VietNamNet Bridge – Most students still have not decided which university they most want to study at. They have registered for several universities and will not make a decision until just before exam day.

Making registrations

Preliminary statistics show that the number of registrations this year is the same as last year. As such, universities will still incur the loss of several hundred million VND each due to ‘virtual’ registrations – the headache of universities for the last many years.

Do Ba Khoi, Deputy Headmaster of Hanoi-Amsterdam Gifted High School, said that on average, every student of the school registers for four or five universities.

According to Khoi, as the fee for registering for university entrance exams is not high, most students submit more than one registration. The students have until July, when the university entrance exams take place, to make a decision about which university they wish to attend.

Nguyen Binh Khiem People-founded High School finished collecting registrations last week.

Quynh Nga, a 12^th class student at Nguyen Binh Khiem School, said that most of her friends had submitted six registrations, while Nga had submitted only two, one for a university and one for a junior college. The students will make their final decisions about which universities to study at later when they have preliminary information about the competition ratios at universities.

The record for number of registrations is now held by a student in Hai Ba Trung district in Hanoi. According to the district’s Education Sub-department, the student has made nine registrations to nine universities.

Students choose study branches within their abilities

Nguyen Thanh Son, Headmaster of Tran Nhan Tong High School, said that during the school year, the school cooperated with universities and consultancy centres to give advice to both students and parents on which universities and careers to choose.

Son said that most students of Tran Nhan Tong High School have average learning capability; therefore, they mostly register for universities which require only decent results on university entrance exams; only a small portion of students have registered to take exams to enter top universities.

The Open University, Dong Do University and Phuong Dong People-founded University and Tourism Junior College are the top choices of nearly 500 students of Nguyen Trai High School.

Ngoc Anh, a staff of the Continuing Education Centre in Hai Ba Trung district, said that the students who failed the university entrance exams last year are eyeing universities which do not require high marks, like Trade University and Open University.

The centre had received some 300 registrations by April 8, just a half of last year’s volume.

Pham Song Nhu Hoa, Director of the centre, said that students nowadays well know their learning capability, and they do not make rash registrations anymore. They consider many factors before making decisions, and they tend to choose ‘safe solutions’ by choosing the universities in their power.

Hoa also said that the economic crisis could be a factor in the number of registrations decreasing. A lot of students do not have money to continue studying, or they want to get jobs to earn money.

Lan Huong