Fairness in university admissions

This year's university admissions season brings pressure not only from the exam itself, but also from the issue of fairness in admissions – a value that once seemed obvious, but has now become a major question.

THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING ALWAYS REQUIRES FAIRNESS IN ADMISSIONS…

In recent years, the Ministry of Education and Training has emphasized fairness among candidates in the admissions process. The Ministry has implemented several technical solutions to achieve this goal, such as adjusting priority points, eliminating early admissions, and converting equivalent admission scores between different admission methods and combinations.

This year's university entrance exam scores reveal some paradoxes and raise questions about fairness in university admissions.

PHOTO: DAO NGOC THACH

Faced with the situation where up to 82% of university admissions candidates received priority points, the Ministry of Education and Training adjusted the point levels and rearranged the priority areas more reasonably from 2014. In 2023, the Ministry of Education and Training further changed the method of calculating priority points for university admissions, so that candidates with higher exam scores would receive lower priority points, in order to prevent candidates from non-priority areas, even with very high exam scores, from failing to get admitted. Consequently, the Ministry reduced the priority points from 22.5 points and above, with reductions ranging from 0.75 points to 0 points.

The high school graduation exam has two objectives: to recognize the standard of general knowledge and to differentiate students for university admissions. However, with the policy of diversification, many universities also use academic transcripts, international certificates, aptitude tests, and their own entrance exams. Each tool has its own value, but this year, with the desire for fairness and transparency in admissions, the Ministry of Education and Training has provided the score distribution for common subject combinations in the high school graduation exam and high school academic results. Based on this, universities develop and clearly announce the conversion of admission scores between subject combinations and other methods.

According to regulations from the Ministry of Education and Training, this year all universities will use the percentile method to ensure that admission scores and entry thresholds are equivalent across different admission methods.

... In reality, there are too many paradoxes.

That's the theory, but the actual results are a complex conversion matrix because each school has a different conversion method. For example, the same 850 points from the National University of Ho Chi Minh City's aptitude test might be converted to 28 points at school A, but only 25 points at school B. Not to mention that many schools apply weighting factors that favor academic transcripts or aptitude tests, pushing up the cut-off scores based on the high school graduation exam, even though few students are actually admitted through this channel.

Successful candidates are completing the enrollment procedures. The candidates have just gone through a complicated admissions process involving the establishment of cutoff scores.

PHOTO: DAO NGOC THACH

Another reason for the high cutoff scores this year is the expansion of the subject combinations for admission, allowing candidates to choose the subject with the highest score. As a result, the cutoff scores for many majors have become distorted, not reflecting the actual exam scores. Candidates are put in a "gamble," while universities are also caught up in complicated formulas instead of proactively making choices. These factors lead to unfairness in the admissions process for candidates who only use their exam scores.

This year's admissions season has seen many cases of candidates scoring only 20-23 points on the high school graduation exam but still getting accepted into majors with announced cutoff scores of 25-27. The paradox is even greater when many majors have perfect cutoff scores of 30/30, including those with only two subjects, mathematics and English, even though the scores for these subjects have decreased. The reason lies in the universities' bonus point policies.

The policies regarding awarding points and converting international foreign language certificates are also inconsistent. Some schools only convert the certificates, while others both convert them and add up to 3 points. As a result, the admission scores are often much higher than the exam scores. Even within the same school, the conversion methods differ between different majors.

This leads to a paradox: a candidate with 27 points, plus priority points and a foreign language certificate, gets their score raised to 30 points and is admitted to a "hot" major. Conversely, a candidate with a genuine 29 points fails because they are short… 1 point for the bonus points.

THE BALANCE OF JUSTICE HAS BEEN REVERSED

In light of this situation, the head of the training department at a university in Ho Chi Minh City believes that the actual effectiveness of continuous adjustments to the admissions process needs to be re-evaluated.

This expert analyzes an example of changes in the policy regarding priority points and bonus points in college admissions.

"These adjustments are reasonable if there are no new regulations this year allowing universities to add bonus points for admissions according to their own rules. Accordingly, universities have many different ways to add bonus points for candidates applying to the school, such as: foreign language certificates, students from specialized/gifted schools, other international certificates, awards, and even points for students from high schools that have signed cooperation agreements with the university… Although the Ministry has regulations limiting the maximum bonus points to 10% of the total admission score, 3 points out of a total of 30 points becomes a very big issue," this expert commented.

"Not only does it add points, but allowing schools to convert international foreign language certificates into English scores for admission further leads to significant inequality between students from affluent economic backgrounds living in urban areas, who have the means and opportunities to achieve high scores on IELTS certificates, and students from disadvantaged economic backgrounds living in remote areas who lack the opportunity to study for foreign language certificates," this expert continued, analyzing the fairness aspect of this year's admissions process.

Previously, there have been instances of university entrance exam scores reaching 30/30, or even above 30 points, due to regional priority points. However, when the regional priority policy was adjusted, another injustice arose: the addition of foreign language points, as analyzed above.

Thus, while regional priority points, originally intended for the majority of disadvantaged areas, are being tightened, bonus points for international certificates and awards for outstanding students—which were originally intended for a small group of people with better resources—are being expanded. The balance of fairness is reversed.

We can learn from the US experience. Although they use a multi-channel admissions system—GPA, SAT/ACT scores, AP/IB scores, plus essays and extracurricular activities—they don't convert everything to a single scale. GPA remains above 4.0; SAT/ACT scores have their own scales; and so do AP/IB scores. Universities build comprehensive admissions models that consider individual contexts. This means they manage differences, rather than eliminating them.

Vietnam, however, is taking the opposite approach: homogenizing everything into a hypothetical scoring system. The consequence is superficial fairness, but underlying injustice.

Both IELTS 5.0 and 8.5 are converted to a 10.

According to this year's admissions regulations, universities can convert foreign language certificates into foreign language scores to be included in the subject combinations for admission consideration. To convert an IELTS certificate into a 10-point English score, some universities accept a 5.0, while others require an 8.5. For example, the Diplomatic Academy stipulates that a 7.0 IELTS score is equivalent to only 8.5 points in English; only scores of 8.5 or higher are converted to 10 points. Meanwhile, the University of Commerce accepts IELTS certificates with a score of 5.0 or higher as a 10-point English score.

The system for awarding bonus points to candidates with international foreign language certificates varies among universities. For example, the National Economics University awards 0.75 points to all candidates with international English certificates, regardless of their score. Meanwhile, Hanoi University awards bonus points to candidates with foreign language certificates ranging from 1 to 4, but not exceeding 10% of the total admission score.

There are some teacher training programs where most candidates are admitted based solely on their academic transcripts.

This year, universities must convert equivalent scores between different admission methods and consider them collectively, without differentiating between the quotas of each method. Therefore, candidates with a higher converted score in a particular method will be admitted according to that method.

That is one of the reasons why in some fields, including teacher training, the admission scores suddenly skyrocketed, and the list of admitted students mainly consisted of those admitted through the academic transcript review method because their transcript scores were usually higher than their high school graduation exam scores. This creates an unfair situation for candidates admitted based on their high school graduation exam scores.

"This situation didn't happen every year because each admission method was based on separate criteria, but this year the Ministry stipulated equivalent scores and a unified admission process. Therefore, to meet the quota, universities are forced to increase their cutoff scores. When the cutoff score for the high school graduation exam increases, the cutoff scores for other methods also increase. In that case, candidates with higher scores in one method will be admitted through that method; there's no other way," said a leader of a university offering teacher training programs.

"This admissions process is chaotic and unfair to candidates, but the school cannot address it because it must comply with the Ministry's regulations. Given this situation, the school's teacher training program will no longer consider academic transcripts for admission next year," this person shared.

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Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cong-bang-tuyen-sinh-dai-hoc-185250827211900076.htm