Professor Dao Trong Thi, Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Culture, Education and Young People made the comment following the proposal by the Vietnam Private Universities Association (VIPUA).

Recently the VIPUA proposed that the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) get rid of the university entrance exam. What are your comments about this proposal?

Under the Law of Higher Education, universities are empowered with autonomy in their enrollment. This means that universities can choose either organising university entrance exams or enrollment based on study results, attending a common university entrance exam or organising their own exams.

The proposal seems to strip universities of their autonomy and force them to comply with one size fits all method of enrollment at the association’s demand. This is a real violation of training institutions’ autonomy.

I find it hard to understand why the association would make such an inappropriate proposal. The MoET also does not have the right to enforce such a proposal.

What do you think about the association’s proposal to remove the standards for entrance of university entrance exams beginning from the examination of 2014?

Autonomy has no relation to such benchmarks, which are just a temporary basis for the management of enrollment quality of common university entrance exams. If universities organise their own enrollment exams, such standards would make no sense.

We should take into account an alternative to help the quality of entering students.

This is still a transitional period to gradually empower universities with full autonomy in enrollment. Is it necessary to work out a plan for universities to organise enrollment exams?

I think that it really is. Universities having independent acceptance standards is a new phenomenon in this country, and the model has not won public confidence yet.

When universities set up their own enrollment procedures but fail to comply with enrollment standards, students’ rights would be affected. So, it’s very important to universities to make a plan for their independent enrollment and gather ideas from the public and parents to make appropriate decisions in the first phase.

Such plans should be reviewed and supervised by competent agencies. The MoET would not be responsible for approving the universities’ enrollment plans but assess and make comments whether they meet the required standards.

What are your comments about the association’s proposal to stop grouped university entrance exams?

Groups are applied to common university entrance exams, which attract the participation of a large numbers of universities and colleges nationwide.

When universities organise their own enrollment exams, they will be able to decide whether it is appropriate to do this or not, depending on their sectors.

Thank you very much!