The peak examination time of the year in Vietnam, July, has just finished. Here are some headlines and statistics reported from national exams.

The competition for admission to lower- and upper-secondary schools in big cities, like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city, has become even fiercer than university entrance exams. According to Hanoi Department of Education and Training, 108,700 students will enter the lower-secondary system this school year in Hanoi, an increase of 22,000 as compared to the number last year. The competition to schools, especially top ones, has become stiff. Read here for further details about competition at some top schools in Hanoi.

The admission to upper-secondary schools is especially hard towards public schools in Ho Chi Minh city. According to the Department of Education and Training of the city, there are 74,000 students who want to enter public schools, meanwhile the system can only accommodate 61,700 students. Thus, around 12,000 or 20% of the total won’t have a place at public schools and will have to turn to private or vocational schools.

Regarding the university entrance exam, important changes included the approval of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) for local universities to adopt a flexible mechanism in organising exams. Universities can either opt to follow the national entrance exam organised by MOET, conduct a separate entrance exam or accept students based upon results of their high-school graduation exams. Another noteworthy fact was a significant decline in the nation-wide number of students who register to sit for the exam. Economic and medical subjects continued to attract students, while social sciences still got a very low number of registrations. However, banking and security subjects reported a tumble of 20% of students taking university exams as compared to last year. Read the news on the registration number and the banking sector.

In another aspect, July was also a month when Vietnamese students won a lot of high prizes at international academic competitions: three gold, four silver and eight bronze medals at the International Maths competition held in Korea; two gold and two silver prizes at the International Chemistry Olympiad organised in Hanoi. High prizes were also awarded to Vietnamese students who took part in International Physics and Informatics Olympiad competitions. Read more about the Maths competition and the Physics competition if you want to know what universities the award-winners come from.

Additional comments from Lien Ta:
The above news and statistics reveal a fact that the “demand exceeds supply” situation still exists in Vietnamese education system. The imbalance of quality among schools at tertiary level has led to fierce competition and overload at top schools. At higher education level, the decrease of number of students sitting for entrance exams reflect a decline of students’ trust in the quality and employability benefits they will gain from a local bachelor degree. Meanwhile, vocational education in Vietnam is still perceived to be suitable only for low-quality students or those from poor families.

It is predicted that the trend of Vietnamese families to send children to study overseas while they are still at upper-secondary education level or even earlier than that will increase in the upcoming years. Recently, ANZ Vietnam Bank and Roy Morgan Research has launched, for the first time, the Vietnam monthly Consumer Confidence Index. Experts agree that Vietnam has a middle-income group of population which is developing faster than any other country in Asia. An average of two million middle-income consumers are expected to join this group in Vietnam every year. In terms of personal financial situation, the survey showed that 49% expected positive financial change in the next 12 months, while only 8% predicted a worse situation.

Overseas study and TNE programmes that can meet the demand of affluent parents and students have a lot of room for development in the face of many shortages in local education system. One area of note, that should be considered by UK institutions when developing student recruitment or TNE strategy in Vietnam in the next 12 month, is the shift of human resources demand among some professions due to the ups and downs of the economy..