In previous years, universities and junior colleges had to complete enrollment plans and make them public in March. They also had to declare the numbers of students applying for study at the schools and necessary information as requested by MOET.

But things are different this year. Because of Covid-19 which forced students to stay off school for nearly three months, schools still need to wait for the official enrollment regulation to be set by MOET to draw up their plans.

The official enrollment policy has not been fixed yet and schools have to draw up plans in accordance with the draft regulation.

Prior to that, many schools stated they would organize standardized tests or entrance exams themselves. The statement was made after MOET said this year’s high school final exam, with easy exam questions, only has one purpose - recognizing students' general education completion.

But later, they unexpectedly decided to cancel the exams and apply other enrollment solutions.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is collecting opinions from universities on its draft regulation for higher education enrollment in 2020. Schools will draw up their enrollment plans based on the regulation.

On May 4, the Hanoi National University stated it won’t organize a separate entrance exam, but will select students based on the 2020 high school finals and other criteria.

If the epidemic lasts a long time, which will hinder the organization of the 2020 high school finals, the university will enroll students based on their high school learning records, plus tests from a distance.

The Hanoi Foreign Trade University has also announced a decision to cancel the test that serves enrollment for full-time training this year. Instead, the schools will select students based on the high school finals, students’ international certificates, and learning records.

According to Sai Gon Giai Phong, nearly 100 percent of universities have to adjust their enrollment plans to make them fit real conditions.

HCM City Economics University said it plans to enroll 5,800 students this year and 40 percent of these will be selected from the students who are deemed excellent students.

The school has designed five enrollment methods, allowing students to register with more than one of the methods.

The HCM City National University has also decided to adjust the enrollment methods, though it affirmed that the adjustments are designed to not cause disturbance to students.

The common characteristic of all plans is that schools, including ones with many enrollment methods, will consider high school finals’ results to select students. This means that high school finals will still be a reliable measure for schools to use to admit students. 

Mai Lan

University enrolment regulations for 2020 declared

University enrolment regulations for the 2020 intake will be adjusted to improve limitations in the university entrance exam last year, the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) has recently declared.

Rural colleges with low enrolment rates seek mergers with large universities

Many provincial universities and colleges are planning to merge with large universities to improve their enrolment rates and quality standards.