Early admission is based on students’ learning records at high schools, while general admission is mostly based on high school final exam results and other additional criteria.

The quotas for early enrollment are determined by training establishments, but the number of students enrolled under the mode must not be higher than 20 percent of total students of the same training major.

The scores used to consider and enroll students under different modes must be converted to a common scale applied to every major.

Notably, under the early enrollment scheme, universities must consider student learning records of the entire 12th grade.

A representative of the Trade University applauded MOET’s (the Ministry of Education and Training) intention to require universities to enroll students by considering students’ learning results of the entire 12th grade.

“It is a good idea as it forces students to keep studying different subjects until thr academic year ends. In previous years, as many students knew that they would obtain a seat at university, they tended to study perfunctorily, because they just needed to obtain a score high enough to be recognized as completing the general education program to be eligible for entering university,” he said.

“As such, students neglect their study, which may affect learning results of other students. Some students may be admitted to schools/majors that don’t really fit their abilities, which may lead to complacency,” he added.

The expert also supports MOET’s requirement that the admission cutoff scores under early admission program must not be lower than the benchmark scores in MOET’s common admission campaigns.

“The idea, if approved, will force universities to choose excellent students, more outstanding than the students enrolled under common admission campaigns,” he explained.

However, he thinks that the requirement to convert scores under different enrollment methods into a commonly used scale may cause difficulties for universities, because each of them calculates scores for different purposes.

He also expressed concern about the tentative regulation that combinations of subjects can be used to enroll students in one program or one major, provided that common subjects in the groups of subjects account for at least 50 percent of total scores.

He pointed out that many schools admit students based on the combination of learning subjects Maths and English. So, if the idea is approved, this may lead to majors at his school and other economics schools (which mostly admit students based on achievements in Maths and English) enrolling students based on the A-combination (A-combination includes Maths, Physics and Chemistry). 

If universities have to lower the number of students admitted under early admission, they will have to rely on general admission campaigns (after high school finals). Therefore, the enrollment program will be more complicated.

“If so, enrollment campaigns may last longer,” he warned.

The representative of another university also agreed that if setting a cap on number of students admitted under early admission (20 percent), schools will have to struggle to seek the remaining students, because many students register to study at some schools, but they finally give up to go to other schools.

Prof Nguyen Dinh Duc, president of the Hanoi University of Technology under the Hanoi National University, a member school of the Hanoi National University, stressed that it is necessary to clarify the concept ‘early admission’. In general, early admission is understood as admission based on students’ high school learning records. 

Many schools admit students by considering the results of independent exams.

“Schools can apply many different methods for ‘early admission’, such as students’ achievements at competitions for excellent students, students from high schools for the gifted, and international tests such as SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) and ACT (American College Testing),” he explained.

He said that universities have the right to apply certain methods to enroll the best students, which is in line with the Law on Higher Education.

Thanh Hung