On the morning of December 6, speaking with VietNamNet , Mr. Andy Pham, Senior Manager of the Mekong region of ANU, said that this policy will take effect from February 2025. Accordingly, students who have completed grade 12 from all high schools or international schools (bilingual programs) can apply to ANU, using SAT or ACT scores.

ANU requires students to submit their Grade 12 transcripts and SAT/ACT scores when applying, but does not require a (provisional) Diploma when enrolling.

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Australian National University ranked 30th in the world, according to QS rankings 2025. Photo: ANU

Previously, in December 2022, ANU announced a list of 92 specialized high schools and scores across Vietnam that are accepted for direct admission to year 1 at this school, applying the admission method for invitation letters based on students' high school graduation exam scores.

By July 2023, ANU will change the admission and scholarship regulations for students from the list of 92 specialized high schools and scores, replacing the consideration of high school graduation scores for the invitation letter with the average score of the entire 12th grade (GPA 12). Mr. Andy Pham said that this regulation will continue to be implemented today and in the future.

This month, ANU announced a new policy for direct admission to high school students (outside the list of 92 specialized schools and scores), requiring students to submit their entire 12th grade grades to prove that they have completed 12th grade in Vietnam; and must have an SAT/ACT score of 1170 or higher. ANU will only consider invitations and scholarships based on SAT/ACT scores for this group of students.

In addition, all students must have an IELTS score of 6.5 (no band below 6.0) or equivalent to other English certificates such as PTE, TOEFL.

According to Mr. Andy Pham, there are two main reasons for this change. Firstly, there are many excellent Vietnamese students with very high SAT/ACT scores from high schools and international schools (teaching the program of the Ministry of Education and Training) who want to study at ANU but were not eligible to apply before because they did not study at specialized schools or high schools.

"This is very unfair and restrictive. Therefore, to expand opportunities for these excellent students to study at ANU, the school decided to expand the admission criteria with SAT/ACT so that all excellent students have the opportunity to apply and try their hand at an intensive learning environment," Mr. Andy explained.

The second reason, according to him, is that the number of Vietnamese students from specialized high schools and high schools studying at ANU last year was very active, had high scores and integrated quickly. Therefore, the ANU Academic Board and Admissions Department decided to expand the admission criteria from Vietnam.

To take advantage of this new policy, Mr. Andy Pham said that Vietnamese students need to study and take the SAT/ACT before applying to ANU. SAT/ACT scores vary depending on the major. For example, the Bachelor of Business or Bachelor of Information Technology (IT) program only requires an SAT score of 1170 or an ACT score of 23. However, to apply to more “difficult” majors such as Bachelor of Laws, Honors Bachelor courses, students must have an SAT score of 1390 or an ACT score of 32 or higher. Therefore, students must take the entrance exam for the major they want to apply to and have the appropriate SAT/ACT score.

According to the QS 2025 rankings, ANU is ranked 30th in the world. This is one of the top 8 universities in Australia. In 2025, ANU's average tuition fee is 53,000 AUD (865 million VND)/year. Currently, ANU offers 200 Chancellor's International Scholarships (25%) for international students, including Vietnamese students. The school does not require students to apply for scholarships or write essays. There is a scholarship round every month, ANU will automatically rank students' academic achievements and will send scholarships to those with the highest academic achievements in that round.

Parents in Da Nang reported that because they were introduced to the "on-site study abroad" form, they let their children drop out of public school, spending more than 100 million VND/year to study at the "American school" Prinberk Academy at the Thien Lap Nhan English Center facilities.