TPO - The story of university admissions in Vietnam continues to cause controversy when the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) proposed limiting early admission quotas to no more than 20% and requiring conversion of scores between admission methods.
TPO - The story of university admissions in Vietnam continues to cause controversy when the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) proposed limiting early admission quotas to no more than 20% and requiring conversion of scores between admission methods.
The Ministry of Education and Training has just announced a draft Circular amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Regulations on university and college admissions for the Early Childhood Education sector with many new points such as raising the entrance standards for teacher training and health, controlling the early admission quota, considering the transcripts must use the entire 12th grade score, and the admission methods must be converted to a common scale for fair admission. According to the draft, schools are allowed to consider early to select candidates with outstanding abilities and academic achievements. However, the early admission quota does not exceed 20%, the admission score is not lower than the standard score of the admission round according to the general plan of the Ministry of Education and Training. The draft has attracted attention and many debates... Tien Phong Newspaper would like to introduce an article sharing the views of Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh - former Director of the Department of Vocational Education (Ministry of Education and Training).
Although presented with the aim of ensuring fairness, the provisions in the Draft Admission Regulations show administrative imposition, lack of clarity and are not consistent with the current reality of higher education . It is worth noting that the Draft has a number of provisions that ignore the core admission philosophy: selecting suitable candidates and helping them learn and learn.
In the context of the past few years, the spirit of autonomy seems to have "exceeded the threshold", causing too many admission methods and by all means to "sweep" candidates to meet the quota, creating quite a chaos in admission. In particular, early admission based on academic records or other methods has created unfairness and inequality in the opportunities of candidates, causing candidates who were admitted early to take the place of other candidates who registered for admission by other methods. In this Draft, it is natural that the Ministry wants to restore order in university admission.
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Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh |
The pressure to fill the enrollment quota is that universities put the goal of filling the enrollment quota first, sometimes regardless of the quality of the input. Many schools focus on “easy” enrollment methods such as reviewing transcripts or early admission, regardless of whether these methods are really suitable for the field of study or not. This has led to the consequence that schools do not clearly publicize the enrollment rate by each method, causing candidates and parents to not have enough information to make appropriate choices. Top schools can easily attract good candidates through early admission, while lower-ranked schools have to rely on the high school graduation exam, creating unequal competition. That also creates a certain pressure as candidates have to apply to many places, and can lead to distraction from final year studies.
It is important that instead of focusing on filling vacancies, schools ensure that students are not only “educated” but also “able to learn” – in accordance with their abilities and desired field of study.
The 20% early admission figure – A rigid, unexplained rule
The regulation limiting early admission to 20% was introduced with the reason of “ensuring fairness,” but it lacks flexibility and is not based on scientific basis. That limit is not suitable for the characteristics of diverse fields of study and higher education institutions.
Some fields such as engineering or technology may need to admit 50-60% of candidates early to attract suitable talent, while fields such as Medicine or Pedagogy may only need a lower rate as some schools have applied. Imposing a general formula of 20% for all is unreasonable, going against the modern educational trend in the world where admission based on academic records and competency assessment exams is popular, in line with the philosophy of comprehensive education.
Controlling the early admission rate is a step backward, reducing creativity and flexibility in admission and sometimes even violating the academic autonomy of universities. Finally, diversifying admission methods to select suitable people will be broken because the rate of early admission methods is within 20%.
In fact, there is no data or research to prove that the 20% figure is optimal for all schools and majors, but it may just be a subjective figure. Such a regulation seems to be set to control rather than fundamentally solve the problem of mismatch.
Is equivalent conversion possible?
In addition, the Draft requires converting scores between admission methods to a common scale to ensure fairness. However, this is not feasible because of the differences in the nature of the methods. Considering the transcript reflects the learning process in accordance with the goals of the 2028 General Education Program, the high school graduation exam tests basic knowledge, the competency assessment exam measures thinking and analysis, while achievements such as Olympic awards or national excellent students focus on specialized competencies. These differences cannot be converted to equivalent standards.
On the other hand, with more than 100 admission combinations and a variety of different methods, building a conversion system requires huge data and extensive research, which is not currently being done. Inaccurate conversion will cause injustice and affect the quality of input.
Regulations such as the 20% limit or score conversion reflect an old-fashioned administrative control approach: “if you can’t manage it, ban it” instead of finding other options to ensure fairness, equality and quality of admissions that are consistent with both the 2018 General Education Program and with countless majors with different characteristics and requirements.
What the Ministry and schools need to do now is to publicly and transparently disclose information on admission rates by method so that all candidates have enough information to make informed choices. The Ministry of Education and Training needs to play a general coordinating role, requiring schools to rely on actual data from the past 3 years of each field of study, instead of imposing a fixed rate for all. Schools need to be encouraged to be creative in their admission methods, suitable to their own characteristics, and not overly complicate the admission combinations as long as quality is ensured - candidates are admitted and learn.
The regulation limiting early admission quota to 20% and requiring score conversion are administrative control measures that lack scientific basis and are not suitable for practice. Instead of imposing unnecessary barriers, the Ministry of Education and Training should develop an admissions policy based on scientific research, real data and school autonomy. Only then will the admissions system be truly transparent, fair and serve the right educational goals.
* The article represents the author's personal opinion.
Source: https://tienphong.vn/du-thao-quy-che-tuyen-sinh-moi-dung-khong-quan-duoc-thi-cam-post1695523.tpo
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