Ministry of Education and Training plans to 'tighten' university admissions using academic records

The Ministry of Education and Training has just introduced a draft circular amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Regulations on university and college admissions for preschool education . Accordingly, the Ministry has added conditions for university admission based on academic records.

Accordingly, the draft amends and supplements a number of articles of the Regulations on university and college admissions in Preschool Education issued with Circular 08/2022/TT-BGDDT in 2022 of the Minister of Education and Training.

Add conditions for admission based on academic records

Specifically, according to the draft, Article 6 is expected to be amended and supplemented as follows:

For admission methods based on academic results, exam results by subject (including total scores of high school subjects, high school graduation exam scores, foreign language certificates and other assessment results):

- The subject combination used for admission includes at least 3 subjects suitable to the characteristics and requirements of the training program, including math or literature with an assessment weight of at least 1/3 of the total score;

- A training program, major, or group of majors can use several subject combinations at the same time for admission consideration. In that case, the common number of subjects in the combinations must have an assessment weight of at least 50% of the total score;

- In case of using high school study results for admission, the candidate's entire 12th grade study results must be used.

The method of converting the scores for each training program, major, and group of majors must ensure that each candidate has the opportunity to achieve the maximum score, and at the same time, no candidate has a score exceeding the maximum score (including priority points, bonus points, and incentive points).

IMG_75C8CE128B17 1.jpg — Candidates taking the high school graduation exam. Illustration photo: Thanh Hung

The draft also abolishes Clause 2 and amends and supplements Clause 1, Article 9 of Circular 08. Specifically, the entry threshold for teacher training majors and majors in the health sector that issue practice certificates for the following training admission methods:

- Academic results in all 3 levels of high school are ranked Good or higher or high school graduation score is 8 or higher, except for the following cases.

- Academic results in all 3 years of high school are ranked at Good or higher or high school graduation score of 6.5 or higher for the majors of Physical Education, Music Pedagogy, Fine Arts Pedagogy; Preschool Education at college level and the majors of Nursing, Preventive Medicine, Midwifery, Dental Prosthetics, Medical Testing, Medical Imaging, and Rehabilitation.

Tighten early admission quotas

The draft circular also amends and supplements Clauses 1 and 2, Article 18 of Circular 08.

According to the draft, training institutions can organize early admissions in an appropriate manner to select candidates with outstanding abilities and academic achievements. The early admission quota is determined by the training institution but does not exceed 20% of the quota for each training major or group; ensuring that the admission score for early admissions (after equivalent conversion) is not lower than the admission score of the general planned admission round.

Training institutions organize admission exams for candidates who have completed the admission procedures, publicly announce the list of candidates who are eligible for admission; the number of candidates announced to be admitted must not exceed the announced early admission quota of each training major or group of majors; candidates must not be required to commit or confirm admission earlier than the general schedule in any form.

The draft also adds responsibilities of training institutions in the recruitment process. Specifically, training institutions must provide full information, advice and guidance to candidates, not allowing candidates to register for a training program, major or group of majors without meeting the requirements; be responsible and proactive in resolving the transfer of candidates due to errors in recruitment.

The Ministry of Education and Training said the draft is under construction and is seeking comments for completion.

V-SAT is not a test of the Ministry of Education and Training in university admissions.

The Ministry of Education and Training affirmed that there is no policy to assign the National Testing Center and Education Quality Assessment to develop the V-SAT test for schools to use in university admissions.