Universities Continue Using Graduation Exam Scores Due to Lack of Alternatives
Despite not being mandatory, all universities in Vietnam are still utilizing scores from the High School Graduation Exam. This national exam is currently the sole assessment used for this purpose. The continued reliance on this single exam has sparked debate regarding its dual role in serving both graduation and university admission requirements. The current system means that while passing the exam is sufficient for graduation, universities opt to use these scores for their admissions processes because no superior alternative has been identified. This practice highlights a persistent challenge in the Vietnamese education system: finding a more effective and nuanced method for university selection that can potentially decouple from the national graduation assessment.
The continued dependence on the High School Graduation Exam for university admissions, despite its limitations, reflects a systemic inertia and a lack of readily available, validated alternative assessment mechanisms. This situation creates a significant pressure point, where a single examination must satisfy divergent objectives: certifying basic competency for graduation and selecting candidates for higher education. The debate underscores the inherent tension between standardization and differentiation in educational assessment. Future reforms might explore a multi-faceted admissions approach, potentially incorporating standardized aptitude tests, secondary school performance metrics, and specialized subject assessments, to alleviate the burden on a single high-stakes exam and better align with the diverse needs of higher education institutions and the evolving demands of the AI era workforce.
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