VietNamNet Bridge – The new regulations by the Ministry of Education and Training on enrolling national excellent students to universities are unconvincing to many schools.

According to Nguyen Duc Hinh, President of the Hanoi Medical University, in the years until 2012, the medical school only accepted the students who won the first prizes at the national competitions for excellent students to enter the school without having to attend the national university entrance exams.

The students who won the second or third prizes at the competitions had to attend the entrance exams to be eligible for studying there, like any other students. And they would be enrolled if they can get the marks equal to the floor marks to be announced by the education ministry at least.

However, all the schools nowadays have to pursue the new regulations of the ministry, while they do not have the right to set up the regulations of their own any more.

Under the new regulations, the candidates who win the second and third prizes at the competitions can also register to study the majors related to the subjects in which they win the prizes.

The medical school will have no other choice than following the new regulations. About 80 students would be enrolled in the school under the new mechanism.

However, Hinh said he is not sure the school can enroll the best students if following that way.

He noted that in previous years, some students, who won the second and third prizes at the national competitions for excellent students, could not get the floor marks.

Explaining this, educators said the students were only good at certain subjects, while they did not have deep knowledge in all the three required subjects (there are always three exam subjects for every student, no matter which group of exams he registers).

Hinh has also warned that if the second and third prize winners can register to study at any schools they want, they would prefer the Hanoi and HCM City Medical Universities to local schools. If so, the local medical schools including the Thai Binh and Hai Phong Universities would not have the opportunities to enroll good students.

The mechanism on enrolling students exceptionally, without through exams, has always been controversial.

The education ministry once set up very strict regulations on enrolling exceptional students  in order to be sure that only the best students could be able to follow the university education.

However, the mechanism then caused the worry that it would discourage students to attend the national competitions for excellent students, which, in the eyes of educators, are very necessary to find out the talents.

Since following the university education is always the top priority for any students, they would rather spend their time on preparing for the university entrance exams, than on the competitions for excellent students, which would not benefit them. No one could say for sure that they would win the first prizes at the competitions to be able to study at the wanted schools.

The education ministry, therefore, has decided to change the mechanism. However, the new mechanism has not satisfied big and famous schools which are always very choosy in enrolling students.

The Hanoi Medical University, for example, always requires sky high marks on students, some 27 or 27.5/30.

Tien Phong