A strange combination of university admissions in 2025 appears

Missing major

In the announcement of regular university enrollment in 2025, Vietnam Academy of Agriculture recruits 130 students for two majors: Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutical Technology with 9 admission combinations. Of which, 8/9 combinations do not include biology such as: math, chemistry, English (D07); math, physics, English (A01); math, literature, English (D01)...

Information posted on the academy's website shows that Biopharmaceutical Technology is a new industry, inheriting and developing the achievements of biotechnology in the production of drugs and products related to health care and beauty.

Similarly, Biotechnology is a field of study that studies and applies living organisms combined with processes and technical equipment to create products and produce on an industrial scale to serve human interests, while developing the economy - society and protecting the environment. In the training program of the two fields, biology has the highest weight. Therefore, the lack of biology in the admission combination of the two "concentrated" biology fields of the Vietnam Academy of Agriculture makes the public wonder.

This year, Hoa Binh University enrolls students in the Medicine and Traditional Medicine majors with 4/5 combinations that do not include Biology. More specifically, the school enrolls students in the English Language major with 2/5 combinations that do not include English: C00 (literature, history, geography) and C01 (literature, math, physics).

In pedagogical schools, it is quite common for students to enroll in majors that do not have a main subject in the admission combination. Hanoi Capital University enrolls students in Physics Pedagogy, considering a combination that does not include physics D07 in addition to the combinations that include this subject.

The University of Education (Thai Nguyen University) uses the D01 combination to recruit History Education majors. Pham Van Dong University also uses this combination to recruit Physics Education majors...

According to the explanation of universities, the enrollment regulations this year just issued by the Ministry of Education and Training only stipulate that the compulsory combinations must have one of the two main subjects: math or literature. Universities all follow this principle so they do not violate the regulations.

But from the training perspective, some experts objected. In previous years, Thai Binh University of Medicine and Pharmacy recruited medical students without Biology, which received many negative reactions. Because the nature of recruitment is to recruit the most candidates and the most suitable for the training program. Every major has prerequisite subjects, which evaluate the students' abilities and interests.

The 2018 general education program further demonstrates this when students are allowed to choose subjects that are suitable for their future career orientation. If there are no foundational subjects in the admission combination, how will students study to meet the output standards of the schools?

What is the specific medicine?

Before the 2025 university admission season, the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges recommends that the Ministry of Education and Training eliminate admission methods that do not ensure the quality of input of higher education institutions, and at the same time require universities to explain the selection of subject combinations and competency assessment tests of separate exams used for admission, ensuring basic competency input standards for successful study at university level. In particular, it is necessary to unify reasonable admission combinations and resolutely eliminate "strange" combinations.

Prof. Dr. Chu Duc Trinh, Principal of the University of Technology (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) said that in recent times, university admissions have not met many requirements. Some lower-ranking schools have low quality admissions, sending many admission letters to candidates but the admission rate is not high. That picture has created disturbances in the national admissions system. Meanwhile, Vietnamese higher education needs to affirm its quality internationally. In particular, in the coming time, there needs to be products made in Vietnam, made in Vietnam to be exported globally, to do so, the quality of human resources must be high. Therefore, admissions is one of the important problems.

In the recently issued university admission regulations for 2025, the Ministry of Education and Training wants to limit strange combinations by requiring one of two subjects, literature or mathematics. However, universities "dodge" by meeting the requirements but not including subjects of the major they are enrolling in in the combination (for example, Physics Education, the admission combination does not include physics) as above.

To avoid the situation of "mixing and matching" between admission methods, the regulations require each university to convert the admission and consideration scores to a common scale, consistent with each training program, major, and group of majors.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son said that there are currently two types of admission scores: high school graduation exam scores and other admission scores (such as academic transcript scores, thinking assessment test scores, capacity assessment scores, admission scores combining many factors). The Ministry of Education and Training requires that these two admission scores must be equivalent, and cannot be based on the number of quotas set by schools. Therefore, converting or determining these two admission scores as equivalent is to ensure fairness for candidates.

The Ministry is working with a number of universities to develop guidelines to ensure uniformity in the system while ensuring diversity in autonomy according to the requirements of each profession. However, converting to a single scale of scores still does not completely solve the problem of strange combinations in admissions.