University Admissions 2026: Tighten admission standards, refuse to consider high school transcripts

TP - Although the Ministry of Education and Training has not yet issued guidelines and regulations for university and college admissions in 2026, many schools have already developed admission plans. Many schools have decided to "say no" to considering transcripts and some traditional combinations.

Say no to traditional complexes

The two military schools that officially announced not to consider the C00 combination (Literature, History, Geography) in 2026 are the Political Officer School and the Border Guard Academy. In addition, the A00 combination (Math, Physics, Chemistry) will not appear in the 2026 admission season of these two units. The Political Officer School uses the combinations C01 (Literature, Math, Physics), C03 (Literature, Math, History), C04 (Literature, Math, Geography) and D01 (Literature, Math, English) for admission. The Border Guard Academy uses 3 admission combinations including C03, C04 and D01.

Candidates learn about 2025 enrollment information. Photo: NHU Y

Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Hong Son, Vice Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH), Vietnam National University, Hanoi, pointed out three fundamental new points in the enrollment work in 2026. Firstly, 15/30 majors do not have the C00 combination (all of which are popular majors of the school - PV). This is a completely different point compared to 2025, when there were 26 majors with the C00 combination, and only two majors, Japanese Studies and Southeast Asian Studies, did not have the C00 combination.

Second, there are no combinations C03 (Mathematics, Literature, History), C04 (Mathematics, Literature, Geography), X78 (Literature, English, Economic and Legal Education). Third, multiply the English or Literature exam score in each combination by 2.

According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, from 2026, the number of common subjects of the admission combinations/majors must contribute at least 50% of the weighted score. Therefore, to ensure this requirement for the admission combinations of 30 training majors, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities divides into two groups, one group of 12 majors with 2 points for English and one group of 18 majors with 2 points for Literature.

Up to now, more universities have stopped considering high school transcripts since 2026. Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 has stopped considering high school transcripts for 17 majors, with only a few majors considering high school transcripts. This school has also stopped considering the results of the competency assessment exam of the two National Universities, Hanoi Pedagogical University and the specialized assessment exam results of Ho Chi Minh City Pedagogical University.

The School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University, Hanoi also announced that it will not use academic records to consider admission to all majors in 2026. Nha Trang University has abandoned this method since this year.

Towards standardizing input quality

Sharing about the trend of gradually reducing and moving towards eliminating the method of considering academic records, experts assessed that the practical context is posing the issue of improving the quality of recruitment sources and ensuring fairness in access to university education.

Recently, the Ministry of Education and Training surveyed schools about the removal of transcript-based admissions. Several reasons can be raised to discuss the current trend of tightening the transcript-based admissions method at many higher education institutions.

First, there is a lack of uniformity in assessment and scoring among high schools, and there are differences between localities, regions, rural and urban areas, etc., leading many people to question the fairness of admissions.

For a long time, public opinion has questioned the phenomenon of some places having score inflation, laxity, or cosmetic evaluation, leading to difficulties in comparison and making it difficult to assess educational results. Secondly, universities are autonomous, linked to accountability and transparency in enrollment, requiring a truly standardized method.

The trend of reducing the use of transcripts for admission has been around for about 1-2 years now. From 2022 to 2024, the number of candidates admitted by this method will decrease by 9.32%, down to 27.86%. Top public universities almost no longer consider transcripts independently, but combine other factors such as foreign language certificates and competency assessment scores to increase reliability and screening.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training, the average score of candidates in 12 subjects is 0.12-2.26 points higher than the 2025 graduation exam. In particular, the difference in Math is up to 2.25 points compared to the exam score, and the difference in English is 1.57 points.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Thu, Head of Training Department, Hanoi National University of Education 2, explained that 17 majors that do not consider transcripts are highly competitive, teacher training majors and are assigned quotas by the Ministry of Education and Training. Every year, the quota for these majors based on transcripts is about 10%, recruiting very good students with stable academic performance.

From 2025, instead of dividing the quota according to the admission method, using the percentile to convert, the admission rate based on academic records will skyrocket to 23%. Thus, when there is no longer a regulation on allocating quotas according to each method but instead converting the floor score and university standard score between methods according to the percentile method, schools will find it difficult to control the rate of students admitted by the admission method based on academic records.

The school decided to maintain this method only for some majors, to ensure opportunities for candidates with difficult circumstances or those in groups that have difficulty competing using other admission methods.

According to feedback, the reduction of admission combinations by some schools comes from the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training. Specifically, the Ministry requires the admission combination to include at least three subjects, including Math or Literature with a weighting of no less than 25%; from 2026, the common subjects of the combinations must contribute at least 50% of the weighting of the score.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/tuyen-sinh-dai-hoc-nam-2026-siet-chuan-dau-vao-tu-choi-xet-tuyen-hoc-ba-post1801629.tpo