Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tien Thao - Director of Higher Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training - said the above information at the 2026 aspiration selection day organized by Tuoi Tre Newspaper on the morning of July 4.
At the event, a parent shared that the deadline for registering for this year's high school graduation exam is May 5th.
According to parents, many students choose to convert international foreign language certificates such as IELTS to English scores to apply for university according to the A01 combination (Math, Physics, English).
This is also a combination that many universities use to enroll students in basic science, key engineering, and strategic technology - groups considered for scholarships of 3.7-5.5 million VND per month, according to Decree 179 of the Government on May 20.
However, according to the Decree, the condition for candidates to receive scholarships is to have a total high school graduation exam score of three subjects (Math and two in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English), from 22.5/30 or higher, excluding priority points and bonus points. At the same time, candidates must be in the top 30% of the highest scores in the country in the corresponding industry group.
The Decree is issued after candidates have registered for the high school graduation exam and have not registered for the English exam but used the IELTS certificate for conversion. So can candidates be considered for scholarships under Decree 179?" - parents asked.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tien Thao said that right from the time the Ministry of Education and Training submitted the draft to the Government at the end of April and announced it in the mass media, the Ministry set a condition that it should only be based on the high school graduation exam scores of three subjects according to the admission combination.
The policy does not use conversion points because each training institution has different conversion methods.
Scholarship consideration is only based on the scores of subjects in the admission combination based on high school graduation exam scores, without using converted points, bonus points or priority points for 111 majors belonging to the basic science, key engineering and strategic technology groups" - Mr. Thao affirmed.
Thus, candidates applying for the A01 combination but using English scores converted from international foreign language certificates are not eligible for scholarship consideration according to Decree 179.
Currently, Vietnam has more than 771,000 people studying in STEM fields, accounting for about 29% of the total university training scale. This number is lower than countries in the region and the world, such as Singapore (46%) and Malaysia (50%).
To develop high-quality human resources in key science and technology fields, the Government has issued Decree 179 on scholarship policies for learners in basic science, key engineering and strategic technology.
Accordingly, students of 15 industry groups can receive support of 37-55 million VND/year. Masters and research students can receive 55-84 million VND/year.
The Ministry of Education and Training expects this policy to contribute to increasing the proportion of STEM students to about 35% by 2030, thereby meeting the demand for high-quality human resources for strategic technology industries in the new development phase.
