VietNamNet Bridge - Nguyen Van Phong, deputy head of the Hanoi Party Committee’s Propaganda & Education Committee, has denied that 90 percent of students who score at the top of university graduation exams refuse to work for Hanoi state agencies.

Hanoi has decided it will honour 98 outstanding students who achieved top results in the city's university and academy graduation exams this year.

Some local newspapers quoted sources as saying only five to six of hundreds of excellent students each year decided to work for state agencies in Hanoi, mostly because of the low pay and few job promotion opportunities.

Some excellent graduates said that they would not have bright future if they worked for state agencies because of red tape and the unhealthy working environment.

Tran Anh Tuan, deputy secretary of the Hanoi Youth Union Committee, said at a press briefing on August 11 that Hanoi’s agencies receive several valedictorians every year. 

Tuan said the Hanoi Youth Union Committee received two valedictorians a year in recent years. “Some of them are still young, but hold important positions at the committee,” he said.

The Hanoi Youth Union Committee found from a survey conducted of 98 valedictorians in 2015 that a high proportion of excellent graduates want to work for state agencies.

More than 50 percent of the polled valedictorians said they would continue studying to improve their knowledge. Of these, two-thirds said they would study abroad. 

Meanwhile, 68 valedictorians said they wanted to work for state agencies and the remaining want to work for other agencies.

Tuan emphasized the significance of Hanoi’s policy on laying the red carpet, saying that valedictorians have shown high qualifications and have been assigned to important positions.

However, he admitted that some valedictorians cannot satisfy the requirements at work, including those who came first on the graduation exams of Nguyen Trai and Thanh Tay Universities.

An analyst commented that some universities had set very low requirements on students, therefore, they cannot produce excellent graduates.

Deputy Head of the Hanoi Party Committee’s Propaganda & Education Committee, Nguyen Van Phong, noted that he often reads the articles saying that 90 percent of excellent graduates turn their back on jobs at state agencies despite encouragement by Hanoi authorities. However, Phong said, this was not true.

According to Phong, seven valedictorians out of every 10 obtain scholarships for overseas training courses. The other three become university lecturers, while waiting for opportunities to study abroad. As such, about 10 percent can be potential candidates for Hanoi state agencies.

Tien Phong