Any university that recruits inappropriate students will suffer reputation and brand damage.

Sharing with the press on May 28 information about the Literature subject in medical admissions at some private universities, Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy affirmed that the Ministry of Education and Training performs state management of education and training, and is responsible for reviewing and handling when there are signs or violations of state policies and regulations within its management scope.

According to the Director of the Department of HigherEducation , with specialized issues such as university admissions, entrance subjects, etc., it is necessary to listen to training units and experts in the respective specific fields. In the discussion about Literature in the medical admissions group at some private universities, experts and medical training schools have spoken out on this specialized issue, which is very important and a very positive signal. The criticisms from society, the community, the press, experts, etc.; the schools also conduct exchanges and explanations with society, with candidates, with state management agencies, etc. all demonstrate positivity, exuding the spirit of university autonomy, coupled with accountability.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy said that the Ministry of Education and Training always listens and absorbs to be able to make policy adjustments suitable to the functions and tasks of state management, therefore, highly appreciates the fact that the press has conveyed the professional voices of experts, opinions from medical training schools... These are very important perspectives for policy-making agencies. In addition, through the opinions and voices of professional agencies, experts, families, parents and candidates have more multi-dimensional information to research and choose.

In addition, Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy also affirmed that the role of the Ministry of Health is particularly important in this issue. Decision No. 436/QD-TTg dated March 30, 2020 of the Prime Minister (promulgating the Plan to implement the Vietnamese national qualifications framework for higher education levels in the period 2020-2025) assigned the Ministry of Health to preside over the development of training program standards for the Health sector.

Implementing the Law on Higher Education and Decision No. 436/QD-TTg, the Ministry of Education and Training issued Circular No. 17/2021/TT-BGDDT dated June 22, 2021 regulating training program standards, on developing, appraising and promulgating training program standards for all levels of higher education, which clearly stipulates: training program standards for majors and groups of majors in each field (such as the Health sector/sector developed by the Ministry of Health) must include not only regulations on input standards, but also other requirements on quality assurance conditions and output standards for each field, group of majors and training majors.

The leader of the Department of Higher Education added that the entrance standards of the training program must clearly define the minimum requirements for qualifications, abilities, and experience appropriate to each level, industry, and training orientation that learners need to meet in order to successfully study and complete the training program. When regulating entrance standards, it is necessary to clearly define the requirements for knowledge, abilities, etc. of learners, which may include requirements for knowledge of subjects in the admission combination or entrance capacity assessment test.

It can be seen that training program standards are very important for specific training fields; when developing these standards, there must be active participation and effective contributions from relevant parties, including representatives of training institutions, employers and professional associations, and experts in the specialized field; it is necessary to consult and compare with models, standards or criteria for training programs of related countries or international organizations; at the same time, ensure the autonomy of training institutions in developing training programs.

The current admission regulations (issued together with Circular No. 08/2022/TT-BGDDT dated June 6, 2022) of the Ministry of Education and Training clearly stipulate that each admission method (which the training institution decides to use) must clearly stipulate the assessment and admission criteria and how to combine the criteria to classify, rank and determine the admission conditions for candidates according to the requirements of the training program and major. The assessment and admission criteria must be based on the requirements of the basic knowledge and core competencies that candidates need to have to study the training program and major.

After all, according to Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy, the most important factor that all stakeholders are concerned about is the training quality of the schools. Schools with inappropriate forms and methods of enrollment, with very low enrollment rates, etc. will be affected in terms of their reputation, brand, and training quality, and in the long run, candidates will certainly not choose to study there. Therefore, once again, it is affirmed that information channels and long-term consequences are expected to have a positive effect, helping schools self-adjust and improve.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy emphasized that in the coming time, the Ministry of Education and Training will review the overall admission methods of schools, and if necessary, will request relevant training institutions to report and explain issues of social concern.

It is known that this year's university admission season caused surprise when 4 universities announced that they would include Literature in the admission combination for the medical major.

Specifically, in the 4 admission methods to Van Lang University (HCMC) in 2023, there are 3 traditional combinations A00, B00 and D08 and 1 new combination D12 (Literature, Chemistry, English); Vo Truong Toan University (Hau Giang) and Tan Tao University (Long An) use combination B03 (Math, Literature, Biology) in the method of considering high school graduation exam scores to recruit Medicine; Duy Tan University also recruits Medicine with 4 combinations: A16 (Math, Natural Sciences, Literature), B00, D90 (Math, Natural Sciences, Foreign Languages) and D08./.

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