The nail-biting university exam season that has millions of students vie for limited university seats could soon be a thing of the past if major changes take effect as planned in 2015.
Under the new system, students will be able to take university exams in their respective regions and apply for universities after knowing their scores.
Universities, for their part, will be able to apply additional criteria in selecting students instead of relying on test scores from a single exam.
Thu Trang and Thu Huong spoke to several experts about these changes, their implications and the possibility of envisaged outcomes being achieved.
The Ministry of Education and Training has said the changes it has proposed will give universities greater freedom in selecting students. It has also said the new admission process will allow more criteria to be applied in judging competence, instead of relying on a single test. Do you think this is the kind of higher education reform that we need?
Dao Trong Thi
Dao Trong Thi, chairman of the National Assembly Committee for Culture, Education and Youth, former director of the Viet Nam National University-Ha Noi:
It’s inevitable that we allow universities to have more freedom in their admission policies. Many countries are following this trend, under which universities can decide the number of students they want to admit as well as the admission process they want to apply.
For example, FPT University and Ha Noi University of Natural Sciences have different criteria for choosing students who want to major in information technology. Each university has its own philosophy of teaching. You can’t force them to have the same test.
Currently, we require every student who wants to major in information technology to be tested in math, physics and chemistry. This is arbitrary and unnecessary. Instead of organising a national exam, which stresses every student out, universities can hold their own admission exams and apply their own selection criteria.
For one thing, it will ease traffic congestion during the exam season.
Pham Minh Hac
Pham Minh Hac, former Minister of Education and Training:
I think, gradually, we will have to allow universities to have greater freedom in admissions. This is a sound policy. Universities must send their plan to the ministry, proving they are capable of holding independent exams.
Students and parents should not be too worried about these changes. The admission process is a very complicated matter and only universities that can ensure quality and transparency will be allowed to hold their own exams.
Professor John Douglass, Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California-Berkeley:
Most national systems, and where the national universities are the most selective, have relied almost exclusively on a national exam system; but most, such as China, are experimenting with including additional criteria, usually for only a small percentage of admissions.
One advantage of the national exam system, and this explains in part why many national higher education systems have kept to the national exam as the single factor for deciding admissions at their top universities, is that it appears to be less prone to corruption and is generally seen as equitable – favoring no one group and not as susceptible to undue influence.
This makes it harder to move toward a more dynamic, and probably a better predictor, of academic success that includes variables such as high school grades, but also public service and evidence of talent in, say, music or art.
The single national exam is a worldwide phenomenon. In distributing a highly sought public good, it has proven an effective political path that appears less vulnerable to arbitrary decision on admission and influence by those with political and economic power. But it is arguably also not an effective way to provide opportunity for talented students and simply favors those who are good test takers.
National systems that rely solely on a single entrance exam encourage teaching to the test, and often students working very hard to do well on the test, yet are less academically engaged once they get into the top universities.
Obviously, one worry is whether universities can ensure the quality, transparency and security of their entrance exams. What should we do to maintain quality control over selection of students by universities?
Professor Lam Quang Thiep, former head of the Ministry of Education and Training’s Department of Higher Education:
I think we can hold a university entrance exam, but do this twice or four times a year instead of just once, as we do now. This would allow students with low scores to try again. If they are not administered by the ministry, the two national universities could hold these exams and other universities could use these test scores as pre-admission criteria.
The universities that need higher and more selective requirements can provide their own criteria. In the US, students take either the ACT (American College Testing) or the SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) administered by private companies, but each university has its own separate criteria for selection.
Professor Douglass: Including other criteria beyond grades and test scores also helps us draw students with a wider array of different skills and abilities. There are many forms of intelligence that are simply not captured in standardized tests.
Perhaps Viet Nam’s top universities could work together to create an exam system that could eventually be adopted by other universities. But such an exam should be viewed as part of a larger set of criteria to select students and, just as importantly, to influence secondary school curriculum and the behaviors and motivations of prospective students.
It is important to understand how the entrance requirements of top national universities influence the curriculum and teaching, and the behaviors of students at the secondary level. As I noted earlier, national systems that rely solely on a single entrance exam encourage teaching to the test, and often students working very hard do well on the test, and then, once they get into the top universities, are less academically engaged.
Thi: I think many universities are capable of selecting their students well if we allow them to do so. We entrust our universities to produce economists, engineers and other experts for the country, so why not entrust them to choose students with the highest potential?
However, universities can take time to pilot admission changes in some programmes before making these changes official. The ministry can establish strict requirements that universities and colleges must follow in building their admission policies. The ministry should supervise and see if they follow these requirements. You have to look at a student’s long-term potential to succeed rather than doing well in a single exam.
Hac: The ministry has an important role in supervising and making sure that universities follow up on their plans. I also think the greatest difficulty is quality control. Admission officers must be dedicated to selecting the right students for their universities. They must not be swayed by personal connections or bribes. We can also provide training to admission officers and exam inspectors.
Seventeen universities have already sent their admission plans to the ministry for consideration. I think the most important task is making sure that candidates must be high-school graduates with the capacity to pursue higher education. The ministry should have detailed plans and regulations for universities to follow under its guidance and professional inspection.
Reforming the system also means we need to encourage students and parents to approach universities with a different mindset. That means there can be other roads to success rather than universities and colleges. What are your thoughts on this?
Thi: We need to improve our work in career counseling, especially at the high school level. We should make it possible for students to know what they are good at, and learn what their interests are. If a student feels she or he is not ready for universities, she or he should find another path. We have seen that it’s a huge waste of time and resources if students choose to enter universities blindly.
Hac: The ministry should definitely pay more attention to career counseling. In other countries, this starts at the elementary level while in our country, career counseling activities do not meet demand and typically start very late. Students should better understand their interests, their abilities and passion, in addition to their family situation and what the country lacks.
Those who feel they can’t enter universities can take a different road and return to universities once they are ready. I think this road is necessary as we want to prepare a source of labour that can meet the demand of an economy strengthening its international integration. We can’t lag behind and must be willing to change.
PM approves high school exam changes
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a proposal made by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) to have four subjects – two compulsory and two electives – for the national high school graduation exams. Currently, students have to sit for six subjects, all of them compulsory.
In a decision issued on Friday, the PM also agreed that a foreign language would not be a compulsory subject in the exam. He said the exam content must encourage students to study and provide them with a comprehensive development path, while also offering them vocational guidance.
The education ministry submitted its proposal to the PM on February 17. — VNS
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