College Scholarships: Free or a Tool for Schools to Achieve Their Own Goals?

"Blooming" scholarships

The British University website has announced many scholarship packages for students enrolling in 2025. The scholarship fund includes many scholarship categories such as: Founder Scholarship, Lion Heart Scholarship, UK Ambassador Scholarship, Principal Scholarship, Director of Training Scholarship, Sector Scholarship and Talent Scholarship...

Among them, there are many full scholarships such as Lion Heart Scholarship; Founder Scholarship; UK Ambassador Scholarship... The new scholarship program, first implemented in 2025, is the Education Development Scholarship, for students outside of Hanoi to have the opportunity to study at the school, worth from 30% -50% of tuition fees.

Particularly among the scholarships of British Universities, there is the Lion Heart Scholarship, which is a special full scholarship for students with physical or health disadvantages, or difficult family circumstances, but who know how to nurture a strong will, brave heart and extraordinary "fighting" power to overcome personal barriers, strive to achieve excellent results and inspire those around them positively.

FPT University said that in 2025, for the first time, it will grant 100 Global Expert scholarships. The scholarships not only cover 100% of the entire course tuition but also provide a living allowance of 30 million VND/year. Notably, after graduation, students will be able to choose to work in one of 5 countries including the US, Japan, Korea, Germany and Singapore.

Scholarships for candidates who won first/second/third prizes in the national excellent student selection exam, registering to study Information Technology. Candidates will go through 2 rounds: application round and interview round with FPT directors in 5 countries: USA, Japan, Korea, Germany and Singapore.

FPT University also offers thousands of scholarships worth from 30 to 100% of tuition fees to many different groups of students based on their high school academic achievements and exam results; a 30% discount on tuition fees for the entire course for students studying at the Can Tho and Da Nang campuses and a 50% discount on tuition fees for the entire course for students studying at the Quy Nhon campus.

In 2025, FPT University will also support 1,000 students under the "Study now - pay later" support program - allowing students to pay tuition fees in installments within 5 years after graduation. The post-payment levels are quite diverse from 30%, 50% or 70% of the total course tuition.

In addition, a series of other private universities have also begun to launch many scholarship packages for this year's enrollment season, such as Phenikaa University with a total value of over 50 billion VND, CMC University with a scholarship fund and incentives "CMC - Because you deserve it" worth 96 billion VND...

Be careful of "killing many birds with one stone"

Scholarships are rewards for top students, students with excellent academic results, or to support students with difficult economic circumstances to excel in their studies... However, through the scholarship and incentive policies of many universities, it shows that winning scholarships at some non-public universities is not too difficult.

Independent education expert - Dr. Bui Thi Viet Ha - analyzed: "The whole country has about 250 higher education institutions, of which nearly 70 are non-public higher education institutions. Therefore, the race to 'hunt' for students in general and excellent students in particular to improve the quality of input and build the image of the school in non-public higher education institutions is always a fierce competition. Scholarships are becoming an important tool to help private universities compete with public universities, especially in attracting excellent students, thereby improving the quality of input and building the image of the school. An arrow named scholarship can help schools achieve their goals".

A true scholarship will promote students' abilities and achievements. Illustrative photo

Dr. Bui Thi Viet Ha said that there are scholarships to recognize and encourage excellent students to continue to develop their abilities or preferential scholarships to support disadvantaged students to strive, so she completely supports them. However, many schools now have scholarship packages with 'general' criteria, so candidates and parents must be very careful and pay special attention to the conditions and requirements behind so as not to become "a piece of cheese in a mousetrap".

"Most scholarships aimed at attracting students have conditions attached. For example, first-year students receive a scholarship at the beginning of the course with a "huge" amount of 75% - 100% of tuition for one semester or the first year, along with the condition of not transferring schools, completing the entire curriculum... After that scholarship expires, the sky-high tuition fees or the "harsh" score conditions to achieve the scholarship the next year put students and parents under a lot of pressure to continue studying."

Agreeing with Dr. Viet Ha about being careful with the conditions that come with scholarships, MSc. Pham Thai Son, Director of the Admissions and Communications Center, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade, said that scholarships are a reward, an opportunity to go further in the learning journey. However, getting a scholarship at some non-public higher education institutions does not always mean a smooth university journey.

"Even though they have won a tuition waiver scholarship, students still have to pay exorbitant fees such as facilities, study materials, etc. Or some schools require that in order to receive the next scholarship, students need to complete all tests, assessments, and achieve high academic results. If they withdraw from the scholarship program before completing the program, students will have to comply with the school's refund policy. The pressure of having to maintain academic performance, meet the requirements of the scholarship provider, and even compare themselves with other scholarship recipients can make many students lose joy and interest in the learning process" - Master Thai Son commented.

"Tuition fees usually only account for 50 - 60% of the cost of studying, there are many other study costs and living expenses. Therefore, parents and students should carefully read the terms of the scholarship application as well as research carefully to choose the most suitable learning environment for themselves. Because if you only rely on scholarships, when you enter school, you may be disappointed, causing negative effects on the learning process and more deeply, affecting your future career."

Dr. Pham Minh Hoang, Director of the Center for Social Demand Training, University of Economics and Business Administration - Thai Nguyen University

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/hoc-bong-vao-dai-hoc-doc-ky-huong-dan-su-dung-truoc-khi-dung-20250403182353799.htm