Universities
complain that the expenses they have to pay to organize the university entrance
exams are higher than the previous year, while the exam fee collected from
students remains the same, and the number of examinees increased sharply.
Therefore, losses are foreseeable.

University
and junior colleges are completing the preparation works for the 2011
university and junior college entrance exams. Most schools say that they have
to bear heavier financial burdens this year due to price increases.

Room rents rising by 10-20 percent

The Customs Finance Junior College
has received 26,435 registrations to attend the entrance exams, or 10,000
registrations higher than the previous year. According to President Giang Van
Kip, the school has to rent 936 exam rooms located in different districts of
3,10 and Go Vap in HCM
City. Meanwhile, the room
rents have increased by 10-20 percent.

According
to Kip, the more students registering to take the exams, the bigger losses the
school would incur. In the 2010 enrolment season, the school incurred the loss
of nearly 100 million dong.

Everything
is getting more and more expensive. Meanwhile, the exam fees collected from
students do not increase, and the number of students, registering to take the
exams increased sharply. Therefore, the school anticipates a higher loss this
year than the previous years.

Nguyen Anh
Duc, Head of the Student Affairs Division of the HCM City University of
Technical Education, also said that the school has to lease six venues for the
exams in HCM City,
four in Quy Nhon City
and one in Can Tho City. In HCM
City, the school rents
400 rooms with the leasing fee of 150,000 dong per room.

According
to Do Van Dung, Deputy President of HCM City University of Technical Education,
the school not only has to pay higher for room rents, but also for hiring
invigilators, because the prices are getting more and more expensive. Dung said
that in 2010, the school incurred the loss of 80 million dong, while he
anticipates the higher loss for this year due to the higher number of
examinees.

Dang Chau
Thanh, President of the HCM City College of Foreign Economic Relations, said
that the school has decided to raise the remuneration rates for invigilators
from 350,000 dong to 500,000 dong per person.

Thanh said
that the expenses on printing exam questions are always the biggest expenses.
In 2010, the school had to pay over one billion dong to this work, and the loss
it incurred reached 100 million dong.

How many “virtual examinees”?

What most
worries schools most, is that they cannot predict the number of “virtual
examinees”.

Under the
current regulations, students have to register to take the university entrance
exams right in March, and one student has the right to register to take the
exams to many universities. After that, just one day before the official exams,
students need to decide which university they will officially register to study
at. This means that they will not attend the exams to the other schools. These
students are called “virtual examinees”, because they register to take exams,
but they do not appear to attend the exams.

Thanh from
the HCM City College of Foreign Economic Relations said though he knows well
that not all the registered students will attend the exams, he still has to
lease enough exam rooms for all the registered students, because he does not
want to face any risks.

Dung also said
that he is not daring enough to cut down the number of exam room to rent,
though he thinks that only 80 percent of registered students would appear to take
the exams.

Most of the
universities and junior colleges complain that they have to use the earnings
from tuitions to compensate the losses from the enrolment work. In order to
ease the financial burden, schools have to cut down expenses.

Dung said
that the school has to re-use the brushes, wiping cloths and stationery of the
last enrolment season. My Giang Son, Head of the Training Division of the Saigon University,
also said the school has to do everything it can to minimize the expenses.

According
to the schools, the expenses on printing exam questions are really a heavy item
of expenditure. In 2009, schools had to pay 8500 dong for one student, while
the figure rose to 10,500 dong in 2010, and it is expected that the expenses
would be higher in 2011.

Source: NLD