Universities around the country are set to discontinue many graduate courses this year after getting extremely small numbers of applications for them.

Candidate take back their enrollment applications at Saigon University in Ho Chi Minh City to apply to another school.

Dr Nguyen Van De, president of Dong Thap University, said the school would definitely scrap six majors, explaining that candidates scored so badly in July’s national university entrance exams that few qualified for the courses.

An Giang University will scrap many majors this year, including training of high-school teachers, according to Hoang Xuan Quang, its vice president.

Some graduate courses in agriculture and mechanical engineering offered by Nong Lam (Agriculture and Forestry) University in Ho Chi Minh City, and social sciences courses at Van Hien and Hung Vuong Universities will meet with a similar fate.

Last year Van Hien had cancelled cultural studies and Vietnamese studies.

Other reasons too have been put forward for the problem.

Dr Vu Thi Phuong Anh of the association of non-public junior colleges and universities believed the discrepancy between the number of schools and applicants was to blame for this problem.

While many new universities opened each year, the number of applicants only rose marginally, she said.

An official from a university in the Mekong Delta said many students rejected certain majors because of poor job prospects after graduation.

Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thien Tong, vice president of the Mekong University in the delta province of Vinh Long, blamed it on the country’s master plan for the development of higher education.

The tendency to upgrade junior colleges into universities had created a large number of seats and worsened the situation, he added.

The University of Da Nang has decided for the second year in a row to shut down two graduate courses in political economy and statistics-IT since no one qualified for them.

Pham Van Dong University in the central province of Quang Ngai has scrapped its banking major this year. Only one candidate became eligible for it.