Announcing new University and College Admission Regulations: No more early admission, publicizing rules for converting equivalent scores

No more early admission; must use the entire 12th grade academic results for admission

According to the new Regulations, there will be no more early admission. In fact, in recent years, applying early admission has made the admission period longer, and candidates have to request confirmation of their high school results to many training institutions, leading to a waste of social resources. In particular, many training institutions have called for early admission in large numbers, but the number of candidates enrolling is very small, showing that early admission is ineffective.

In addition, when training institutions conduct early admissions using the learning results from 1 to 5 semesters of high school instead of using the results of the entire 12th grade year (semester 2), it affects the learning process and high school graduation exams of students, thereby affecting their learning capacity at university level. Therefore, to ensure that students are fully equipped with the necessary basic knowledge to study university programs, from this year the Regulations stipulate that early admissions will no longer be considered.

The new regulations also stipulate that when using high school academic results for admission, candidates must use their entire 12th grade academic results. In addition, to ensure that the contribution of the entire 12th grade academic results is not too low when calculating the admission score, the regulations stipulate that the weight of the 12th grade academic results in calculating the admission score must not be less than 25%.

Publicly announce the rules for converting equivalent admission scores to ensure fairness and transparency.

The new regulations stipulate that training institutions using multiple admission methods must determine the equivalent conversion rules for the entrance threshold and admission scores of the admission methods, admission methods, and admission combinations according to the general instructions of the Ministry of Education and Training. Thus, schools do not have to allocate quotas for admission methods to avoid risks when considering admission according to the quota of each method such as the difference in scores between methods being too large, there are methods with very high admission scores, admission scores based on transcripts are lower than admission scores based on high school graduation exam results, etc.

In addition, to ensure that candidates have full information during the application process, the Regulations stipulate that the equivalence conversion rules must be publicly announced at the latest at the same time as the admission quality assurance threshold is announced.

Candidates do not need to choose a method code, combination code... they just need to clearly identify the program, major, training group and training institution they want to study to decide to register. The general enrollment support system of the Ministry of Education and Training will use the method with the highest result of the candidate for admission consideration.

Conversion of foreign language scores in university admissions: foreign language scores converted from foreign language certificates have a weighted score that cannot exceed 50% (illustrative photo)

Unlimited number of admission combinations

2025 is the first year that biology courses under the new general education program (General Education Program 2018) will take the high school graduation exam. The Ministry of Education and Training has issued the Regulations on high school graduation exams from 2025, which increase the number of subjects that students can choose. Therefore, to ensure the opportunity for students from different regions to be admitted, the Regulations remove the requirement for training programs, each major and each program has a maximum of 4 admission combinations; there is no limit on the number of admission combinations.

However, in order to ensure the quality and knowledge foundation necessary for university study, the Regulation stipulates that the subject combination used for admission includes at least 3 suitable subjects, including Mathematics or Literature with a weighted score of not less than 25%. From 2026, the common subjects of the combination must contribute at least 50% of the weighted score.

Use appropriate foreign language certificates to convert into foreign language scores in admissions.

In recent years, there has been a situation where some training institutions have abused the use of foreign language certificates in the admission process, even using foreign language certificates as a criterion to determine the candidates' chances of admission; meanwhile, access to foreign language certificates varies between students in different regions. Therefore, the new Regulation stipulates that schools can convert foreign language certificates into foreign language subject scores to include in the admission subject group, but the foreign language subject scores converted from foreign language certificates have a weighted score that cannot exceed 50%.

With this regulation, candidates can still make the most of their strengths to increase their chances of being admitted to university while still ensuring fairness.

The total score does not exceed 10% of the maximum score of the assessment scale.

In addition to the fact that there may be unfairness in admission due to the abuse of foreign language certificates, the regulation of the total bonus points (bonus points, bonus points, incentive points) for the achievements and different certificates of candidates (too) large can also lead to unfairness with candidates who do not have bonus points (for objective reasons, not because of ability) for the same admission. Therefore, the Regulation sets a limit of the total bonus points not exceeding 10% of the maximum score of the assessment scale (for example, with a 30-point scale, the maximum is 3 points) to create a fairer opportunity in admission. However, training institutions still have bonus points based on the characteristics of the training institution, the input requirements and the maximum exploitation of the candidates' individual strengths.

Each candidate has the opportunity to achieve the maximum score on the scale, but no candidate has a score (all types of bonus points and priority points) exceeding this maximum score./.

Maintain the 2025 high school graduation exam schedule

On March 20, the Ministry of Education and Training sent a document to the Departments of Education and Training: Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Ninh Binh, Nghe An, Quang Tri about the time to organize the High School Graduation Exam in 2025.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Education and Training received an Official Dispatch from the Departments of Education and Training regarding the consideration of adjusting the exam schedule for the 2025 High School Graduation Exam.

Regarding this, the Ministry of Education and Training acknowledges and highly appreciates the initiative of the Departments of Education and Training in proposing adjustments to the high school graduation exam schedule to meet practical needs in localities and other actual situations.

After considering many factors, the Ministry of Education and Training decided to keep the 2025 high school graduation exam schedule as announced in the 2024-2025 school year plan (according to Decision No. 2045/QD-BGDDT dated August 1, 2024).

According to this Decision, the 2024-2025 school year schedule clearly states: The 2025 high school graduation exam is expected to take place on June 26 and 27, 2025.

The Ministry believes that keeping the exam schedule as announced will help stabilize the psychology of students and parents and will not affect other activities in the education sector.

The Ministry of Education and Training requests that the Departments of Education and Training closely coordinate with relevant units to implement the 2024-2025 school year plan, organize the 2025 High School Graduation Exam according to plan and ensure safety, seriousness, and compliance with regulations.