Nguyen Hanh Anh Thu of Dong Nai Province decided to apply to the HCM City
University of Science’s Environment Faculty after she and her classmates
received advice from experts during the Student Enrollment Day event held on
Saturday.

Student Enrollment Day participants discuss faculties and institutions in HCM City on Saturday. (Photo: VNS)

Thu, a 12th grader at
the Thong Nhat High School in Dong Nai Province, said that she liked to learn
about issues relating to the environment but did not know which university or
faculty to choose.

She had learnt about
the Student Enrollment Day through the Internet and called on her classmates to
participate in the event, Thu said.

Thai Vo Ngoc Thao, a
12th grader with the Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School in District 3, asked her
parents to attend the event and collect information for her because she was busy
attending school.

Thai Van Binh, Thao’s
father, said that her intention was to study pharmacology at the city’s
University Medical Centre. However, she also wanted to look for information
about other universities, Binh said.

He went to booths of
the University Medical Centre, Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University, the Medical
Centre under the HCM City Viet Nam
National University, the Medical University in Binh Duong as
well as other universities, collecting brochures not only for his daughter but
also for friends living in Tay Ninh Province.

And “my wife sat in
the area for career orientation and listened to answers from consultants in
order to understand issues and give the best advice to our daughter,” Binh said.

Students’ need for
academic and career counseling was very high, he said, adding that events like
the Student Enrollment Day were very useful and should be held in many
provinces.

His neighbours, who
have children studying in Grade 12, had very little information on the different
faculties in many universities, and what they knew was gained from the
enrollment books that list the criteria and availability for different courses,
Binh said.

They did not have the
opportunity to directly contact universities and receive the best advice, he
added.

The Student
Enrollment Day is held every year by the
Ministry of Education and Training, the city’s Department of
Education and Training and the HCM City University of
Technology in co-operation with the Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

This year, it will be
organised in 16 provinces and localities across the country, from Ha Noi in the
north to the southernmost province of Ca Mau, including some in the Central
Highlands and several island districts.

At Saturday’s opening
ceremony, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Bui Van Ga said that the
right choice of faculty would help students learn better and ensure development
of the nation’s human resources.

However, it was
difficult to choose the faculty that matches the students’ interests and
capacities without help from parents and teachers, Ga said.

Dr Le Thi Thanh Mai
of the Viet Nam
National University told the Phu Nu (Women) newspaper that she
had conducted a study among university freshmen and found more than 50 per cent
did not like their current faculty and nearly 67 per cent did not have
sufficient information about other faculties in their universities and other
institutions.

Tran Anh Tuan, deputy
head of the HCM City Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market
Information, said students should consider their capacities, interests, career
prospects and related issues including information on universities before
choosing their faculty and university. This would help avoid considerable
wastage of time and money, he said.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News