Hot industry floor points 'plummet'

TP - With low scores and the risk of a lack of recruitment sources, many universities have announced minimum scores of less than 5 points per subject. The issue of ensuring the quality of human resources is once again raised.

Minimum 4 points/subject

More than 70 universities have announced the minimum scores for receiving applications for admission. This is only the score for receiving applications, not the standard scores of the schools. The standard scores are expected to be announced on August 16 when the Ministry of Education and Training finishes filtering. Notably, this year's minimum scores range from 12 to 24 points. Compared to last year, this year's minimum scores can be said to have hit rock bottom. In 2024, the minimum scores are usually around 15/30 points.

The University of Labor and Social Affairs announced that the minimum score for the Economic Law major is 18/30 points. The minimum score for the remaining majors is 14/30 points. Hung Yen University of Technical Education accepts applications from 14 points/3 subjects of the 2025 high school graduation exam. The lowest score to date is 12 points/3 subjects of Hung Vuong University (HCMC). The minimum score of Quang Trung University for considering graduation exam scores is only 13-14 points/3 subjects.

The number of universities announcing the minimum score from 15 points is quite large, mainly non-public universities such as Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Saigon International University, Hong Bang International University, Hoa Sen University, Van Lang University...

Many prestigious public universities have a minimum score of 16 points/3 subjects such as the University of Natural Sciences (Ho Chi Minh City National University), even the International University (Ho Chi Minh City National University) accepts applications from 15-24 points/combination of 3 subjects for the high school graduation exam.

Some universities are implementing the program of developing human resources for the semiconductor industry until 2030, with a vision to 2045 according to Decision 1017 of the Government. Schools on the list of enrolling students in some majors related to semiconductor chips, with training program standards according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training must meet two conditions in parallel: a graduation exam score in Mathematics of 8 points or higher and a combination of admission scores of 24 points or higher. However, after the Ministry of Education and Training announced the score distribution, some schools on this list ignored this condition. For example, Vietnam - Japan University (Hanoi National University) is also in the 1017 program with the major of semiconductor chip engineering technology. The floor score announced by the school for this major is 19 points.

The University of Science (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) has a Semiconductor Technology Program (Materials Science major) in the 1017 program, but when announcing the floor score, the school determined to accept applications from 20 points/admission combination.

Hot industry "falls"

The University of Natural Sciences (Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City) announced the minimum score ranging from 16 to 24 points. Of which, the two majors of semiconductor technology and microchip design have the highest minimum score because they are part of the 1017 program and are equivalent to 2024. However, many majors of the school have their minimum scores reduced from 0.5 to 6 points. The major of Data Science (one of the hottest majors today), last year the minimum score was 24, now it has dropped to 18 points.

Candidates taking the 2025 high school graduation exam. Photo: Nhu Y

The minimum score for artificial intelligence, computer and information technology, computer science (advanced program) and information technology (English enhancement program) also decreased by 4 points, to 20 points.

The floor score for many hot majors of Van Lang University this year also decreased by 1 point such as multimedia communications, graphic design, law, English language, Korean language... from 16 points (in 2024) to 15 points.

The Academy of Posts and Telecommunications Technology is training a series of trendy majors such as artificial intelligence of all things, telecommunications electronics engineering, and automatic control, but this year the common floor score has decreased by 3 points, from 22 points (2024) to 19 points/combination.

Worried about lack of recruitment?

Explaining the reason for the simultaneous decrease in schools, experts analyzed that all higher education institutions are not allowed to recruit students early (except for direct recruitment according to the Ministry's regulations), so the actual number of candidates participating in the selection cannot be determined. In previous years, when the selection process ended early, many schools had recruited 50-70% of their quotas, and had "backed capital", so when participating in the general selection process using the high school graduation exam results, they could confidently set a high floor score. Therefore, this year, many schools accepted to set a "rock bottom" floor score, even though it might reduce their brand, in order to recruit enough quotas with the view that it is better to have too much than not enough. On the other hand, the score distribution this year decreased due to the differentiation of the exam questions. These are the two main reasons affecting the floor score. An objective reason is the risk of a lack of recruitment sources, because this year, the military schools returned to recruiting civilian students and the top schools continued to increase their quotas.

However, experts advise candidates to avoid falling into the "floor score trap". In a recent online consultation program, MSc. Nguyen Tran Ngoc Phuong, Director of the Marketing and Brand Development Center of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, reminded candidates about the difference between the floor score and the benchmark score. The floor score is the minimum score that candidates need to achieve when registering their wishes to the school. The benchmark score is the admission score after the school considers the slope from the floor score to the application. Therefore, candidates should be careful, the floor score is sometimes a "trap". MSc. Ngoc Phuong advised candidates to refer to the data on score distribution and benchmark scores of previous years before registering their wishes.

Dr. Vo Thanh Hai, Vice President of Duy Tan University, said that most schools set the minimum score at the lowest level. Candidates should register for many wishes. From the score distribution of subjects, it can be seen that the number of candidates achieving scores of 21-27/combination is quite large. Therefore, when registering, candidates need to carefully read the admission plan of the schools to understand the secondary criteria, avoiding the situation of passing and failing like in previous years.

In recent years, there has been a situation where the floor score is one thing and the standard score is another. The standard score is sometimes 5-6 points different from the floor score, and some majors are even 8 points different. Candidates need to understand these two concepts clearly to make the right decisions, avoiding wasting time and money without achieving what they want.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/diem-san-nganh-hot-tut-doc-post1762676.tpo