Instead of just entering university through the high school graduation exam, candidates have more flexible opportunities to be admitted in both time and method. From here, many conflicting opinions are raised.

Increase the number of virtual candidates?

Early university admission is a method that does not use high school graduation exam results or is considered before the high school graduation exam. Of the 20 admission methods currently permitted by the Ministry of Education and Training, 2/3 are early admission methods, such as: considering academic records, considering a combination of academic records and international language certificates, considering academic records and interviews, etc.

At the Higher Education Conference recently organized by the Ministry of Education and Training, many concerns about the early admission method were frankly expressed and shared by leaders of training institutions. Notably, there were opinions suggesting reducing admission based on academic records, even proposing to completely eliminate the early admission method. Along with that were quite convincing evidence and reasons.

Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Quang - Chairman of Thai Nguyen University Council said that the Ministry of Education and Training should consider and move towards requiring universities to reduce admission based on academic records and increase consideration of high school graduation exam results. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thien Phuc - Vice Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University) proposed to eliminate the early admission method when students have not completed the high school education program.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Le Thanh Bac - Vice President of Danang University, students who are admitted early almost do not concentrate their full potential on the high school graduation exam because most of them only need to pass the graduation exam to be admitted. To avoid this situation, from 2025, the Ministry should have a regulation that admissions can only be announced with all methods after candidates complete the high school graduation exam.

“In recent years, the virtual rate of early admission has remained at 200 - 300%. When applying early, data on priority areas and priority subjects are not yet available, so when post-auditing, many errors are discovered” - Associate Professor, Dr. Le Thanh Bac shared more about the shortcomings of early admission.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son listened to and accepted all the above opinions and admitted that early admission has a negative impact on general education in the final stage of high school. In reality, candidates who are admitted early will not study anymore; schools will only be assured of admitting candidates to their schools; the remaining candidates who are admitted based on graduation exam scores will have few quotas, pushing the standard score up very high, creating inequality in the opportunity to enter good universities.

This is not the first time concerns have been raised about early admission. Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son also sees the "unfairness" when schools set early admission targets, creating a certain virtual level, making it difficult to verify. This has been a painful phenomenon in recent years, appearing not only in one but many schools, leading to some schools having actual enrollment numbers exceeding their targets. Along with that, universities do not have a basis for comparative analysis, and do not have a scientific basis when using early admission methods.

Reduce exam pressure

In 2023, 214/322 schools will use the early admission method in university admissions. The number of candidates admitted under this method is more than 375,500, of which 147,400 are first choice (nearly 40%).

In the early admission methods, many schools consider the transcripts from January; the way the schools calculate scores is different, some schools take the average of 3 semesters, some schools take 5 semesters; consider the combination of blocks or the average of many subjects and do not use the results of the second semester of grade 12. Some schools announce the benchmark scores in March. Meanwhile, the high school graduation exam takes place at the end of June; the exam scores are announced in mid-July; the benchmark scores are announced based on the exam scores in mid-August.

Among the early admission methods, considering academic records is the most criticized. Dr. Le Viet Khuyen - Vice President of the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges said that early admission based on academic records is unfair because the quality of training in high schools is not currently verified; the academic records of each school and locality do not reach a common standard.

However, there are many opposing opinions that early university admission has been implemented in many developed countries for a long time. For example, in France, some universities have admission results from April. It is very good for students to determine their major early, have time to prepare mentally and physically for university, which is more difficult than high school and has more career-defining implications.

On the positive side, experts point out many advantages of early admission methods. For candidates, early admission methods provide more options for university admission. For schools, this is a method that helps many schools proactively recruit because if they only rely on the Ministry's general data, schools can only consider high school graduation exam scores or transcripts instead of about 20 methods as at present. Schools with a diverse recruitment trend take advantage of many data sources such as: transcripts, excellent student results, international certificates, interviews, aptitude tests, etc., thereby selecting candidates suitable for the requirements of the training program.

Dr. Trinh Van Toan - Head of Training Department of Electricity University shared that early admission is a good policy, beneficial for candidates, creating a comfortable mentality, reducing exam pressure when there is not only one choice based on graduation exam scores.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son also said that early admission has advantages and disadvantages. In terms of advantages, early admission helps schools to be more proactive, reducing pressure on both candidates and schools. On the contrary, this method also creates anxiety for candidates because when they see their friends being admitted early, they also have to worry about early admission. Not only that, candidates who are admitted early also have subjective thoughts and are distracted in their studies. For educational institutions, early admission increases the number of virtual candidates, making it difficult for schools to predict the admission rate.

Seeing both sides of the issue, the leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training said they would consider the early admission method to consider and include it in next year's admissions orientation. Previously, the Ministry repeatedly encouraged schools to increase the use of high school graduation scores in university admissions because the agency believes that the graduation exam is reliable, helps reduce costs and ensures fairness.