Data from the past three academic years show that the proportion of PhD enrollment targets actually filled has gradually increased, but a substantial gap remains.

In the 2023-2024 academic year, higher education institutions set a combined target of 7,158 PhD places, but enrolled only 3,376 candidates, equivalent to 47.16%.

The target edged down to 7,068 in 2024-2025, while actual enrollment increased to 4,077, reaching 57.68%.

By 2025-2026, the PhD enrollment target had risen sharply to 9,083, with 5,687 places filled, equivalent to 62.61%.

Over the three-year period, the fulfillment rate therefore increased by more than 15 percentage points, from 47.16% to 62.61%.

However, 3,396 PhD places, or 37.39% of the total target, remained unfilled in the 2025-2026 academic year.

Despite the shortfall against enrollment targets, the overall scale of doctoral education across academic disciplines increased significantly between 2022-2023 and 2025-2026.

Group III, covering business and management and law, had the largest number of PhD students and recorded the strongest growth, rising from 2,310 to 4,510, nearly doubling over four academic years.

Group VII also expanded rapidly, from 2,007 to 4,045 PhD students.

Group V increased from 1,912 to 3,422, while Group VI rose from 937 to 2,204, making them among the fields recording notable growth over the period.

Group I, which covers education sciences and teacher training, also saw consistent growth, from 682 PhD students in 2022-2023 to 1,541 in 2025-2026.

Group II recorded more modest growth, from 80 to 141.

Notably, Group IV was the only category to record a decline in 2025-2026. After increasing from 678 PhD students in 2022-2023 to 1,139 in 2024-2025, the figure dropped to 914 in 2025-2026.

Overall, doctoral education is concentrated primarily in Groups III, VII and V.

In 2025-2026, the three groups had 4,510, 4,045 and 3,422 PhD students, respectively, accounting for a large proportion of the total recorded doctoral population.

The figures indicate that growth in Vietnam's PhD-level academic workforce is concentrated in several fields, while expansion remains uneven across disciplines.

Vietnam classifies doctoral training into seven academic groups:

Group I: Education sciences and teacher training.

Group II: Arts.

Group III: Business and management, and law.

Group IV: Life sciences and natural sciences.

Group V: Mathematics and statistics; computer science and information technology; engineering technology; engineering; manufacturing and processing; architecture and construction; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; and veterinary medicine.

Group VI: Health.

Group VII: Humanities; social and behavioral sciences; journalism and information; social services; hospitality, tourism, sports and personal services; transport services; environment; and security and defense.

Le Huyen