Consider reducing early admission to university

“Higher education institutions may only be allowed to enroll 20% of their enrollment quotas early,” this is one of the new points in the Draft Circular amending and supplementing the Admissions Regulations recently announced by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). This is to limit early admissions with the goal of increasing fairness in enrollment.

Ensuring fairness in admissions

There are currently up to 20 different admission methods, opening many doors for candidates to enter university. But to open them, many candidates have to invest effort in studying and their families have to invest money for them to take international certificates. The case of Nguyen Tuan Thanh (grade 12, Bac Luong Son High School, Thach That District, Hanoi) is an example. Twice a week, after school, with just enough time to have a light meal, Thanh had to ride his motorbike more than 30 km to the English Center on Tran Duy Hung Street (Cau Giay District) to study for the IELTS international certificate with many other students of the same age. "Previously, I studied English in many places, spending a lot of money but did not achieve the desired results. To study for the IELTS certificate, my family paid me about 50-60 million VND in tuition. I want to be admitted to the best universities, so I have to study for the foreign language certificate and the high school exam of the Ministry of Education and Training, so it is very difficult," Thanh said.

Many universities also consider SAT certificates - an American competency assessment test with a tuition fee considered more expensive than IELTS certification. In addition, 8 domestic universities also organize separate exams to assess competency and thinking. Depending on the conditions and abilities of the candidates, the total cost of studying and taking all types of certificates can be up to hundreds of millions of VND. Thus, for candidates who do not have the conditions, there is little opportunity to participate in the above admission methods.

University admission is currently divided into two phases: Schools conduct early admission, before the high school graduation exam results are available, and general admission after the high school graduation exam results are available. Schools can use one or more methods for early admission (Admission of students who have won national and international awards; Review of academic records; Review of test scores to assess ability and thinking; Review of international standardized test certificates (SAT); Review of international foreign language certificates (IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC ...).

Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training has announced a draft circular amending and supplementing the admission regulations. In particular, it stipulates that schools are only allowed to reserve 20% of their quotas for early admission. According to the Ministry of Education and Training, in recent years, university and college admissions have been innovated in the direction of ensuring autonomy foreducational institutions, but there has been a situation where schools reserve too many quotas for early admission. Therefore, it is necessary to limit early admission so that it only focuses on candidates with outstanding abilities and academic achievements, limiting the impact on the learning of 12th graders as well as the preparation for the high school graduation exam.

The Ministry of Education and Training has proposed that from 2025, universities will only be allowed to use 20% of their quota for early admission. Currently, the allocation of quotas among early admission methods is considered to have no scientific basis. Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy, Director of the Department of Higher Education (Ministry of Education and Training) said: "This has pushed the admission score based on high school graduation exam results to very high levels in many schools and many highly competitive majors. In fact, there have been candidates who graduated with up to 39 points but still failed the university entrance exam. This causes unfair opportunities for candidates when they do not have access to many different admission methods."

At the recent regular Government meeting, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son assessed: “Training institutions must prepare from the beginning of the year for enrollment and collecting application documents; students in grade 12 run around to get certificates to prepare their application documents; high schools, teachers must confirm for this enrollment work. All are hard work but the results are not high.”

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, out of 8 candidates who passed the early admission exam, only 2 candidates wanted to study. In other words, for every 2 candidates who passed the early admission exam, only 1 student would enroll, because on average, a student had 4 options. Meanwhile, each school will do the early admission exam independently, and when the Ministry conducts a general admission exam for candidates to choose their options, it will create virtual candidates.

In addition, each school and each industry cannot predict the virtual candidates, leading to schools wanting to consider early admission to meet the quota, having more early admission quotas, leading to uncertain determination of quotas and admission scores. Admission scores are often lowered to have more admitted candidates. From the stage of forecasting the admission rate incorrectly causing great damage, at the same time having no basis, leading to the admission scores in the main admission period of some industries skyrocketing. There are students with 25 points who are likely to be admitted, but then the admission score is raised to 26 points because some students have been admitted through early admission. "That is unfair," Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son affirmed.

The University Admissions Regulations are being consulted to ensure fairness for candidates.

Should only apply for admission based on transcripts?

Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training held a discussion on the Draft Regulations on University and College Admissions for Preschool Education with the participation of about 50 experts and experienced people directly involved in admissions. Many opinions agreed with the draft, following the principles of fairness, quality and efficiency.

Ms. Vuong Huong Giang, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, emphasized that this is the locality with the largest number of candidates confirming admission to universities and colleges in the country in recent years. In 2024 alone, the number of candidates registering for admission is 107,127. In fact, in recent years, when supporting candidates to participate in early admission to universities and colleges, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training found that candidates have completed many applications to many educational institutions, leading to high schools spending a lot of time and effort to print transcripts and confirm applications for candidates, while this is the peak time for the high school graduation exam.

The most worrying thing right now is the 20% figure for early admission, while for a long time schools have reserved 30-80% of their quota for this method. Many opinions say that considering the quota with the admission method based on academic records is necessary because there have been too many doubts about cheating and academic records. However, other admission methods such as excellent students and students with international certificates need to be considered. Associate Professor Vu Duy Hai, Head of the Career Guidance Admissions Department, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, said: "The Semiconductor or Artificial Intelligence majors are attracting many excellent students, but if these majors are also limited to about 20% for early admission, the number of students who can be admitted by the admission method to Hanoi University of Science and Technology this year will require exceptionally excellent achievements. Therefore, in my opinion, the Ministry of Education and Training should loosen the early admission quota for each major and each training program."

Professor, Doctor of Science Nguyen Dinh Duc, University of Technology, Vietnam National University, Hanoi contributed: “Thanks to the early admission policy, Vietnam National University, Hanoi has recruited talented students to continue pursuing their passion in basic science majors and in fact, this is also international practice, the rate of the University of Technology and many other schools is 50%. If the rate is limited to 20%, it will cause problems and is unreasonable for the schools. The 20% quota should only be applied to admission based on academic records.”

In recent years, many students have achieved high graduation scores but failed to pass university entrance exams, which is a consequence of too many early admissions, while the quality of academic records in many localities is an open issue. The Ministry of Education and Training is looking to re-coordinate the fairness of admissions. However, the percentage of early admissions needs to be carefully considered, and the implementation needs to have reasonable and sympathetic technical solutions to ensure high feasibility.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Dao Tung, Director of the Academy of Finance, proposed: “We need to boldly eliminate the early admission form, because the 20% for early admission does not have much meaning. We propose to push forward the first round of admission so that in the second round, schools can continue to enroll students with real aspirations.”