VietNamNet Bridge – Ten culture and arts schools and four people-founded schools have submitted to the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) the enrolment plans of their own. However, the schools have been found as setting up too easy requirements on students.

The four people founded universities include Quang Trung University in Binh Dinh province, Phan Chu Trinh University in Quang Nam, Yersin University in Da Lat and Trung Vuong in Vinh Phuc.

Too easy to enter universities

In order to be eligible for enrolling in the Phan Chu Trinh University, students need to have the average mark of 6.0 for the 12th grade at least and get at least 5.0 marks from every final exam subject. Besides, Ax50/30 must not be lower than 25 (A is the total marks students get from the three years at high school).

The school has also decided that the students’ Bx50/70 must not be lower than 25 (B is the total marks the students get from the high school final exams).

The school would consider the students’ A+B marks to decide whether to accept the students. The students with the highest marks would be chosen.

Similar low requirements have been set by the other three schools. In general, the people founded universities only demand the average learning capacity from students when setting the low required marks at 5 or 5.5.

To date, Vietnamese high school graduates still attend the national university entrance exams to be able to enter universities. The Ministry of Education and Training organize the national exams and set exam questions. It is the ministry which sets up the floor marks every year, which means the minimum marks students must have from the national exams to be eligible for enrolling in any university in Vietnam.

However, for the last many years, the ministry has been criticized for the enrolment method which is believed to be unreasonable and “out of date.” Many schools, especially people founded schools, have been struggling for their right to enroll students themselves.

This means that students would not have to attend the national exams organized by the education ministry, and they would only satisfy the requirements set by the schools to obtain the seats there.

The watchdog agency, in a move of making compromise, has allowed people founded schools to enroll students with their own method. The schools have been asked to submit the enrolment plans to the ministry for approval.

High quality training must be the top priority

No official answer about the enrolment plans has been given. However, Bui Van Ga, Deputy Minister of Education and Training, when talking to the local press, said that finishing high school is not enough for someone to be able to follow university education. This explains why the university entrance exams still have been required in some countries including Japan, South Korea or China.

Analysts say the enrolment plans of the people-founded schools with low requirements would not be applauded by the public.

They believe that the schools, which have been thirsty for students, set up easy requirements in an effort to attract more students, while they do not care about the quality of the school graduates.

Ga said that the universities in Vietnam lack some 20,000-30,000 students every year. The national exams would still be organized to choose students for universities until 2015 at least.

Nguyen Thao