Many "strange phenomena" in university admissions 2025

Literature is a compulsory subject; medicine and pharmacy do not require chemistry or biology.

When the Central University of Art Education and Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Finance announced their 2025 enrollment plans, they immediately attracted public attention because all majors of the two schools considered admissions with a combination of literature subjects.

There are many changes to the 2025 University Admissions Regulations.

Specifically, the Central University of Fine Arts has two forms of considering literature scores: considering the results of the high school graduation exam or considering the results of the school report card. The school requires the average score of literature for the 3 years of high school of the candidate to be at least 6.5 or higher, the 12th grade academic performance must be classified as Fair or higher, or the high school graduation exam score in literature must be 6.5 or higher. In case the candidate has an excellent score on the aptitude test organized by the school (from 9.0 or higher), the literature score must be at least 5.0.

Similarly, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Finance, a school specializing in economics and finance with majors such as: business administration, international business, marketing, finance and banking, accounting, auditing, data science, graphic design, IT, software engineering, international finance... but requires the 2025 admission combinations to include literature. The school's admission combinations include: math - literature - English; math - literature - physics; math - literature - information technology; math - literature - legal economic education; math - literature - history; math - literature - geography, literature - English - information technology; literature - English - physics, literature - English - legal economic education.

During this year's admission season, the admission of medical schools continues to attract the attention of parents and students as many majors do not have chemistry or biology. Specifically, Hanoi Medical University has two majors using a different combination: Public Health - considered by block D01 (math, literature, English) and Psychology considered by D01 and C00 (literature, history, geography).

The University of Public Health recruits candidates from group D01 for the majors of Public Health, Nutrition, and Rehabilitation Technology; Thai Binh University of Medicine and Pharmacy uses group A01 (math, physics, English) for the majors of Nursing, Rehabilitation Technology, Medical Laboratory Technology, Medical Imaging Technology, and Pharmacy.

Hoa Binh University (Hanoi) recruits many new combinations, in which the medical major recruits other combinations (in addition to combination B00), including: math - literature - English, math - physics - chemistry, math - physics - English, literature - math - geography. Similarly, the schools: Hong Bang International University, Nam Can Tho University recruit math - chemistry - English for the medical major.

Is it suitable?

2025 is the first year that biology courses under the 2018 General Education Program will take the high school graduation exam. With 2 compulsory subjects and 2 optional subjects, there are a total of 36 admission combinations that can be used in university admissions this year. To match the new program, many universities have also added new combinations to increase the recruitment source and increase opportunities for candidates.

Providing criteria for combinations is important, but the most important thing is students' self-study.

Explaining the reason for including literature in every admission group, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics and Finance said: the school considers literature to be very important, helping students easily absorb social sciences and general subjects, from which they can gain specialized knowledge; along with that, literature is also one of the two compulsory subjects in the high school graduation exam.

The reason why Hanoi Medical University decided to recruit Psychology majors with the combination C00, D01 is because this major belongs to the field of social and behavioral sciences, with many parts of knowledge related to social subjects.

Associate Professor, Dr. Do Van Dung - senior lecturer at Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy expressed that the medical school admission has many strange combinations, which can cause unfairness and recruit candidates who do not really want to study medicine.

Associate Professor Dr. Do Van Dung gave an example of a candidate with a very high physics score, who initially wanted to study engineering but then switched to medicine. Thus, the school only recruited candidates with high scores but who were not determined to study medicine from the beginning. Moreover, with subjects such as technology or economic and legal education, the assessment method may be easier than natural science subjects and when considering general admission, it will not be fair.

On that basis, Associate Professor, Dr. Do Van Dung said that in medical admissions, only one combination of math - chemistry - biology should be used to ensure basic knowledge, bring fairness and recruit candidates who have a passion for medicine.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Minh Phuong - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy said that expanding the admission combination beyond the traditional math - chemistry - biology combination can expand the recruitment source for schools, especially in the context of the new general education program, students can choose subjects and many students do not choose chemistry or biology.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Minh Phuong, knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology are all necessary for medical training programs. In the first year, students will learn knowledge of biology, human anatomy, and genetics. Biological knowledge will follow students until they graduate and work. Meanwhile, physics is related to imaging techniques, metabolic mechanisms, ultrasound, X-rays, etc.; mathematical knowledge is related to community research.

However, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Minh Phuong also affirmed that the requirements for the combination must have been carefully considered by the schools and must comply with the admission regulations. The criteria for the combination are very important, but the most important thing is the research and self-study of the students. He cited the fact that in many countries, the medical industry does not recruit subjects like Vietnam, but they still train medical students very well.

 

In order to ensure the quality and knowledge foundation necessary for university study, the 2025 University Admissions Regulations stipulate that the subject combination used for admission includes at least 3 suitable subjects, including math or literature with a weighted score of not less than 25%.

From 2026, the number of common subjects of the groups must contribute at least 50% of the weighted score.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/nhieu-hien-tuong-la-trong-tuyen-sinh-dai-hoc-2025.html