacts. The findings suggest that a sound policy assessment framework can provide evidence on what effective adaptation policy looks like and how it can be enabled. The framework for climate adaptation policy assessment in this study can be easily adjusted and used for different socio-environmental contexts in which new conditions for policy assessment might emerge.

The findings show underlying weaknesses constituting a reasonably worrisome picture of the adaptation regime in Vietnam. In the absence of mechanisms and measures for accountability and transparency in policy processes, adaptation in Vietnam appears more likely to be prone to maladaptation and corruption. While solving these problems will not be easy for Vietnam, the government needs to evaluate whether the short-term gains in sustaining the existing adaptation policies really make progress and serve its long-term climate-adaptive development goals.

Although interpretations of adaptation effectiveness may be very divergent in different normative views on adaptation outcomes, the authors argue that a common, agreed-upon effectiveness can be reached if it is clearly defined and measurable in adaptation policies. Thus, the climate adaptation policy assessment framework proposed in this study is critical for policymakers, practitioners, donors and stakeholders dealing with adaptation to better understand the weaknesses in policymaking processes, pinpoint priority areas of action and timely prevent or prepare for possible adverse impacts of policies.