VietNamNet Bridge - Private schools as well as state-owned universities have raised concerns about declining enrollments.

In 2015, the Hanoi Forestry University planned to enroll 3,000 students. However, it could find only 900 students (30 percent) who registered to study at the school as their first choice. 

As a result, the school had to accept students who registered to study as their second choice, i.e. students who applied for the school after they failed to enter other schools.

This had never happened before in the history of the school.

A report shows that only some prestigious schools namely Hanoi Foreign Trade, the Hanoi University of Education, Hanoi University of Technology, HCMC University of Natural Sciences and HCMC Economics University could find enough students after the first enrollment round. Meanwhile, other schools, especially local universities, had to carry out enrollment campaigns to find enough students.

In 2015, the Hanoi Forestry University planned to enroll 3,000 students. However, it could find only 900 students (30 percent) who registered to study at the school as their first choice.

Some member schools of Thai Nguyen University also could not find enough students after the first enrollment campaigns, even though they set very low requirements: students just needed to obtain the floor marks set by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) to be eligible to apply for the schools. 

Finally, the schools had to look for students from those who failed to apply to other schools.

The need for students is forecast to be even more serious this year because of the lower number of candidates. 

MOET’s Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga said the number of students to attend the national high school finals was 10-15 percent lower than that in 2015, while the number of students intending to go to university was also lower.

Doan Quang Vinh, deputy director of Da Nang University, also complained that two of its member schools – Technology College and Information Technology College – could only admit 80 percent and 30 percent, respectively, of the number they wanted.

Experts believe that it is necessary to remap the network of universities, or the lack of students would become even more serious in the future.

A senior official of the Hoa Binh provincial Education & Training Department said that Samsung Thai Nguyen recently came to every high school in the province to invite students to visit its factories and working conditions. The electronics manufacturer now mostly wants workers finishing high school instead of university. 

This shows that too many universities exist. Students have realized that they can find good jobs if they can work as skilled workers while they do not need to obtain bachelor’s degree.

Vinh said that the two junior colleges would be merged with each other or upgraded into universities.

Tien Phong