Under what conditions are medical and pharmaceutical students exempted or reduced from tuition fees?

Decree No. 81/2021/ND-CP of the Government stipulates that students, graduate students, and postgraduates studying one of the following majors: tuberculosis, leprosy, psychiatry, forensic examination, forensic psychiatry, and pathology at public medical schools according to state-ordered quotas will be completely exempted from tuition fees.

Along with that, students from very few ethnic minorities, ethnic minorities in areas with special socio-economic difficulties, from poor or near-poor households... studying in public schools and majors in the field of Medicine and Pharmacy will be exempted from tuition fees according to the provisions of Decree No. 81.

For other subjects, the Ministry of Education and Training will coordinate with the Ministry of Health and related ministries and sectors to study policies to support tuition fees for students in the fields of Medicine and Pharmacy, especially in difficult-to-recruit majors and specialties, majors serving the preventive health system and grassroots health when the state budget allows, and report to competent authorities for consideration and decision.

It is expected that from 2025, according to the innovation roadmap of the Ministry of Education and Training, the high school graduation exam will be changed and adjusted to meet the requirements of the 2018 General Education Program. Schools in the health sector will also have a new admission method.

In previous admissions, the organization of separate exams was an issue that health training schools discussed and hoped to soon agree on implementation. According to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Tu, Principal of Hanoi Medical University, medical schools will have 2 years to prepare suitable admission methods.