The reason why block C is gradually disappearing in university admissions

khối C - Ảnh 1. — Candidates participating in the 2025 Hanoi National University of Education's competency assessment exam - Photo: NGUYEN BAO

Instead of considering the combination of three subjects: literature - history - geography in the traditional way, many schools are reducing the number of subjects they recruit or eliminating them altogether, requiring consideration of two out of three subjects and requiring the addition of math or English.

Universities all reduce and eliminate admission to block C

The University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH), Vietnam National University, Hanoi has just announced three admission methods for 2025, including direct admission and priority admission; admission based on the results of the Hanoi National University's HSA exam; and admission based on the results of the 2025 high school graduation exam.

The school uses 8 admission combinations, including C00 (literature, history, geography), D04 (math, literature, Chinese), D01 (math, literature, English), D06 (math, literature, Japanese), DD2 (math, literature, Korean), D15 (literature, English, geography), D14 (literature, English, history) and D66 (literature, English, economic and legal education).

Notably, last year the school considered the C00 combination (literature, history, geography) for 26/28 majors/training programs (except Southeast Asian studies, Japanese studies), but this year only 9/28 majors/training programs consider admission using the C00 combination.

17 majors stop recruiting from the traditional C block, including: journalism; social work; Oriental studies; Korean studies; management science; public relations; information management; tourism and travel services management; hotel management; office management; international studies; psychology; information - library; cultural studies; Vietnamese studies; sociology; cinema and popular arts.

Previously, the University of Law, Vietnam National University, Hanoi also announced that it would no longer consider the C00 combination from the 2025 admission season, replacing it with mandatory combinations that include math or English.

Specifically, the school uses 6 admission combinations, including C03 (literature, math, history), A07 (math, history, geography), A01 (math, physics, English), D01 (math, literature, English), D14 (literature, history, English), D15 (literature, geography, English).

Similarly, the Academy of Journalism and Communication officially stopped considering the C00 group (literature, history, geography) in the method of considering transcripts and high school graduation exam scores from 2025. Last year, history was the only major of the academy that considered the traditional C group with the highest admission score of the academy being 38.12/40 points.

This year, Hanoi Capital University stopped considering the C00 combination for admission to the majors of law, logistics and supply chain management, psychology, and educational management; Hanoi Open University also officially stopped considering the C00 combination from this year (last year, the majors of law, economic law, and international law all considered the literature - history - geography combination).

The sudden announcement by some universities that they would no longer use the C00 combination in university admissions about a month before the high school graduation exam has made many candidates worried.

Lan Phuong, a student in Bac Ninh, said she was surprised to receive information that the University of Law and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities had stopped recruiting for the C00 combination for many training programs. Phuong was worried that her chances of being admitted to her favorite majors would be narrowed as many schools began to announce this information closer to the exam date.

"I have been studying and putting all my effort into the three subjects of literature, history and geography since the beginning of high school. Now I have received the news that I cannot catch up because I have already chosen my graduation exam subjects a long time ago," Phuong said.

Universities speak out

Explaining the change in admission combinations in the 2025 admission season, Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Thi Thu Huong - Vice Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi - said that this year is the first year that the high school graduation exam will take place according to the 2018 general education program.

According to regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, high school candidates will take 2 compulsory subjects, including literature, math and 2 elective subjects from the remaining subjects studied in grade 12 (including foreign languages, history, physics, chemistry, biology, geography, economic and legal education, information technology, technology).

With the new high school exam format from 2025, in theory, it is possible to encode 36 graduation exam combinations (2+2), and 81 university entrance exam combinations based on the combination of compulsory and optional subjects of candidates.

"Based on the orientation of innovation in high school exam subjects applied from 2025, according to the admission requirements of each industry, the requirements on foreign language output standards according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, and at the same time implementing the strategy of internationalizing training programs, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities increases the selection of combinations of literature - history - English; literature - geography - English; math - literature - English; literature - economic and legal education - English...", Ms. Huong said.

According to Ms. Huong, full-time students of the school also have the opportunity to study a second major from the training majors of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (for example: journalism, tourism and travel services management, public relations, psychology, international studies, hotel management, office management, information management, cultural studies, etc.), or from many other training majors in schools under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

From next year, the total number of subjects of the groups must contribute at least 50% of the consideration score.

The Ministry of Education and Training has issued the Regulations on High School Graduation Exams from 2025, which increases the number of subjects students can choose. Therefore, to ensure the opportunity for students from different regions to be admitted, the 2025 university admission regulations remove the requirement for training programs, each major and each program has a maximum of 4 admission combinations; there is no limit on the number of admission combinations.

However, in order to ensure the quality and knowledge foundation necessary for university study, the university admission regulations stipulate that the subject group used for admission includes at least 3 suitable subjects, including mathematics or literature with a weighted score of no less than 25%. From 2026, the common subjects of the groups must contribute at least 50% of the weighted score.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ly-do-khoi-c-dan-vang-bong-trong-xet-tuyen-dai-hoc-20250605001249246.htm