Top Australian universities directly admit Vietnamese students based on academic records

Representative of a top Australian university advises Vietnamese parents and students

On the afternoon of October 21, Duc Anh Study Abroad Consulting Company coordinated with 8 top Australian universities (Group of Eight) to organize an information day in Ho Chi Minh City. According to the 2024 World University Rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (UK), the schools in Group of Eight are all in the top 100 with not too different rankings. All have a policy of directly recruiting Vietnamese students, each school has different criteria.

Reasons for no essays or extracurricular activities

Unlike the US, many top Australian universities only care about the average grade point average (GPA) from the applicant’s transcript, not essays or extracurricular activities. For example, from 2023, the Australian National University will directly admit Vietnamese students from 92 specialized and elite schools based on their Grade 12 GPA, according to Mr. Andy Pham, Senior Manager of the Mekong region at the university.

Specifically, students need to have a Grade 12 GPA of 8.5 or higher, an IELTS score of 6.5 or higher, no skill below 6.0 or equivalent English certificates. The Australian National University only relies on these two factors to recruit students and award scholarships. "We do not care about essays, extracurricular activities or SAT, and submitting these documents in your application will only complicate the review process," Mr. Andy emphasized.

According to Mr. Andy, this year the school offers about 200 25% and 50% scholarships to international students at all levels, with priority given to Vietnamese students. To compete, candidates need to have a 12th grade GPA of 9.4 (bachelor's degree) or a graduation GPA of 8.7 (master's degree). "The school has an admissions period every month. Admission letters are sent on the 1st of each month and scholarship results are available after a week," Mr. Andy added.

GPA and English proficiency are two factors that help Vietnamese students get direct admission, according to Mr. Andy Pham.

Ms. Trinh Ngo, Senior Manager of Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand at the University of Western Australia, said that from 2022, the school will also directly recruit Vietnamese students from about 100 specialized and key schools. This is an increase of nearly 4 times compared to 2017, when the school first piloted this policy with 27 specialized schools. "The University of Western Australia highly values ​​the quality of Vietnamese generaleducation and Vietnamese international students at the school always achieve good results," Ms. Trinh explained the reason for the school expanding the list.

According to Ms. Trinh, to be admitted to most majors at the University of Western Australia, students need to have a Grade 12 GPA of 8 or higher. For scholarships, the school also awards according to GPA, with requirements increasing from 8.4 to 9.3 for levels from 6,000 AUD (92 million VND) to a maximum of 12,000 AUD (185 million VND).

"Good English is not a criterion for scholarship consideration because 80% of students at the school are native speakers and English is their mother tongue. Extracurricular activities are also not important because the school has 160 clubs for students to participate in outside of class hours, those who do not have experience will have it. Only GPA is the most accurate measure of a candidate's academic ability, and is the only factor that if you do not have enough, the school has no way to compensate," Ms. Trinh stated her opinion.

Sharing more perspectives on the fact that top Australian schools do not require essays or extracurricular activities when enrolling students, Ms. Lu Thi Hong Nham, Director of Duc Anh Study Abroad Consulting Company, acknowledged that each country has its own priorities. Australia focuses on the practical aspect, which means that applicants must have academic ability. Therefore, GPA is the first and most important factor that reflects this.

Ms. Hong Nham advises candidates to focus on improving their GPA if they choose to study in Australia.

"Australian universities can absolutely teach students how to write essays or train them about people and ideals. They also have activities and clubs for students to participate in. On the other hand, many students in remote areas have difficulty accessing extracurricular activities or learning how to write essays, and considering these factors for admission will be unfair to them," Ms. Nham assessed, adding that the fields in Australia that are "attracting" Vietnamese international students are business, engineering, IT, education and medicine.

Scholarships exclusively for Vietnamese

The University of Sydney is also one of the units that directly recruits Vietnamese students from nearly 100 specialized and key schools over the past many years. This year, Mr. Alex Vu, Director of Admissions and International Cooperation of the University of Sydney in Vietnam, said that the school added some new names such as Mac Dinh Chi High School, Nguyen Huu Huan High School... to create opportunities for Vietnamese students.

Notably, from the beginning of 2022, the University of Sydney has opened a scholarship fund specifically for Vietnamese people for the first time. Students only need to write an essay according to the school's requirements to have a chance to receive a 20% scholarship. "The decision to establish a scholarship fund comes from the fact that the University of Sydney gradually recognizes the quality of high schools in Vietnam, and at the same time realizes that the learning ability of Vietnamese international students is not inferior to that of native students," Mr. Alex explained.

Similarly, Ms. Thao Pham, Admissions Manager for Vietnam and Cambodia at the University of Adelaide, said that the school has reserved two 50% tuition scholarships for Vietnamese people. This is a new scholarship scheme launched this year. To compete, candidates need to have a Grade 12 GPA of 9.8 (undergraduate) or a graduation GPA of 9.5 (master's). In addition, the school also has many scholarship packages of 15-30% for international students at all levels, all based on GPA.

The scholarship program specifically for Vietnamese international students is a new feature in this year's enrollment, according to Ms. Thao Pham.

"The University of Adelaide directly admits Vietnamese students regardless of whether they are from a specialized school or not, and this is also the first educational institution in the Group of Eight to apply this policy. Because we believe that the more complicated the admission process is, the more it limits Vietnamese students' access to international education," said Ms. Thao.

According to statistics from the Australian Department of Education, there were 710,893 international students studying in Australia as of July 2023. Of these, Vietnam had a total of 27,764 international students, ranking 6th after China, India, Nepal, Colombia and the Philippines. To live in Australia at the present time, the Australian Department of Home Affairs advises international students to ensure finances of about 25,000 USD (600 million VND) per year.

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