A lot of universities have reported losses for the recent university entrance exam, but they still don’t know what to do to avoid losses next exam season.

Some universities saw only 50 percent of registered students attending exams including the Hanoi Foreign Trade University and Banking Academy. The higher percentage of ‘virtual examinees’ universities have, the more losses they suffer.

Deputy President of the Hanoi Foreign Trade University Nguyen Thi Quy said that the university incurs losses every exam season, but it still has not found any suitable solution.

Quy said that with the virtual ratio of 50 percent this year, the university incurs the loss of 380 million dong.

She said that while expenses for exam rooms, purchasing exam questions and expenses for supervisors all have increased, the exam fee collected from students has not increased. For example, the expense for exam questions was 9,000 dong in 2008, while it was 12,000 dong this year, while the fee for leasing exam room has also increased by 10-15 percent.

Though the University of Trade had a low percentage of virtual students this year, just 26 percent (43,162 examinees out of 46,000 registered examinees), the university still lost 1 billion dong.

President of the Hanoi University of Industry Hoang Van Dien complained that the room leasing fee has risen to 20,000 dong per room, expense for exam supervisor has risen to 20,000 dong and expense for exam questions has increased by 4,000 dong, but universities are not allowed to collect more from students.

Exam rooms, the headache

In order to arrange enough exam rooms, universities have to negotiate with schools several months in advance. Some universities’ leaders complain that they have to draw up enrolment plans for the next year right after the enrolment for this year finishes.

According to Nhan from Trade University, the exam takes place in early July, but the university had to make hectic preparations for arranging exam rooms in April, while they need to sign contracts with partners before Tet (February). Besides, training courses for exam supervisors need to be kicked off in May.

Deputy Head of the General Affairs Division under the Hanoi University of Education said that the time when students gather for the new school year is also the time when the university begins to prepare for the next exam season. Tan said that if the university does not prepare early, it would not be able to rent rooms because there are many universities located in the Cau Giay district area.

What to do to settle problems?

Quy from Hanoi Foreign Trade said that it is necessary to improve the work of career consultancy for high school students in order to reduce the percentage of virtual students.

Quy also gave another solution: Students should not be allowed to register for more than one or two universities.

Director of the Banking Academy To Ngoc Hung also said that high school students need to be advised well to make suitable choices that fit their learning capability. Those students who don’t have good learning capability should register for junior colleges or vocational schools instead of trying to take exams to get into universities.

Kieu Oanh