The school has implemented 8 enrollment rounds in 2025, recruiting nearly 100 candidates for 8 training majors. "Although the number of enrollments is not as high as in 2024, this is a relatively stable number in the context of the general enrollment struggles of vocational schools in 2025," said Master Nguyen Van Mai - Principal of Hue College of Culture and Arts.

MSc. Nguyen Van Mai - Principal of Hue College of Culture and Arts

Compared to the last 3 years, how have the school's enrollment in different majors changed, sir?

In the last 3 years, enrollment figures have fluctuated a lot. In 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 69 candidates were recruited, in 2023, 142 candidates were recruited, in 2024, 120 candidates were recruited, and in 2025, 99 candidates were currently recruited. In October, the school still has 2 enrollment rounds, hoping to recruit over 100 students.

There have been changes in the school's enrollment in majors. Specifically, the 2022 Traditional Folk Dance Performing Arts major recruited 12 students, but from 2023 to now, the number of candidates has increased significantly, the highest among all majors, reaching 25 - 36 candidates. In fact, after the pandemic, art programs, festivals, tourism ... were restored, so a large number of dancers were needed. In addition, kindergartens, talent training centers, children's houses need dance teachers..., so the number of dance students graduating from the school every year is not enough to meet the needs of society. The Hue Traditional Musician major has also had positive changes, the number of candidates has increased, the highest in 2023, recruiting 24 candidates.

Up to this point, is there any major that still cannot recruit students?

There is a drama department that has not been able to recruit any students for nearly 20 years. The Hue Opera Department also recruits very few students, only 2-10 students, and some years there are no students at all. This year, the tour guide and graphic design departments also recruit very few students, each with only 3 students.

According to you, what is the reason why it is not possible to enroll students in those majors?

This is a difficult problem and the school has reported it many times to the leaders of the culture and sports sector and the leaders of the Hue City People's Committee. The main reason is that students are no longer interested in traditional performing arts because the entrance requires talent in both singing and acting, the training period needs to be long to become a professional actor, there are no preferential policies and more importantly, after graduating from school, there is no place to work (due to the limited staffing and recruitment quotas of art theaters)...

Faced with the situation of not being able to enroll students in some majors, what plans and recommendations does the school have for the upcoming enrollment periods?

Faced with the reality of not being able to enroll students in specific majors related to Hue's traditional heritage theater, the school has developed a Project on specific policies in enrollment and training for the majors of Hue traditional musicians, Hue opera, Tuong and Hue royal court dance. In particular, it proposes a regime of supporting living expenses during the study process and ensuring output for students to attract candidates, ensuring the training of human resources for the next generation of staff directly practicing the preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage values ​​of the homeland. The Project is being submitted to competent authorities for approval.

Dance students of Hue College of Culture and Arts during practice hours

It is known that the school has been planning to cooperate in training in the form of orders. How is this specific, sir?

The plan to cooperate in training according to orders with the Binh Dinh Traditional Arts Theater (old) in training actors and traditional musical instruments has been implemented by the school since 2024. However, this has not been implemented to develop a project and training program because Binh Dinh province has to merge provinces and implement a 2-level local government model. Recently, Aria Da Nang Music Center also had a working session with the school to cooperate in training intermediate music.

Along with input concerns, how is the school's output requirements for students calculated?

Student output is always a matter of special concern to the school. For the dance actor industry, output is always guaranteed because the labor market needs a lot, training is not enough to meet. For the traditional musician industry, in addition to some students continuing to university, others can join the orchestra to accompany Hue singing, for pagoda activities and music activities in folk beliefs. In general, art majors such as music and fine arts require a long time, so after graduation, the number of students in these majors mainly continue to university in the same major, or university of music education, fine arts, preschool, primary school... Therefore, in the training process, the school pays special attention to quality to create a good foundation for students when continuing to university.

Besides mass training, are there any obstacles in training the next generation of artists for Hue's traditional and specific subjects up to this point, sir?

As mentioned above, training a team of next generation artists for Hue's traditional art forms is extremely necessary and a regular task. Just a few years of interruption will cause a shortage of next generation artists. This is an issue that requires the cooperation of the whole society. In particular, it requires strong direction from city leaders at all levels, and a strong enough investment policy to attract talented people with a passion for art (especially from traditional families) who can pursue their passion and make a living from their profession.

We are waiting for leaders at all levels to approve the Project as well as specific support policies on funding and appropriate treatment so that we can continue writing the 50-year history of the cradle of traditional cultural and artistic training in Hue. I believe that will come true in the near future.

In the future, what is the school's orientation in recruiting and training so that specific fields of study in culture and arts can strongly revive?

The project to build and develop Hue College of Culture and Arts until 2030 was approved by the City People's Committee in Decision 2592/QD-UBND dated August 13, 2025. This is the driving force and opportunity for the school to continue to promote enrollment, training, staff development, invest more in facilities and teaching equipment, promote digital transformation in school management and apply technology in teaching. The approved project will open up many opportunities and conditions for the school to enroll students, especially for specialized majors associated with Hue's heritage and culture.

We also hope to soon have specific support policies as mentioned above so that traditional art majors can attract more students to study, so that there is no shortage of human resources to continue the work of preserving Hue's heritage and culture.

Thanks for the chat!

Nhat Minh (Implemented)

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/van-hoa-nghe-thuat/nganh-nghe-thuat-dac-thu-chat-vat-tuyen-sinh-159070.html