Students react to 6:30 start time: Have any schools applied it?

(Dan Tri) - The Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade's proposed plan to adjust the school start time to 6:30 a.m. has received many reactions from students. In fact, many universities in Ho Chi Minh City have applied this school time frame for a long time.

Many schools apply the 6:30 start time.

Recently, the plan to adjust the school hours of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade with the first shift starting at 6:30 a.m. has met with many objections from students and has become a topic of discussion on social networks.

However, in reality, starting class at 6:30 is not strange to students of many universities in Ho Chi Minh City.

Students at a university in Ho Chi Minh City before class (Photo: Hoai Nam).

According to students, some schools have applied early school hours for a long time, such as Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, and University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University).

Mr. Nguyen Manh Dung, a former student of the University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University), said: "More than ten years ago, I studied at school from 6:30 am. At that time, I had to rent a room near the school to be on time, had breakfast in a hurry but many days I was still late."

According to Mr. Dung, early learning affects students’ sleep and activities, especially those who have to work extra shifts at night or study late at night. Not everyone can go to bed early, especially with the current urban lifestyle and the impact of technology.

At Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, the daily schedule has 16 periods divided into three shifts, in which the first period starts at 6:30 and the last period ends at 9:00 p.m.

Dr. Nguyen Trung Nhan, Head of the School’s Training Department, shared that the 6:30 a.m. class time has been applied for many years. However, because it is a credit-based program, students can proactively choose a suitable class schedule.

"In reality, each student only has about 1-2 sessions/week to study from period 1. Some students choose the early shift to make it more convenient for other plans, but most students do not choose to study from period 1," said Mr. Nhan.

Class start time at 6:30 a.m. has long been applied at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry (Photo: NT).

Similarly, at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, the first period of the day also starts at 6:30. The school divides a class into two shifts, each with 3 periods.

However, only faculties with first shift timetables require students to start class early, not all faculties apply this.

Late to school, late to finish

Instead of starting school too early, many schools in Ho Chi Minh City apply a schedule that starts at 7am-7:15am. Then, the following classes will be postponed and end later.

A representative of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology said that the 6:30 a.m. start time as students reported was an old regulation from many years ago and is no longer applied at the school. Currently, the first class of the school starts at 7:00 a.m.

Study schedule of Saigon International University (Photo: NT).

At Saigon International University, morning classes start at 7:15, afternoon classes start at 1:30 and end at 5:00.

Timetable of classes at Faculty of Education , Saigon University, the first period of the day starts at 7am, each period lasts 50 minutes. The last period of the third shift ends at 8:10pm.

At Van Lang University, there are 16 classes a day with three shifts: morning, afternoon, and evening. The first class starts at 7:00 a.m. and the last class ends at 9:10 p.m.

According to the teaching schedule applied from the first semester of the 2025-2026 school year, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education stipulates that there will be 16 periods per day, each period lasting 45 minutes. The first period of the day starts at 7:15 am and the last period ends at 9:00 pm.

Class schedule of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education (Photo: LT).

Explaining the planned adjustment of school start time from 7am to 6:30am, the Director of the Admissions and Communications Center, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade, said that for a long time, each class period at the school consisted of 45 minutes of actual study and students had 5 minutes to move between classes.

However, recently, the Ministry of Education and Training 's education quality inspection team required that 50 minutes of actual study time must be ensured. The school's plan to adjust class hours is to ensure that each class period is 50 minutes long as required by the Ministry of Education and Training.

Initially, it was noted that the postponement of class time to 6:30 a.m. affected the long-standing living habits of students and lecturers. Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade is still collecting opinions to come up with a suitable solution, but has not yet put it into practice.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/sinh-vien-phan-ung-gio-vao-hoc-luc-6h30-co-truong-nao-da-ap-dung-20251027144105030.htm