On November 22, the Ministry of Education and Training announced the draft regulations on university admissions in 2025, including many notable new points:
No more than 20% of the target, the benchmark score is converted to a common scale.
According to the draft of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), schools are allowed to consider early to select candidates with outstanding abilities and academic achievements. However, the early admission quota will not exceed 20%, and the admission score will not be lower than the standard score of the admission round according to the general plan of the Ministry.
Admission scores in all methods and combinations will be converted to a common scale. This means that schools cannot simultaneously use a 30-point scale when considering transcripts or high school graduation exam results and a 150-point scale when considering competency assessment test scores as before.
Regarding admission methods, schools are autonomous in deciding whether to use entrance exams, admission screening, or a combination of entrance exams and admission screening. Each method must clearly state the evaluation criteria and admission conditions.
Tighten the review of high school transcripts
As for the admission method based on high school transcripts, the Ministry requires a combination of at least three subjects, including Math or Literature with a weight of at least one-third of the total score. A major or training program can use several subject combinations at the same time. In that case, the common number of subjects in the combinations must have an assessment weight of at least 50% of the total score.
Thus, schools can use unlimited admission combinations, instead of only being allowed to use 4 combinations as at present, but are constrained by the weighted scores of the subjects.
At the same time, schools must use the results of the entire 12th grade of the candidates, instead of using the scores of 3-5 semesters as at present. Thus, if the draft is passed, universities cannot consider admission based on transcripts and announce the standard scores from March as at present.
In recent years, many schools have used the high school transcript review method for admission.
In many schools, the admission quota for considering academic records or combining academic records with other criteria is about 20-30%. In some private schools, the admission quota for this method is up to more than 50%.
Expected to raise the entrance threshold for Pedagogy and Medicine from 2025
Candidates applying for admission to Pedagogy, Medicine or Dentistry must have good or higher grades in grades 10-12, instead of only grade 12 as at present. Specifically, candidates applying for admission to these majors must have good or higher grades in all three years of high school, or a graduation score of 8 or higher.
Some majors are applied with lower floor level, such as Physical Education, Music Pedagogy, Fine Arts Pedagogy, Preschool Education at college level and the majors of Nursing, Preventive Medicine, Midwifery, Dental Prosthetics, Medical Testing Technology, Medical Imaging Technology, Rehabilitation Technology. Candidates need to have good academic results in all three years of high school or a graduation score of 6.5 or higher.
In addition, the Ministry currently divides candidates for teacher training and health care into two groups. The academic record requirement only applies to the group that does not consider high school graduation exam scores. For the group that considers graduation exam scores, the Ministry will announce the floor score every year.
