Low Math scores, Ministry of Education and Training "loosens" regulations on training standards for semiconductor industry

Low Math scores, Ministry of Education and Training

Products designed and manufactured based on semiconductor technology developed by teachers and students of the University of Technology - National University. (Source: University of Technology)

The Ministry of Education and Training has just issued Decision No. 2101/QD-BGDDT amending the training program standards on semiconductor microchips at the undergraduate and master's levels. Accordingly, the Ministry of Education and Training stipulates that candidates applying for admission to the semiconductor industry must belong to the group of 25% of candidates with the highest combined admission subject scores nationwide and the group of 20% of candidates with the highest Math scores nationwide.

Previously, on May 13, the Ministry of Education and Training issued Decision No. 1314/QD-BGDDT on Standards for Semiconductor Training Programs at the undergraduate and master's levels. In this document, the admission conditions for the admission method based on high school graduation exam scores are that candidates must have a minimum score of 8/10 points or higher in the Math exam and a total score of three subjects in the admission combination of at least 24/30 points. For other methods, the converted admission score is equivalent to the above conditions.

Thus, the new admission conditions for the semiconductor industry have been adjusted by the Ministry of Education and Training to be more flexible, based on a percentage instead of setting a specific score.

This is considered suitable for real conditions, especially in the context of universities being confused because of the sharp decrease in math scores this year.

According to the announcement of the Ministry of Education and Training, the Math exam scores in this year's High School Graduation Exam have over 56% of students scoring below average. The average Math score is 4.78 points, down 1.67 points compared to 6.45 points in 2024.

The total number of candidates scoring 8 points or higher in Math this year is 40,358, accounting for less than 3.6% of the total 1,126,172 candidates taking the exam, while in 2024, this rate is 19%.

Faced with this situation, some universities such as Vietnam-Japan University and the University of Natural Sciences (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) have proactively removed the requirement that candidates must achieve a minimum score of 8 points in Mathematics and 24/30 points in combination when announcing the minimum score for admission to microchip and semiconductor majors.

However, this threshold regulation only applies to 18 higher education institutions participating in the program "Developing human resources for the semiconductor industry to 2030, with a vision to 2050" according to Decision No. 1017/QD-TTg dated September 21, 2024 of the Prime Minister.

The list of these educational institutions is as follows:

Low Math scores, Ministry of Education and Training