VietNamNet Bridge – People founded universities all have voiced the same concern--that they would be eliminated from the university system in Vietnam; saying that they are dying slowly because of no student to enroll.
The Association of Non-state Universities has proposed the Ministry of Education and Training to give schools the power to set up the floor marks themselves, (the minimum marks students must have from the university entrance exams to be eligible for applying to study at universities), or to lower the floor marks this year.

Under the current regulations, the floor marks can only be announced by the Ministry of Education and Training after the annual university entrance exams.

Le Cong Huynh, President of the Thanh Tay University, said that in 2010, schools once had to struggle very hard to enroll students. Meanwhile, in 2011, if state owned schools set up low minimum required marks, there will be no more students for non-state owned schools to enroll, because people founded schools are less competitive than state owned schools.

“Four years ago, our school could enroll 700 students. The figure dropped to 600 and then 400 the next years. I am afraid that 200 would still be an impossible mission this year,” Huynh said.

Huynh has proposed to set up two kinds of floor marks – the one for state owned schools, and the other for people founded schools.

On August 8, the Ministry of Education and Training officially announced the floor marks for different groups of exams, which see no differences with the last year’s floor marks.

The information has discouraged non-state schools, because they fear that the students, who have enough floor marks, would go to state owned schools rather than non-state schools.

Dang Van Dinh, Chair of Chu Van An University, said that the educators seemed to lack experiences in setting exam questions, which explained why students got sky high marks from the high school final exams, but then got low marks at the university entrance exams.

“The existence of the floor marks is the main reason that kills less famous schools, thus killing the education socialization policy of the whole country,” Dinh said.

According to Dinh, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) should apply the enrolment mechanism which is being applied to the enrolment to high schools. Under the mechanism, the floor marks can be lowered until the schools can get enough students.

However, the proposal to remove the floor marks has not been accepted by MOET. The ministry’s Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga said that the floor mark mechanism should be existing, because it is necessary to find out the students, who have the minimum required knowledge for university education level.

Dr Dao Trong Thi, Chair of the National Committee for Culture, Education, the Youth and Children, also agrees that the floor mark mechanism should be maintained until a common exam mechanism for all schools is still applied.

He believes that it is necessary to set up floor marks in order to select the students, who are capable enough to study at universities.

Thi said he understands well that some people founded schools will not be able to enroll enough students and they will have to shut down. However, he sees this as a great opportunity to eliminate weak schools.

“What should we give priority to? The number of educated people, or the quality of educated people? We encourage students to follow university education, but this does not mean that we have to allow the students who are not capable enough, to study,” Thi said.

Meanwhile, President of the Hai Phong People Founded University, Tran Huu Nghi thinks that the floor mark mechanism should be maintained, but the floor marks should be designed in a way to ensure that schools can enroll enough students.

C. V