Hanoi has honored more than 1,700 top university graduates in the last 16 years

Hanoi honored 88 top university graduates who had excellent results at universities and academies in the city in 2018.

Engineering had the highest number of graduates honored:  24 graduates, or 27.2 percent, who finished polytechnic schools.

The majority of the top graduates, 63.3 percent, were women. 50 top graduates, or 56.8 percent, had very high learning achievements. 

Chu Hong Minh, Vice Secretary of Hanoi’s Youth Union and President of Hanoi’s Students Association, said at a press conference held on October 2 that 1,705 top university graduates have been honored in the last 16 years.

Meanwhile, a report of the Hanoi Department of Home Affairs showed that 186 top graduates, or 10 percent, were recruited for state agencies in Hanoi in that time. Of these, 156 are still working for the agencies.

Hanoi, in an effort to attract talents to the city, began applying the policy on recruiting top university graduates, or those who have highest learning achievements in their majors, to the city’s agencies.

Minh is a beneficiary of the policy. She was one of the top university graduates honored in 2006.

Analysts say that 10 percent is a modest figure. 

There has been no report about the recruitment of top university graduates in Hanoi. The graduates, when interviewed, cited many reasons behind their decisions not to work for Hanoi’s agencies.

However, according to Minh, the major reason is that graduates want to continue studying and many of them obtain scholarships from foreign universities to continue for a master’s degree and doctorate.

A university lecturer in Hanoi commented that the honored valedictorians are the ‘best among the excellent’, therefore, it is easy for them to find attractive scholarships from foreign schools. Studying overseas is the dream of the majority of Vietnamese.

He went on to say that many excellent graduates can get attractive job offers from multi-nationals when they are still at school. 

“Hanoi agencies have to compete with businesses and private institutions to attract talent,” he said. “The wages and working conditions offered by businesses are clearly more attractive.”

Asked how many this year’s valedictorians would be recruited by Hanoi’s agencies, Minh said that she still doesn’t have information. The department of home affairs will consider valedictorians’ expectations and the demand from state agencies in making decisions.

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