Stratification of higher education is one of the issues that has received considerable attention from Vietnamese educators and managers. This process is highly expected to be implemented in the Vietnamese higher education. Based on results of previous research relating to this issue and the context of higher education in Vietnam, the research was conducted on building classification indicators to contribute to concretising the stratification and ranking of universities. This research aims to develop indicators to serve management and ranking universities, while advancing stratification of higher education institutions in Vietnam in the future. Therefore, this study focused on the research question of how the construction of indicators for classifying tertiary education in Vietnam is built. The study used the quantitative method by surveying over 250 staff members from 5 universities. The research results in identification of 4 criteria with 29 indicators.