Not only private universities that fear they cannot enroll enough students, but prestigious schools have also been trying to attract more candidates.

From today, March 14, to April 17, local education and training departments will begin receiving applications for attending the 2011 university entrance exams. The students who cannot submit documents for applications during that timespan can submit documents directly to the universities they register to study from April 15 to April 21.

As such, the university entrance exam season only kicks off today, March 14. However, in fact, universities began preparing for the enrollment season many months ago.

Representative from the Hanoi University, for example, said the university has drawn up a detailed plan to attract candidates. All students matriculating as fulltime students will have the opportunity to select a second major if they have good grades after the first year of studying (the over-all mark must be 7 at least). The second major can be either a foreign language or one of the following six majors: business administration, tourism, international studies, information technology, finance and banking and accountancy. The instruction of the six majors will be carried out in English.

After the first year of studying at one of schools of the university, similar to Hanoi University, the students of the Hanoi National University will have the opportunity to register for a second major at other member schools of the university. Those students will obtain two university degrees after four years of study. This will give students more opportunities to find good jobs after they finish school.

According to Vu Viet Binh, Deputy Head of the Training Division of the Hanoi National University, after the first year of studying, students of meteorology, hydrology and oceanography, will have the opportunity to study information technology at the University of Technology, a member school of the Hanoi National University, and physics students, materials sciences, and nuclear technology will be able to study electronic – telecommunication technology as a second major.

Meanwhile, students of the natural resources major will have the chance to study economic development at the Economics University of the Hanoi National University. Students of the Foreign Language School will be able to study finance and banking and business administration at the Economic.

For the last many years, top universities have been known for requiring very high marks from the university entrance exams. Therefore, many excellent students have failed the exams to the universities. Experts have warned that this will cause a “waste of talents” because excellent students do not have the opportunity to pursue their studies at the university level.

However, the problem will be settled this year as universities have announced that they will try not to miss out on talented students.

The Hanoi Economics University, Finance Academy, Banking Academy and the Hanoi Foreign Trade University all have announced that students who fail exams to the majors they wish to study, but have marks equal or higher than the floor marks (the minimum required marks) set by the university, will be allowed to follow another major.

In an effort to attract more students to some majors that are of high significance to national economy, some schools have decided to set lower required marks for students registering to study the branches. For example, if the Hanoi Economics University sets the floor mark at 22 for this year, students will just need to have 19 marks to be eligible for studying agriculture and rural development at the school.

Meanwhile, private schools are trying to attract excellent students by offering tuition exemption policies or offering scholarships

The Hai Phong People Founded University, for example, has exempted tuitions for those students who get high marks from the university entrance exams.

President of FPT University Le Truong Tung said that together with the policy on offering preferential loans to students, the school will grant 400 Nguyen Van Dao scholarships to the 400 most excellent students from 100 leading high schools across the country.

C. V