The Vietnamese higher education context is characterised by state control, including the state's development of curriculum frameworks and materials. Institutional autonomy has been ratified by the government; however in practice, universities seem to have little control over curriculum. In order for universities to develop more ownership of curriculum, it is necessary to explore the foundational understandings of curriculum held by stakeholders. Thus, this paper explores the understandings of curriculum expressed by a group of senior staff, academics and students at a Vietnamese university. We found a diversity of understandings that tended to be product focused, teacher focused and textbook driven. We propose that our findings can be used as a starting point for developing more innovative and student-focused understandings of curriculum.