Since grade 10, Pham Thi Huyen, a student at Nguyen Trai High School (Thai Binh), has clearly defined her goal of pursuing History Education. To achieve that dream, Huyen has constantly strived to improve her knowledge, gradually getting closer to her goal of becoming a History teacher in the future. However, when learning about the admission plan just announced by the schools, the female student was surprised and confused by the admission combinations that did not include major subjects.

Huyen cited that the History Education Department of Hanoi Capital University this year recruited students based on four groups, of which only one group had a History subject, which was C03 (Literature, Mathematics, History). The remaining three groups did not have this subject, including: D01 (Math, Literature, English), C04 (Literature, Mathematics, Geography), C14 (Literature, Mathematics, Economic and Legal Education).

"I have spent a lot of time, effort and money to study and improve my knowledge of History with the hope of achieving the highest results in the upcoming exam, but when I learned that there were students who could pass the History Pedagogy major without a score in this subject, I felt it was quite unfair," Huyen said.

Like Huyen, Nguyen Minh Anh (Hanoi) who wants to study English Language is also confused and worried when seeing many schools consider admission based on combinations that do not include major subjects. Anh believes that to study well in any major, especially highly specialized majors such as Pedagogy, candidates need to have a solid knowledge foundation right from the entrance exam.

"English is the most important subject for the English Language major, yet some schools consider admission based on combinations that do not include this subject. This makes me worry about the competitive opportunities of candidates who spend many years studying this subject well," Minh Anh said, asking the question, if a student is not really good at English but still passes this major thanks to high scores in other subjects, will he or she be able to keep up with the program?

This year's admission season, not only Hanoi Capital University, but also some pedagogical schools use very strange admission combinations for their majors.

The Geography Pedagogy Department of Hai Duong University recruits the D01 combination (Math, Literature, English); or the Physics Pedagogy Department of Khanh Hoa University recruits the D07 (Math, Chemistry, English) and B00 (Math, Chemistry, Biology) combinations, in addition to the two combinations with Physics.

Meanwhile, Hoa Binh University enrolls students in the English Language major with five groups, two of which do not have English subjects: C00 (Literature, History, Geography) and C01 (Literature, Math, Physics).

An admissions expert analyzed that from this year, due to many changes in the new general education program, the Ministry of Education and Training has removed the limit on the number of admission combinations for each major and training program (previously, each major could only use a maximum of 4 admission combinations). However, to ensure input quality, the regulations require that the admission combination must have at least 3 suitable subjects, in which Math or Literature accounts for at least 25% of the weight. Thus, the schools do not violate the regulations.

This person also believes that high school subjects are just the first step, helping to determine students' abilities and interests in the profession. Specialized knowledge and professional skills will be cultivated and accumulated in 4 years of university, so diversifying the admission combinations does not greatly affect the quality of input and output.

On the other hand, there are opinions that schools using "strange" combinations without major subjects will more or less affect candidates' learning, as well as future training and teaching results.

Master Pham Thai Son, Director of the Admissions and Communications Center, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade, said that core subjects often reflect the basic abilities of candidates. Therefore, if the History Pedagogy major does not require History, and the English Language major does not require English, it is very easy for students to not have a suitable knowledge base, causing difficulties in the learning process.

"Not to mention, it will lose fairness for other candidates in the race to get into university. Those with good ability in the main subject but low scores in the remaining subjects can be eliminated, while those without a foundation in the main subject can be admitted," Mr. Son said, emphasizing that with a specific field like Pedagogy, it always requires passion and is often shown through the scores that candidates achieve.

According to this person, it is undeniable that expanding the admission combinations helps universities attract more candidates, especially candidates with strengths in different subjects, not being limited to a fixed group of subjects. However, the combinations must accurately reflect the required capacity of the field of study, especially for fields that require solid foundational knowledge such as Pedagogy, Medicine, Architecture... If too many combinations are expanded without clear criteria, it can lead to uneven input quality.