VietNamNet Bridge – By easing the requirements on the ingoing university students, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) seems to try to popularize higher education in Vietnam.

The doors to universities would be opened more widely to high school graduates as MOET has decided to remove the floor mark mechanism which has been applied for the last many years.

The floor mark mechanism is considered the “screen” that helps select the most capable students for universities. High school graduates must obtain certain scores from the national university entrance exams to be eligible for enrolling in any universities in Vietnam.

However, the “screen” will no longer be used. Instead, universities will themselves decide who to enroll by setting up their own requirements.

Analysts said it is foreseeable that universities, which are thirsty for students, would keep the schools’ doors open to all students willing to study at the schools.

They have warned that the “free admission” scheme would “spoil” the Vietnamese students, because even the “substandard” students would be admissible to universities.

Analysts have pointed out that Vietnam is following the wrong track when trying to “popularize” the university education. In developed economies, 30 percent of high school graduates continue studying at universities, while the remaining go to vocational schools. Meanwhile, Vietnam goes the opposite direction: most high school graduates decide to follow university education.

Explaining the decision to remove the floor mark mechanism, MOET said that it is necessary to renovate the enrolment mechanism to pave the way for capable students to obtain higher education.

However, the explanation proves to be unconvincing to educators. Dang Van Sang, Headmaster of the Anh Sang Intermediate School (2-year training), said MOET made the decision just because it wanted to please people-founded universities.

The schools have been shouting for help over the last few years because of the lack of students. The mushrooming of people-founded schools and the limited numbers of students (currently, MOET gives enrolment quotas to schools every year), i.e. the oversupply has made the schools suffer.

As such, the move by MOET which aims to ease the requirements on university input students has been described as a “compromise.”

Analysts commented that MOET, which licensed too many people-founded universities, now feels that it needs to take responsibility for this by helping the schools attract more students.

However, while MOET satisfies people-founded universities, it has driven vocational intermediate schools into the corner.

Do Huu Khoa, Chair of the HCM City Vocational Schools Union, said it is now very difficult for vocational schools to enroll students, because of the “university education popularization” tendency initiated by MOET.

MOET has decided that Vietnam would have 400,000 new university students in 2014, 280,000 students for junior colleges (3-year training), and 300,000 students for vocational schools. If counting on the students following the in-service or other training modes, the number of university students would be 1.1 million.

Khoa said that the proportion of 70/30 percent for university and vocational school students is quite unreasonable, which would lead to the oversupply of bachelors and the lack of skillful workers.

Compiled by Kim Chi