To date, many universities and colleges still have not officially announced the required minimum marks (the minimum marks students must get from the university entrance exams to be enrolled in the schools), because they still have to consider thoroughly amid the fear that many students, though passing the exams, would not enter the schools.

Vu Van Hoa, Head of the Training Division of the College for Foreign Economics Relations, said that examinees got relatively high marks from the entrance exams, but this does not make him happy.

He said the college still plans to set the required minimum marks this year lower than the previous year.

“The students, who got 25 marks and more, are regularly the students, who also passed the entrance exams to universities. If they do, they will decide to go to universities instead of junior colleges,” he explained.

The educator complains that it is very difficult to calculate how many students to call up for studying, because the school does not know exactly how many students really have the demand to study at the school.

Meanwhile, the president of another junior college said that he intends to call up the number of students higher by 200-300 percent than the allowed level, in anticipation that many students would give up the school.

In 2010, the College for Foreign Economic Relations set relatively high required minimum marks: 26 marks for A-group examinees (the examinees who took mathematics, physics and chemistry exams) and 23 marks for D group (mathematics, literature and foreign languages).

However, since the school could not enroll enough students, it later had to seek students who applied for studying at the school as their second or third choice. Under the current regulations, if students fail exams to enter some schools, they would be able to apply for other schools as their second or third choices, if they have enough marks required by the other schools.

Hoa said that as the school plans to set up lower required minimum marks, it does not intend to seek students applying for studying as their second choice.

Tran Tan Dung, Head of the Training Division of the Cao Thang Technique College, said the required minimum marks need to be designed in a way which ensures that the number of students passing the exams higher than the number of students the school plans to enroll. He also said that the required marks would not be too high to allow the school to find enough students.

Also according to Dung, the exam results of the 2011 entrance exams are higher than the previous years. However, the required marks would be higher just by 0.5 points or remain unchanged with 2010’s.

Nearly all junior colleges share the same concern that they may not be able to enroll enough students, which has forced them to set up low required minimum marks. In 2010, a junior college reportedly called up the number of students which was equal to 200 percent of the quota number, but the school could only enroll 50 percent of the number of students needed.

According to Bui Manh Tuan, Deputy President of the HCM City College for Industry and Trade, in general, only 20 percent of the students, who get 20 marks and more from the entrance exams, would accept to study at junior colleges. Meanwhile, the other 80 percent of the students would go to universities, because they also pass the exams to universities.

Therefore, Tuan said that though the school plans to set up higher required marks for this year because of the better exam results, there will not be any sharp increases. Especially, the required marks for the finance and banking faculty would remain the same as the last year, at 18. Meanwhile, the school will seek 10-15 percent of students from the ones who apply as their second choice.

In order to encourage students to enter the school, the College for Foreign Economic Relations has promised valuable gifts to the students, who got 26 marks and more from the entrance exams.