VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has said that universities, particularly those that are less prestigious, will be able to attract more students under a new scheme that creates three minimum-mark levels on entrance examinations.

MOET, instead of setting up one floor for every exam group as it did in the past, has announced three levels for universities to refer to when enrolling students this year.

The floor mark is the minimum mark needed at the national university entrance exams to be eligible to study at any university in Vietnam.

MOET describes the floor mark levels as “quality thresholds” which serve as standards to control the quality of students. While Vietnamese schools still cannot be accredited, the “quality thresholds” could serve as instruments to assess the schools’ quality.

MOET’s Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga explained that the levels chosen by schools will show their prestige and the training quality. In other words, only the best schools, which are are more selective, can choose high floor mark levels, while less prestigious schools would set lower floor marks levels to be able to enroll enough students.

Nguyen Hoi Nghia, President of the HCM City National University, noted that the floor mark levels set by MOET seem to be lower than that of the previous years, which would help less prestigious schools more easily find learners.

As for the HCM City National University, Nghia said 90 percent of its member schools have enrolled students in accordance with the first floor mark level (the highest); 10 percent of schools with the second; and zero percent for the third.

The Forestry and Agriculture University, which is considered a “middle-tier school”, reportedly has 50 percent of faculties enrolling students in accordance with the second floor mark level, and the other 50 percent with the third level.

However, though the school is not too demanding, it expects to find only 70 percent of the total number of students it plans to enroll this year.

The school will have to look for the other 30 percent among the students who fail the exams to more prestigious schools and register to study at the Forestry and Agriculture University.

In principle, the students who fail the exams to a school can apply for another school if they can satisfy the requirements set by the other school.

Existing universities in Vietnam are classified into three groups, including a group of top schools, i.e., the most prestigious schools, a group of middle-tier schools, and the less prestigious schools. Most of them are people-founded schools.

The less prestigious schools have been complaining over many years that the enrolment mechanism set up by MOET had made it more difficult for them to find students because the more prestigious schools had attracted the majority of students.

And they do not think the situation will improve this year, even though MOET said the new marking scheme will result in more students for them.

Tien Phong