Ho Chi Minh City University of Science 'turns around' to not collect and refund admission fees

The University of Natural Sciences (Ho Chi Minh City National University) has just decided to no longer collect admission fees, and will refund the fees that candidates have paid.

Students learn about admission information of the University of Natural Sciences (Ho Chi Minh City National University) at the Admissions and Career Counseling Day 2025 - Photo: TRAN HUYNH

On June 20, the University of Natural Sciences (Ho Chi Minh City National University) officially announced information on full-time university enrollment in 2025, in which the enrollment fee was set at VND 25,000/application (candidate), but the school immediately changed this decision.

The application fee will be refunded to candidates who have paid it.

According to school regulations, all candidates applying for admission to the school must pay an admission fee, specifically:

Direct admission method, priority admission according to the regular university admission regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training (method 1a), admission fee is 25,000 VND/wish. For the remaining methods, the fee for reviewing documents is 25,000 VND/candidate. These fees are not the registration fee for wishes considered on the Ministry's system.

Many candidates and parents wonder: "This year, the University of Natural Sciences collects admission fees while other member schools of Ho Chi Minh City National University do not collect them. Candidates only pay once on the Ministryof Education and Training's application registration portal. I wonder what regulations the school collects fees based on?"

Explaining this, the school representative said that method 1a fee serves tasks related to organizing candidate registration, submitting documents, conducting admission exams and updating admission information to the Ministry of Education and Training.

Fees for the remaining methods serve the work related to organizing candidates to register, submit documents, and review the preliminary and secondary conditions in admission before candidates register for admission on the ministry's common system.

However, after Tuoi Tre Online reporters sent the candidates' questions about the admission fee to the school, the school decided not to collect it anymore.

For cases where the admission fee has been paid, the school will refund the candidate according to the account number the candidate transferred to.

The school applied the conversion of foreign language certificates for the first time.

In 2025, the University of Natural Sciences will enroll 4,455 students for 31 majors/groups of majors in standard programs, English-enhanced programs and advanced programs.

The school uses 3 groups of admission methods:

Method 1: Direct admission, priority admission according to the regulations on regular university admission of the Ministry of Education and Training (1a); priority admission according to the regulations of Ho Chi Minh City National University (1b); priority admission according to the regulations of Ho Chi Minh City National University (1c); admission based on the results of international English certificates combined with high school study results for advanced programs, English enhancement programs (1d).

Method 2: Admission based on the results of the 2025 high school graduation exam.

Method 3: Admission based on the results of the competency assessment exam organized by Ho Chi Minh City National University in 2025.

In particular, this year, for the first time, the school applied the conversion of TOEFL iBT/IELTS foreign language certificates to the method of using the results of the 2025 high school graduation exam.

If the converted score of the English certificate is higher than the 2025 High School Exam English score, the converted score will be used to replace the candidate's English score.

All international English language certificates (TOEFL iBT or IELTS) can only be converted to English subject scores (for method 1d and method 2) when candidates send proof to the school within the time specified in the admission notice for each method.

International language certificates (TOEFL iBT or IELTS) must be valid until at least July 30.

All cases of evidence that cannot be verified after July 30 will not be recognized, so candidates need to quickly send evidence of additional points to the school as soon as possible before the deadline stated on the admission notice for each method.

For method 2, international English language certificates (TOEFL iBT or IELTS) are converted from level 4.5 or higher according to regulations.

School foreign language conversion regulations

How to convert TOEFL iBT score to IELTS score

Regarding the threshold to ensure input quality (floor score), for method 2, the school will announce it after the high school graduation exam scores are available; for method 3, the floor score is not lower than 600 points for 2025, the conditions for receiving admission registration are according to the general admission plan of Ho Chi Minh City National University.

The input quality assurance threshold of the remaining methods will be based on the quality assurance threshold of the method using the 2025 high school exam results for equivalent conversion.

Estimated tuition fees for the first year range from VND28.4 million to VND67 million/year, depending on the major and training program. Of which, computer science (advanced program) has the highest tuition fee. Tuition fees are increased each year.

Detailed admission information of University of Science can be found here.

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TRAN HUYNH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/truong-dai-hoc-khoa-hoc-tu-nhien-tphcm-quay-xe-khong-thu-hoan-tra-phi-tuyen-sinh-20250620152158017.htm