Universities don't want to organize entrance exams to select best students

In the past, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) organized two national exams – high school finals and university entrance exams. Since 2015, the two exams have been merged into a 2-in-1 exam, i.e. students only have to attend one national exam to finish high school and apply for universities.

Universities have two options, either enrolling students based on their high school finals’ results, or organizing university entrance exams themselves and considering students’ high school records to determine whom to enroll. 

In other words, schools have autonomy in enrollment and don’t have to refer to national high school finals to select students.

However, universities have become hesitant to use autonomy given to them.

Giao duc Viet Nam quoted an education expert as reporting that only four to five schools have pioneered using autonomy, while the majority of schools still use the results of the national high school finals to enroll students.

There are two reasons behind this. Schools understand that it would be costly to organize university entrance exams to select the best students. If they don’t organize entrance exams or tests, they fear that they cannot find the best students.

Hanoi National University is one of a few ‘pioneers’. It began organizing capability tests in 2015. However, after two years of successful organization, in 2017, the school announced it had stopped organizing the test because the national high school finals coincide with the school’s philosophy and development orientation.

HCMC Law University and FPT University also enroll students their own way. Since 2015, students have to sit the capability test to become students at the law school. However, it also considers students’ high school records and the high school final exam scores to shortlist students.

As for FPT, students applying at the school have to sit two tests.

Test 1 aims to assess students’ fundamental competencies and specific competencies related to the fields of study. Test 2 assesses students’ discourse ability by asking students to write an essay on themes close to students.

HCMC National University has, for the first time, organized a capability test to select students. However, the test was unsuccessful as there were only 4,000 examinees.

As a result, in order to enroll enough students, member schools of the national university still have to use the results of the high school finals for their enrollment.

Nguyen Duc Nghia, former deputy director of the HCMC National University, commented that universities are not ready to organize exams on their own.

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