The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is considering amending the current regulations on enrolling students for universities and junior colleges, hoping that the new regulations will help attract more foreign students.

Under the drafted new regulations which MOET has opened to the public to collect suggestions, foreign students, who have the aspirations to study at Vietnamese universities and junior colleges, will not have to attend the university entrance exams. Presidents of schools will consider their high school results to decide the admissions, after they attend a Vietnamese language test.

In the interview given to Tien phong newspaper, Deputy Minister of MOET Bui Van Ga said that the ministry hopes to attract more foreign students to Vietnamese universities.

Ga said that the current regulations have been hindering the opportunities to increase the number of international students in Vietnam. When a university wants to enroll a foreign student, it needs to consider the result of an exam that the student attended in his country. The exam must be similar to the university entrance exam in Vietnam.

The regulations have been preventing foreign students from studying at Vietnamese schools. The students do not follow Vietnamese curricula and Vietnamese is the language used in the entrance exam in . It is unfair to force foreign students to attend the same exams as Vietnamese students.

Vietnam has been trying to attract international students to its schools. What for?

The number of international students is one of the criteria to rank universities. Attracting foreign students is also the way for Vietnam to introduce Vietnamese education to the world. It is easier for the countries, where English is used as a popular language in training,

How many foreign students are there in Vietnam?

I still do not know the exact number, but I am sure that the figure is not small, and will certainly increase significantly if we adjust the enrolment regulations. Last year, when I was Dean of Da Nang University, the number of foreign students was 500, mostly Chinese and Lao. As we had to follow the regulations, we had to refuse a relatively high number of candidates.

There are also Foreign students at the Hanoi Economics University, University for Foreign Trade, Quy Nhon and Hue city Universities. Besides, there are also students from Western Europe, Japan, Australia and the US. There are many foreign students at The Hanoi and HCM City National Universities

How can we control the quality of foreign graduates?

The new regulations will allow schools to take initiative in their enrolment plan. Schools’ presidents will have the right to decide whether to accept a student after considering their records. During the study, foreign students need to prove they have the same knowledge level as Vietnamese students. They will have to study and sit exams together with Vietnamese students. If they follow the Vietnamese language-based curricula, they will need to improve their Vietnamese.

Source: Tien phong