A series of top universities have stopped considering high school transcripts for admission: Reducing the situation of chasing scores and being lenient
Many experts believe that the fact that some schools have stopped considering university admissions based on high school transcripts is completely reasonable in the context that high school transcripts are unlikely to be honest and objective.
In the 2024 university admissions season, some universities have planned to stop considering admission based on high school transcript results.
For example, in the 2024 enrollment plan, the National Economics University announced three admission methods: 2% of the quota will be directly admitted; 18% will be based on high school graduation exam results and 80% of the quota will be for the combined admission method according to the school's enrollment plan. Thus, the National Economics University no longer has the option of enrolling students based on high school transcripts while in previous years, this group of candidates accounted for about 10% of the quota.
Similarly, in 2024, Hanoi Medical University also announced that it would not consider admission based on high school transcript scores.
Speaking with VietNamNet, Professor Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc - Chairman of the Council of the University of Technology - Hanoi National University, said that university admission based on academic records may be "relaxing" for schools and easy to recruit students, but the quality of input is very worrying.
According to Mr. Duc, university admission through transcripts is difficult to ensure fairness. Because the quality of teaching and evaluation of high schools is different, in different localities; even the level of teachers, facilities, traditions and prestige are different, so the evaluation level in transcripts is not equivalent.
“A student may be good at this school but not outstanding compared to another school. For example, a student has a 9 in a subject, which is considered good academic performance according to this school’s report card, but that does not mean he or she is good at another school.
Besides, the rate of good and excellent students according to their academic records is currently up to 90%. Thus, academic records are no longer an accurate measure of students' abilities," said Professor Duc.
Therefore, university admission based on academic records will likely lack accuracy, objectivity and fairness in terms of academic ability, especially in hot fields such as: Information Technology, Medicine, Economics...
According to Professor Duc, reality also shows that some high schools are not too strict in their evaluation, even "giving points" to students. "At that time, although candidates have good academic records and can be admitted to their favorite major, when they enter school, it is very difficult to study. For example, majors such as: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Automation Information Technology, Mechatronics... students will not be able to study, even have to drop out halfway, wasting time for candidates and causing financial loss for families and schools", Professor Duc said.
Professor Duc believes that in the long term, it is necessary for universities to proactively innovate university entrance exams in a fundamental and comprehensive way, meeting the requirements so that students can study well at university level, in accordance with international practices.
Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh - former Director of the Department of Vocational Education, Ministry of Education and Training, said that university admission based on academic records is prone to negative consequences, because it is easy to have "score-fixing" and thus leads to unfair consequences between candidates when the academic records are not evaluated properly.
“The academic record can be considered as one of the bases of the academic records to record achievements in the learning process through assessment. Assessment through the academic records can only objectively assess the capacity through the process… If the academic records or academic records show an objective and reliable assessment in general education, it can be considered better than through assessment through an exam which has an element of luck…
But it is worth mentioning that the emotional culture of "pitying students" and the disease of achievement make the transcripts in Vietnam lose their value and meaning... Therefore, in the current context, some universities choose to eliminate university admissions based on transcripts, which is appropriate and also a way to demonstrate the school's quality...
For best admission, universities can combine exam results and interviews,” said Mr. Vinh.
Dr. Le Dong Phuong - former Director of the Center for Higher Education Research of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, said that universities that do not consider admission based on academic records are prestigious schools with very high competition.
“In recent years, through comparative analysis by the Ministry of Education and Training, we have seen that the average grade point average of students is always higher than the high school graduation exam score. There is no guarantee that the grade point average will not be affected. The “increasing of grades” can occur for two groups. The first group is the group of good and excellent students who want to improve their grades to maximize their chances of studying abroad or entering top schools in the country.
The second group is the very lowest group, teachers are said to be “lenient” to students to help them graduate. The fact that grades are changed is often not because of any negative motive (like asking for favors or paying money...) but simply because teachers feel sorry for their students and want to give them a little more, or because of competition pressure between classes...", Mr. Phuong said.
“There have been surveys by universities that show that students who are admitted based on high GPA often do not do as well as expected. So clearly, using GPA to admit to majors/schools with a standard score of 27-29 is not reliable enough.”
Therefore, Mr. Phuong believes that there is a reason why some universities declare that they do not use transcript scores for admission. However, Mr. Phuong believes that if done honestly, eliminating the "correction of scores" of transcript scores can help track a student's learning process, thereby making it easier to compare candidates with each other; while test scores can be temporary, there are even cases of "studying well but taking the test is fate".
“Therefore, using academic transcripts also has its value, but in honest conditions, it is completely unaffected. Personally, I support the top schools not using academic transcripts as the sole criteria for admission, because after all, this method is difficult to be objective, and the possibility of negativity is high”./.
