College Admissions 2025: Schools Still Confused

The University informs candidates about enrollment in 2025. Photo: HOA BAN

Wondering about redemption points and bonus points

A new regulation that has not been mentioned in the draft guidelines for university and college admissions that the Ministry of Education and Training has just released for comments, so many schools are wondering about converting foreign language certificate scores into university admission scores for this subject. The 2025 university admission regulations stipulate that foreign language certificates permitted by the Ministry to be used for exemption from high school graduation exams, training institutions can convert into foreign language subject scores to include in the admission subject group, with the weighting of the score not exceeding 50%.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Huu Cong, Vice Director of Thai Nguyen University, if schools are allowed to arbitrarily regulate the conversion, it will lead to a situation where each school has a different value. For example, some schools regulate that IELTS 7.0 is equivalent to 10/10 points, but some schools convert 7.5 to 10 points. It is not even possible to exclude the case of converting IELTS 4.0 to 10 points. Mr. Cong proposed that the Ministry of Education and Training should guide schools to implement the conversion according to a unified framework nationwide, for example, it is possible to divide the scores of foreign language certificates into equivalent scores of this subject in the admission combination. That way, universities can apply it appropriately, fairly, and less chaotically.

Faced with this reality, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son requested the Department of Higher Education to supplement the guidance in the spirit of ensuring differentiation for foreign language certificates when converting equivalent scores in admissions. “We should not equate IELTS 7.0 or higher with 10 points. There needs to be differentiation to ensure fairness and reliability. Because foreign language certificates come in many different forms, and also depend on the priorities of each school, it is necessary to base the conversion on the principle of fairness,” said Mr. Son.

Regulations on bonus points, bonus points, and incentive points in admission are also not clearly stated in the draft guidelines for university admission in 2025 of the Ministry of Education and Training. Dr. Tran Dinh Khoi Quoc, Head of the Training Department, University of Da Nang, asked whether the bonus points, incentive points, and bonus points (called bonus points) stipulated in the Admission Regulations are not more than 10% of the total admission score in each combination, and will they decrease gradually like the regional score (currently, the regional priority score decreases linearly when the candidate scores 22.5/30 points)? If the bonus score is 3 (maximum score on a 30-point scale) along with the regional priority score and the priority of the subject, what will happen if the candidate's admission score exceeds 30, while the Ministry stipulates that the admission score must not exceed the maximum score? Will the Ministry provide guidance on how to do it or will it give schools autonomy in handling it?

Dr. Khoi Quoc suggested that schools should be instructed to add priority points first, then add bonus points. Because priority points are calculated according to a unified formula nationwide, bonus points depend on the regulations of each school. According to Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son, the concern of the Training Department of Da Nang University is a very good suggestion for the Ministry of Education and Training to note and supplement the instructions. When considering admission, regional and target priority points will be added first, and bonus points (if any) will be added later. Mr. Son affirmed that bonus points will also have a linear reduction regulation like regional priority points.

According to the 2025 university admission regulations, in the admission process, bonus points will be “blocked” by two conditions: the ratio is not more than 10% of the total admission score and the total admission score of the candidate does not exceed the school’s scale. This avoids the situation where many schools add all kinds of bonus points and incentive points, so the candidate’s admission score exceeds the scale, causing interference in admission.

Need more time

According to the plan of the Ministry of Education and Training, candidates will start registering their admission wishes from July 16-28. From August 13, universities will upload data and admission information to the system. On August 20, universities will announce the results of the first round of admission according to the common schedule.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Head of Training Department, Hanoi National University, this year a lot of data was uploaded to the system, universities need time to check again before running the official virtual filtering. Therefore, schools need more time than the expected schedule given by the Ministry.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Minh Tam, Vice President of Ho Chi Minh City National University, agreed with the proposal to give universities more time to process data. According to him, the university needs about 10 days, including backup time. This year, because the entire system focuses on one round of admissions, the data is very large, and the Ministry of Education and Training's software is trying to provide timely support to universities. Mr. Tam said that it is necessary to clarify the contents under the responsibility of universities during the admissions process so that universities can promptly adjust the software, coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training's software, as well as have a database that is complete and accurate.

Dr. Tran Dinh Khoi Quoc affirmed that this year, schools will spend a lot of time reviewing records and checking, so he proposed that the Ministry of Education and Training allow schools to download data before August 13, so that schools have more time to assemble the data. On the other hand, schools expect the data provided by the Ministry of Education and Training to be absolutely accurate.

According to Mr. Nguyen Anh Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Training, the length of the admission review depends on the schools. The Ministry will try to reduce the virtual filtering time. The remaining problem is the time for processing raw data of the university. Therefore, the Ministry continues to ask for opinions from schools to regulate a highly feasible admission review schedule. If it is convenient for the school, the Department of Higher Education will advise the leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training to adjust the schedule.

NGHIEM HUE

Source: https://tienphong.vn/tuyen-sinh-dai-hoc-nam-2025-cac-truong-van-lung-tung-post1732627.tpo