Explaining why many top schools have to conduct additional admissionsgDeputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga said that in highly competitive schools, not all majors attract candidates. Besides, this year's enrollment is also an opportunity for schools to re-evaluate themselves.

In the 2016 university and college entrance exam, there was a “strange” phenomenon: many top schools had insufficient enrollment and had to conduct additional enrollment. How does the Deputy Minister perceive and explain this phenomenon?

Deputy Minister Bui Van Ga:This year’s admission regulations have given candidates the right to choose the major/school to study that suits their wishes and exam results. In highly competitive schools, not all majors have strong appeal to candidates. Therefore, it is understandable that schools cannot recruit enough students in the first round.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga said it was understandable that many schools could not recruit enough candidates in the first round. Photo: Le Van.

Candidates with high scores who passed the entrance exam but did not come to the school to complete the admission procedures were because they had other more suitable options. Candidates with low scores who passed the entrance exam did not enroll because the major/school they were admitted to was not their favorite choice. Many candidates waited for additional admission or continued to review to retake the exam next year with the determination to pass the school/major they wanted.

This year's regulations give priority to candidates choosing the major they love, and do not encourage them to "try" to get into any university major.

This year's enrollment is also an opportunity for schools to review themselves.

The reputation of a school is not permanent but must be continuously cared for and cultivated. The quality of training must be continuously improved to attract students.

Candidates' evaluation and selection are also one of the parameters that show the school's reputation.

The number of virtual candidates this year will be large, which was predicted in advance. The Ministry also issued many regulations to create conditions for schools to filter virtual candidates. However, many schools still have a large shortage of candidates and have to consider additional recruitment. Is it true that all universities did not foresee the virtual rate this year, sir?

- This year's admission method has a certain percentage of virtual candidates, which is something that all schools know very well through many discussions on building regulations.

With the database organized as it is now, organizing a common entrance exam nationwide is not difficult at all. However, the schools do not agree because they all want to handle their own admissions issues.

Respecting the choice of schools, the Ministry has supported by providing a list of all wishes that candidates registered for admission to the school at the same time.

With this database, the school's admissions board can analyze and judge which candidates are likely to be admitted to their school and which candidates are likely to be admitted but not. Based on that, a reasonable surplus rate is determined.

Of course, this ratio varies greatly between schools. The difficult problem is that schools must determine the correlation between their school and other schools in the system. Particularly, schools in the Hanoi area need to determine the correlation between their school and schools in the same major group in the GX group.

Many schools complained that this year's virtual filtering was too difficult because the Ministry did not allow schools to publicly announce their admissions process and also tightened regulations to not allow admissions beyond the registered quota. Is this the reason why most schools have to conduct additional admissions, including the top schools?

- Not exactly. Last year, when candidates were only allowed to register for one school, the registration progress at each school was very important information for candidates to refer to when deciding to withdraw/submit their application. Also, because candidates were only allowed to register for one school, the schools did not have any fake ones.

This year, the regulations allow candidates to register for 2 schools in the first round and 3 schools in each additional round of admission. Information on the admission process at each school has no reference value, because the schools do not know which other schools candidates register for besides their own school.

Therefore, the announcement of information on admission progress at schools not only does not help candidates but also causes confusion and anxiety.

It is commendable that schools are cautious in deciding on appropriate benchmark scores so that the number of admitted candidates does not exceed the quota. To help schools limit the impact of virtual candidates, the Ministry has included in the regulations a number of support solutions and provided a database of candidates registering for different wishes for schools to analyze and choose the appropriate surplus ratio.

As mentioned above, this rate depends on the school. Some schools have 100% of their quota but still cannot recruit enough, while others have only about 10% of their quota and have already recruited enough. In fact, many schools have analyzed the data very well and made reasonable decisions in the first round.

- In the upcoming additional admission round, candidates will be able to register for 3 schools. Therefore, the number of virtual candidates will increase even more and schools will face many difficulties in filtering virtual candidates to meet the quota? In your opinion, how should schools overcome the phenomenon of virtual candidates?

- After the first round of admission ended, the Ministry sent a dispatch notifying schools to update information of candidates who had confirmed their admission to the system to determine the list of candidates participating in the additional rounds of admission.

At the same time, the Ministry also noted that schools should widely publicize on their websites and in the mass media information related to additional admissions for candidates to monitor and register.

By the evening of August 31, after the end of the admission registration process, the Ministry will provide the school with a list of candidates who have registered for the school, along with information on the wishes that the candidates have registered for at other schools, as was done in the first round.

According to statistics, up to now, about 200,000 candidates have submitted their exam results certificates to confirm their admission to schools. So, about 100,000 candidates will continue to register for additional admission rounds.

With the number of additional admission quotas for each school not being much, based on the experience of the first round of admission, the Admissions Councils of the schools can analyze the database received from the Ministry's admission system to determine a reasonable admission plan for the additional rounds.

According to Vietnamnet