Vietnam - Many universities fear they won’t have students to enroll

The predictions have come true--the marks got by students from the university entrance exams are not high due to the difficult exam questions. This has raised the worries among less prestigious schools that they may not be able to enroll enough students.

Over 100 universities have made public the exam marks of students, while the floor mark will be announced in some more days. The floor mark is the minimum mark students must have in order to be able to apply for studying at universities. It is now clear that the marks got by students are not high this year.

Required marks set up by top universities remain the same

Though the average marks are not high, top universities do not have to worry about the low quality of input students. Hoang Van Chau, President of the University for Foreign Trade, the school which always sets high required marks, said that 1000 examinees out of the total 2301 have got 20 marks and more, while 689 examinees have got 22 marks and more.

Chau said that it is very likely that the required marks of the school (the minimum marks students must have to be eligible for entering the school) would be the same as the previous year’s, and that the schools would not seek students who apply for studying as their second choice (a student, who fails to enter a school, can apply for another school as their second choice if he has the required marks set by the other school.

The Hanoi Pharmaceutical University also plans to set high required marks. The school has 99 students, who got 27.5 marks and more, while 558 students have reportedly got 23 marks and more. 

Meanwhile, according to To Ngoc Hung, Director of the Banking Academy, the required marks of the school would be 20.5 marks applied to the students who take A group exams (students have to sit mathematics, physics and chemistry exams), and 20 marks to the students who take D group exams (mathematics, literature and foreign languages).

Meanwhile, less prestigious schools plan lower required marks than the previous year. Nguyen Quang Kim, President of the University for Water Resources, said that students just need to have 17.5 marks to be enrolled into the “hottest study branch” of the school. Meanwhile, the Transport University has predicted that the required marks would be lower by 0.5-1 mark than the previous year.

Especially, famous schools including the Finance Academy and the Maritime University have also predicted lower required marks for this year.

Small schools fear they cannot enroll enough students

While prestigious schools keep calm about the enrolment plan for 2011, small and people founded schools have been on tenterhooks, fearing that they would not have students to enroll this year, if the Ministry of Education and Training decides to keep the floor mark unchanged. It is because prestigious would to enroll most of the students, and not many students would be left for the small schools.

The Power University, for example, has reported that 60 percent of examinees got 10 marks and more. Therefore, the school has decided to set the required marks at 15.5-17, while it would seek 15 percent of students needed from the students who apply for the school as second choice.

The universities, which enroll students who take C group exams (literature, history and geography) and D group exams, are also worried about the enrolment. At the Da Nang University, for example, only 19 students got five marks and more in the history exams, while there were 2467 examinees.

Tran Huu Nghi, President of the Hai Phong People Founded University, also said that up to 63 percent of examinees got less than 10 marks.

Non-state owned and regional universities well understand that they cannot compete with big universities in attracting students. They even plan to enroll the students, who got 7-8 scores only from the three exam subjects.

Meanwhile, an official from the Ministry of Education and Training has revealed that the floor marks would not be lower than the previous years, about 13 or 14 marks for different exam groups.

Kinh Te Do Thi

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