Innovation in the way of adding priority points in university admissions 2023, what do experts say?

Innovation in priority scoring

It is expected that the enrollment direction in 2023 and the following years will basically remain stable as in 2022. The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) continues to strengthen a number of technical solutions to better support the enrollment work of training institutions and better support candidates during the enrollment process.

However, according to the Ministry of Education and Training, in order to ensure fairness between candidates who enjoy preferential policies and candidates who do not enjoy preferential policies, from 2023, preferential points for candidates with a total score of 22.5 or higher (when converted to a score on a 10-point scale and the maximum total score of 3 subjects is 30) will be determined according to the following formula: Preferential points = [(30 - Total score achieved)/7.5] × Preferential points specified in Clauses 1 and 2, Article 7 of Circular 08/2022/TT-BGDDT.

Thus, candidates with a total score of 22.5 or higher/3 subjects will have their priority points reduced and no candidate will have a university entrance score exceeding 30 points.

The reason explained by the Ministry of Education and Training is that in 2021, the rate of candidates with high scores increased; in some majors/schools with very high scores such as police, military, medicine, etc., the rate of candidates in non-priority areas passing the entrance exam was low; the rate of candidates with high priority scores passing the entrance exam led to public opinion that priority scores became unfair. This adjustment aims to ensure fairness and overcome the situation where there are candidates with an admission score of 30 points but still cannot pass the university or college entrance exam.

Which way?

The policy of giving preferential points in admission aims to create fairness for candidates between different regions, especially in regions with uneven access to general education.

According to statistics, before 2003, candidates were awarded a maximum of 3 regional priority points. From 2004 to 2017, the maximum was 1.5 points. And from 2018, the highest regional priority point was 0.75. This calculation will be until the 2022 admission period.

However, from 2023, the way to calculate priority points will change. That is, the higher the candidate's score, the lower the priority point. For example, according to the above calculation formula, the higher the candidate's score, the lower the priority point. A candidate who scores 30 points/3 subjects will have a priority point of 0 points. This way of calculating points also causes schools to have different views.

Sharing with reporters of Tin Tuc newspaper, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Hoa, Head of the Examination and Training Quality Assurance Department, University of Transport, said: “We do not agree with this new regulation. For example, in a family with two twins, the conditions are the same but when taking the exam, the results are different, the points are also different. Even in a family with children taking the university entrance exam the previous year and the following year, there will be different results in this case.”

However, there are also opinions that this new scoring method is reasonable for highly competitive majors and schools and will recruit candidates close to the capacity of the major. Because according to Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Xuan Nhi, Vice President of the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges, with the old scoring method, adding too many priority points will have the opposite effect. Therefore, it is still necessary to come up with a more suitable calculation method to ensure fairness between candidates in different regions.

According to Tin Tuc Newspaper