This case study of a university in Vietnam examines how professionalism is established and managed in the university context as manifested in institutional quality assurance policies and practices towards academic staff development. By looking at both ‘regulations and instrumentalities’, the research showcases the different political forces involving in the making of professionalism. The findings suggest that the professionalism emerging from the case study is informed by a managerialist ethos. This striving university with its globalised logic can, in turn, be interpreted against a backdrop of larger socio-cultural contexts. In constructing the contemporary professionalism, there exist several forces and together they form an ecology system that includes both internal and external pressures under the overarching globalisation. A better understanding of these forces raises other questions about how they might change the traditional relationship between university and academic staff members, the impact of globalisation and the nature of teacher work and autonomy in higher education.