Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has decided to remove the university entrance exams starting in the 2015-2016 academic year to save costs and time as proposed by senior experts and local people. There will be only one national exam every year – the high school finals – instead of the high school finals and the university entrance exam as it used to be. Students’ learning records and the results of the finals will be considered by universities when enrolling students. However, schools have a right to organize extra exams or tests to select the best and suitable students for them. A MOET report showed that by mid-December 2014, the ministry had received reports from 428 universities and junior colleges on their enrolment plans for the 2015-2016 academic year, the first year of the higher education reform period. Of these, 235 schools stated they will only consider the national high school finals to enroll students, while the other 192 schools will both consider the students’ results from the finals and the high school learning records. Senior educational experts earlier said that the organization of the two exams in one month has caused a big waste of money for the state budget. Last year, the waste hit tens of billions of dong and the amount was even higher in the previous years. Vietnam now has about three million students at 700 universities, colleges and vocational training schools. Experts warned that despite the fast expansion and rapid growth in the numbers of universities and colleges, the quality of local education cannot meet the social demand and development in the region. (VietnamNet Jan 7)
