Minister of Education and Training talks about the negative aspects of early university admission

At the 2024 Higher Education Conference organized by the Ministry of Education and Training on the morning of August 9, giving comments on enrollment, Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thien Phuc, Vice President of the University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University), proposed to consider eliminating the early enrollment/early admission method.

“At that time, students had not yet completed their high school education. Not to mention, some admissions consultants suggested or required students to register their admission wishes early. This was not right, but they did it secretly. I think that would be unfair and would deprive candidates of opportunities,” said Mr. Phuc.

Mr. Phuc also said that offering many admission methods and then dividing different percentages for each method is baseless, causing unfairness for candidates applying for admission using different methods.

On this issue, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son noted that universities need to enhance their autonomy but also need to be more responsible for general education.

“Early admission has negative impacts on general education in the final stages of this level. Therefore, it needs to be considered in the coming time because students who are eligible to be admitted to university through early admission will not study anymore. That is very harmful.

Schools only want to be assured of the number of candidates who will enter their schools, the number of remaining candidates for admission will be very small, so the benchmark score is very high, creating inequality in the opportunity to enter top universities. Regarding this, the Ministry of Education and Training will consider including it in the university admissions orientation for next year," said Mr. Son.

The Minister of Education and Training also noted that schools should not have too many admission methods. “The simpler the better, convenient for candidates and society. The methods should not be too many or too complicated,” said Mr. Son. According to Mr. Son, universities are autonomous in admissions, but that does not mean they can do whatever they want.

"Autonomy is autonomy within the framework of regulations and because of this, the Ministry of Education and Training may have to add some frameworks/sanctions to regulate."

Mr. Son also said that the results also showed that the source of recruitment is abundant, and there is no need to worry about prestigious schools. “Therefore, there is no need to ‘push and shove’. In autonomy, schools need to promote a higher sense of social responsibility,” Mr. Son said.

According to the Minister, schools must aim to meet the increasing needs of learners in terms of quantity and quality. Minister Son said that the number of students entering grade 1 this year is up to 1.9 million. The average number of students per grade (from grade 2 to grade 11) is about 1.63 million, while the number of candidates taking the high school graduation exam in 2024 was about 1.1 million.

“Thus, this shows great optimism in terms of the number of university admissions each year. With this rate, the number of people entering university will increase significantly each year. We need to prepare places for students, but the important thing is the issue of quality,” said the Minister.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son said: “As the Minister said, we are not worried about quantity because the recruitment source in the coming time is abundant. Our responsibility is to ensure quality, thereby improving the thinking of learners, moving from formality to substance and effectiveness.”

Regarding enrollment, in the coming school year, according to Deputy Minister Son, the Department of Higher Education needs to urgently coordinate to have the earliest discussion, implement the Minister's direction, simplify, ensure quality, as well as fairness for candidates.

Schools that are autonomous but do not have negative impacts should have more positive impacts on general education.