A strange combination of university admissions in 2025 appears

Missing major

In the announcement of regular university enrollment in 2025, Vietnam Academy of Agriculture recruits 130 students for two majors: Biotechnology and Biopharmaceutical Technology with 9 admission combinations. Of which, 8/9 combinations do not include Biology such as: Math, Chemistry, English (D07); Math, Physics, English (A01); Math, Literature, English (D01); Math... Information posted on the academy's website shows that Biopharmaceutical Technology is a new major, inheriting and developing the achievements of biotechnology in the production of drugs, products related to health care and beauty.

Candidates learn about university admission information. Photo: NGHIEM HUE

Similarly, Biotechnology is a field of study that studies and applies living organisms combined with processes and technical equipment to create products and produce on an industrial scale to serve human interests, while developing the economy - society and protecting the environment. In the training program of the two fields, Biology has the highest weight. Therefore, the absence of Biology in the admission combination of the two "concentrated" biological fields of the Vietnam Academy of Agriculture makes the public wonder.

This year, Hoa Binh University enrolls students in the Medicine and Traditional Medicine majors with 4/5 combinations that do not include Biology. More specifically, the school enrolls students in the English Language major with 2/5 combinations that do not include English: C00 (Literature, History, Geography) and C01 (Literature, Math, Physics).

In pedagogical schools, it is quite common for majors to be recruited without a main subject in the admission combination. Hanoi Capital University recruits students for the Physics Pedagogy major by considering a combination without Physics D07 in addition to the combinations that include this subject. The University of Education (Thai Nguyen University) uses the entire D01 combination to recruit History Pedagogy majors. Pham Van Dong University also uses this combination to recruit Physics Pedagogy majors...

According to the explanation of universities, the Admission Regulations this year just issued by the Ministry of Education and Training only stipulate that the required combinations must have one of the two main subjects: Math or Literature. All university education institutions follow this principle, so they do not violate the regulations. However, from a training perspective, some experts object. In previous years, Thai Binh University of Medicine and Pharmacy recruited medical students without Biology, which received many negative reactions. Because the nature of admission is to recruit the most candidates and the most suitable for the training major. Every major has prerequisite subjects, assessing the ability and interests of students. The 2018 general education program further demonstrates this when students are allowed to choose subjects that are suitable for their future career orientation. If there are no basic subjects in the admission combination, how will students study to meet the output standards of the schools?

What is the specific medicine?

Before the 2025 university admission season, the Vietnam Association of Universities and Colleges recommended that the Ministry of Education and Training eliminate admission methods that do not ensure the quality of university entrance exams, and require universities to explain the selection of subject combinations and competency assessment tests of separate exams used for admission, ensuring basic competency input standards for successful university study. In particular, it is necessary to unify reasonable admission combinations and resolutely eliminate "strange" combinations.

Prof. Dr. Chu Duc Trinh, Principal of the University of Technology (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) said that in recent times, university admissions have not met many requirements. Some lower-ranking schools have low quality admissions, sending many admission letters to candidates but the admission rate is not high. That picture has created disturbances in the national admissions system. Meanwhile, Vietnamese university education needs to affirm its quality internationally. In particular, in the coming time, there needs to be products made in Vietnam, made in Vietnam to be brought to the world, to do so, the quality of human resources must be high. Therefore, admissions is one of the important problems.

In the recently issued 2025 university admission regulations, the Ministry of Education and Training wants to limit strange combinations by requiring one of the two subjects Literature or Mathematics. However, universities "dodge" by meeting the requirements but not including the subject of the major they are enrolling in in the combination (for example, Physics Education, the admission combination does not include Physics) as above.

In order to avoid the situation of "mixed scores" between admission methods, the regulations require each university to convert the admission and admission scores to a common scale, consistent with each program, major, and training group. Deputy Minister of Education and Training Hoang Minh Son said that there are currently two types of admission benchmarks: high school graduation exam scores and other benchmarks (such as academic transcript scores, scores of thinking assessment tests, capacity assessment, and admission scores combined with many factors). The Ministry of Education and Training requires that there must be equivalence between these two benchmarks, and cannot be based on the number of quotas set by the schools. Therefore, converting or determining these two benchmarks to be equivalent is to ensure fairness for candidates.

The Ministry is working with a number of universities to develop guidelines to ensure uniformity in the system while ensuring diversity in autonomy according to the requirements of each profession. However, converting to a single scale of scores still does not completely solve the problem of strange combinations in admissions.

In reality, universities still live on student tuition fees. The more the quotas for majors increase, the lower the demand for university education, which will push lower-ranking universities into a situation of trying to "grab every scrap". That is why there are stories of "as difficult as failing university" as in recent years.

Nghiem Hue