Universities react to Ministry of Education and Training's plan to tighten early admissions

The draft amendment to the university admission regulations announced by the Ministry of Education and Training last weekend has many new points regarding early admission (consideration before high school graduation exam scores are available).

Reading the draft, admissions experts at many schools were confused. They said the ministry had set up many unreasonable technical barriers, some points were difficult to understand and difficult to implement.

First, the early admission limit is no more than 20% of the target and schools are not allowed to call more than this number.

Currently, most universities reserve 30-80% of their quota for early admission, calling about 0.5-2 times more successful candidates to be able to recruit enough.

"Candidates who register early often apply to many schools, including those who are eligible for direct admission, so there is a certain virtual rate," explained the head of the Training Department of a university in the South.

A representative of an economic school in Hanoi said that if the early admission rate is reduced to 20%, schools will have to struggle to filter out the remaining 80% in the general admission round (usually in July), causing chaos, easily recruiting too many students and being fined, or recruiting less than the demand.

Associate Professor Dr. To Van Phuong, Head of Training Department of Nha Trang University, said that limiting early admission also has a big impact on candidates.

"When schools are not called for early admission as often as before, the benchmark and competition rate for early admission methods will be higher, and competition will be fiercer," he said.

The second plan that many people wonder about is the requirement that the early admission score must not be lower than the standard score of the round according to the general plan of the Ministry. The standard score of all methods and combinations is converted to a common scale and candidates are considered equally based on this score, regardless of method.

An admissions expert in Hanoi said he understood this to mean that the benchmark scores based on academic records, competency assessment tests, or combined international certificates (SAT, IELTS...) in the early round must be equal to or higher than the scores based on high school graduation exam results.

"If that is true, it is extremely unreasonable because the exams have different levels of difficulty. Meanwhile, the benchmark depends on the difficulty and enrollment quota of each method," he said.

In fact, the Ministry's high school graduation exam has the main purpose of considering graduation, the rate has always reached about 98-99% over the past 10 years.

"The conversion is not difficult for schools but creates confusion, complexity, and misunderstanding for candidates," he said. If the benchmark scores between methods are not equalized, there is no need to convert to a 30-point scale.

According to this person, no matter how you look at it, tightening the early admission quota to only 20% will push the benchmark up, in line with the criteria of selecting students with outstanding achievements. However, if the threshold is set too high, schools will be in a difficult position because the admission threshold cannot be lower than the general admission round according to the ministry's plan.

"Promulgating the above regulations is probably aimed at reducing early admission," he said.

A representative of another school in Hanoi shared the same thought, saying that these regulations affect the enrollment and autonomy of many schools.

In addition, experts pointed out some unclear points in the ministry's draft, such as the combination of admission based on the subject selection method in the new general education program; how to convert the standard scores for candidates who are directly admitted and given priority for admission when having national and provincial awards and academic achievements, social activities...

However, representatives of many schools assessed that the draft admission regulations have some positive points, especially the requirement to use the entire 12th grade year's scores when considering transcripts, instead of using scores from 3-5 semesters as is currently the case.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Duc Khoat, Head of Training Department, University of Mining and Geology, said that this helps students not to neglect their studies in the final months of the year, ensuring the quality of general education as directed by the Ministry.

Mr. To Van Phuong also assessed the above regulation as reasonable, ensuring consistency between schools, creating fairness for candidates.

Currently, a number of universities have announced their 2025 enrollment orientations, basically maintaining stability in terms of methods and quota allocation. Before the ministry's draft, many schools planned to meet early this week to give their opinions to the ministry and come up with plans to change their enrollment plans.

Schools also believe that no matter what direction the change takes, the ministry should not apply it immediately in the 2025 enrollment period because currently, both universities and students have made certain preparations.

"Any sudden change at this time will make all parties passive," said an expert.

Last year, 214 out of 322 schools offered early admission. The main methods of early admission were based on academic records, aptitude test scores, international certificates (SAT, ACT, IELTS, etc.) or a combination of the above factors. The number of candidates admitted under this method was more than 375,500, of which 147,400 were first choice (nearly 40%).

Many admissions experts believe that early admission has certain advantages. The head of the training department of a university in Ho Chi Minh City said that this helps candidates reduce the pressure of having to "put all their eggs in one basket", depending entirely on the graduation exam.

On the other hand, many schools and experts have repeatedly affirmed that the graduation exam is not differentiated enough to select highly competitive majors. Early admission methods help schools solve this problem.

However, according to Associate Professor Dr. Le Huu Lap, former Deputy Director of the Academy of Posts and Telecommunications Technology, when schools increase early admission quotas with more methods, many problems are revealed, overshadowing the advantages.

He gave an example of candidates who do not have time or money to take international certification exams, and have no choice but to use their graduation exam scores for admission, while the quota for this method is getting smaller and smaller, and the standard score is pushed up, causing unfairness.

Additionally, many methods do not guarantee on a common standard.

"Each test has a different type and difficulty. We cannot compare who is better with a score of 26 based on academic records with a score of 26 based on competency assessment or graduation exam because there is no common standard," Mr. Lap added.