Ministry of Education and Training stated the reason for changing university admission regulations.

Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training announced a draft circular amending and supplementing a number of articles of the regulations on university and college admissions for preschool education (hereinafter referred to as university admissions). Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy, Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training, said: "Currently, training institutions use many methods and subject combinations for admission to the same training program and major, while some training institutions (hereinafter referred to as universities) reserve too many quotas for early admission, or set too many bonus points for foreign language certificates. On the other hand, 2025 is the first year that students under the new general education program will be admitted to university. Therefore, it is necessary to reform the admission regulations to meet the requirements of the innovations in the 2018 General Education Program, creating a positive impact on teaching and learning at the high school level."

Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy, Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training

PHOTO: DAO NGOC THACH

AVOID ABUSE OF BONUS POINTS, CAUSING INJUSTICE TO CANDIDATES

Madam, a new point of the draft circular is that the review scores and admission scores of the admission methods and combinations must be converted to a common scale. Why is there this regulation?

In recent years, most universities have allocated separate quotas for each admission method, even for each combination of admission subjects, from which they apply admission criteria to calculate the candidates' scores and determine the admission scores from high to low until the quota for each method and combination of admission subjects is exhausted. This helps schools to use early admission to proactively complete their enrollment plans.

However, there is hardly any scientific or practical basis for allocating quotas between admission methods or combinations of subjects for a training program, leading to problems such as unreasonable differences in admission scores between admission methods and combinations of subjects, while pushing the benchmark score of the admission method based on high school graduation exam scores up very high because the quota for this method is not much left, especially in "hot" majors and schools. This causes unfair opportunities for candidates who do not have access to many admission methods.

Therefore, this draft revised regulation basically stipulates the unified application of equivalent conversion of admission scores of methods and subject combinations to a common, unified scale for each training program, industry, and group of industries, on that basis determining the admission score from high to low for all quotas of the training program, industry, and group of industries, except for cases of direct admission and early admission of candidates with outstanding abilities and achievements.

The draft also stipulates that the conversion method must ensure the opportunity for candidates to achieve the maximum score of the general scale, and at the same time, no candidate has a score exceeding this maximum score. Training institutions will have to research to re-regulate the addition of points for foreign language certificates and other priority points, thereby limiting abuse that causes unfairness between candidates with different investment conditions for studying.

At that time, all candidates applying for a training program will be considered fairly based on a common score scale and a common admission standard, the chance of admission of truly capable candidates will increase and the quality of input of schools will also increase. Schools still have the opportunity to consider early admission to proactively compete to recruit the best candidates, at the same time, students with the best abilities will still have the opportunity to be admitted early to proactively decide to choose the most suitable learning path.

K OVERCOMING PROBLEMS CAUSED BY EARLY RECRUITMENT

On what basis does the Ministry plan to limit the quota to no more than 20% with early admission methods?

The 20% limit is based on the practical situation of enrollment in recent years, so that early enrollment only focuses on candidates with outstanding abilities and academic achievements, limiting the impact on students' studies in the final semester of grade 12 and high school graduation exam preparation. The most important thing is to create fairness among candidates when applying, not all students are able to participate in early enrollment before completing the grade 12 program.

Reducing the scale of early admission not only does not cause difficulties, but also creates more favorable conditions for the admission work of schools and for candidates. Whether early admission is applied or only in the general round, the total number of candidates registered for admission will not change, so why do schools have to work hard to compete for early admission? Why do students who have not completed the 12th grade program have to work hard to submit their applications to many places, and then not feel secure in studying, while the Ministry of Education and Training has a common admission support system with a full database, an online process that is completely convenient for both candidates and schools. It is time for us to look back at the trend of early admission (which has only been popular for the past 5-6 years) in a very objective way, to have a fundamental solution, to completely resolve the problems arising from it.

This regulation will help overcome the shortcomings arising from early admission, now schools will not have to spend too much time and resources on this admission or many 12th grade students will neglect their studies when they know the admission results.

Universities advise 12th graders on career choices

photo: peach jade

TO NO LONGER HAVE UNREASONABLE STANDARD SCORE DIFFERENCES

What is the basis for the Ministry of Education and Training to believe that converting to the same scale and considering regardless of method is more fair, madam?

So what is the basis for schools to propose different admission methods or combinations for a training program or major, when the input requirements must be the same in principle? It must come from the fact that these admission methods and combinations all have appropriate assessment criteria to evaluate the student's learning capacity according to the requirements of the training program or major. Thus, the assessment criteria of admission methods and combinations for the same training program or major must be comparable.

Converting admission scores to the same scale is to ensure that schools can choose the most suitable admission methods for the major/training program they are recruiting, and at the same time compare candidates with each other to choose the most suitable candidate to study (regardless of using high school graduation exam scores, transcript scores or results of independent exams, international certificates). If schools cannot ensure such comparison, what is the basis for coming up with different admission methods?

In fact, in the past, the selection based on the criteria of each method without comparing or converting equivalents has caused unfairness among candidates. Therefore, the revised regulations are to increase the responsibility of universities in the recruitment work, and must be thoroughly researched so that there is no longer an unreasonable difference in admission scores between the admission combinations and between the admission methods without any basis for explanation.

The Ministry of Education and Training issued the above regulations to implement a basic principle in education, which is fairness, thereby improving the quality of enrollment and training, and absolutely does not create any barriers or have the purpose of forcing schools to use high school graduation exam scores for admission.

New core points

According to Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy, the core new points in university admissions in 2025 include:

Adjusting regulations on input quality assurance thresholds for pedagogy and health sectors;

Early admission quotas are determined by the university but do not exceed 20% of the quotas for each major or group of majors;

The admission scores and passing scores of the methods and subject combinations used for admission must be converted to a common, unified scale for each training program, major, and group of majors;

Admission based on transcripts must use the entire 12th grade academic results of the candidate...

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bo-gd-dt-neu-ly-do-thay-doi-quy-che-tuyen-sinh-dh-185241126193429376.htm