LookAtVietnam – Some polytechnic branches are in danger of being shut down due to lack of students.

Nguyen Cao Cuong, Head of the Training Division of the University of Polytechnics and Technology, has confirmed that the number of students registering to follow electrical and mechanics study branches is far lower than that of those desiring to pursue economics-related study branches.

Lac Hong University, which offers many polytechnic courses, is also facing the same situation. The university has reportedly received 1,000 registrations to study at the university under the second choice (students who fail the exams for a university have an opportunity to register to study at another university if they have the scores required by the other university). However, most students have registered to study economics, while there are very few applications for polytechnic study branches.

Lam Thanh Hien, Deputy President of Lac Hong University, said that the university may consider enrolling students under the third choice to get enough students for these study branches.

The HCM City Agriculture and Forestry University declined to reveal information about the number of registrations for polytechnic faculties, but said that the registrations for the mechanics faculty just account for a small proportion of the total 2,300 applications.

Foreign languages no longer a good choice

Deputy Head of the Training Division of the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities under the HCM City National University Pham Tan Ha said that his university has received some 400 registrations to study under second choice. Ha said that the number of students taking exams under D-group (mathematics, literature and foreign language) to enter the foreign language faculty of the university is much lower than the number of applications for other faculties.

The HCM City University of Education has also said that it still has not enrolled enough students for foreign language study branches, though 765 students have registered for the university under the second choice. Meanwhile, history and national defence education are the two study branches which have attracted the most students.

Though having received 3,000 registrations, HCM City-based Hung Vuong University also still does not have enough students for several study branches, especially Japanese language and post-harvesting technology. This is the third consecutive year the Japanese study branch cannot find enough students.

Nguyen Quoc Hop, MA, Head of the Van Hien University, one of the few universities which accepts enrolling students of C group (literature, history and geography) under second choice, noted that students nowadays are not interested in social sciences.

Analysts have warned that universities may have to ‘declare the death’ of many study branches next year as they cannot enroll enough students this year.

VietNamNet/TP