This qualitative study explored the status of outcomes-based education (OBE) in Vietnam, analysing the strengths and areas for improvement as identified by assessors from the ASEAN University Network-Quality Assurance (AUN-QA) agency in the external assessment reports of 17 study programmes. Convenience sampling was employed to select these programmes. Thematic analysis was used for the narratives of these reports, together with quantitative analysis. The findings indicated that there are some signs of shifting to OBE in Vietnamese higher education as a result of complying with external requirements, yet observed changes tend to be on paper only regarding constructive alignment with curriculum design. The contradictory themes found in this study require further investigation to examine the impacts of AUN-QA on quality improvement in the Vietnamese context. As the research design was limited to content analysis, the voices of various stakeholders towards this regional quality assurance régime have not been fully explored.