Education
International school graduates denied access to local universities
  • | Tuoi tre | April 23, 2012 02:25 PM

Graduates of international high schools operating in Vietnam are denied access to Vietnamese higher education, even though their schools are accredited in the country.

Doan Quang Anh, a graduate of a Singaporean high school located in Ho Chi Minh City, has recently had his registration for the national university entrance exams – screening tests Vietnam uses to select students for higher education – rejected as education authorities refused to certify his academic records.

“We turned down his registration because the graduation certificate his high school conferred on him has not been recognized as an equivalent of Vietnam’s high school diploma,” explained the Hanoi-based university that Anh was applying to.

A parent in HCMC has also had to send his daughter to Malaysia to study for an undergraduate degree after many Vietnamese universities declined her applications simply because the municipal education and training department refused to certify her credits earned at a HCMC-based international high school.

Local education and training departments have insisted that they are not authorized to certify these records, even though they are responsible for licensing them.

“The Ministry of Education and Training must give us the green light first,” they said.

But the ministry has told Tuoi Tre that it had earlier empowered these local education and training departments to complete the certification.

It adds that they have to announce the results of the certifying process within 15 days, after receiving the necessary documents from students.

Universities are not allowed to reject applications from graduates of international high schools if their academic records have been certified by local competent agencies, Vice Minister of Education and Traing Bui Van Ga has emphasized.

In the meantime, Anh’s mother, Doan Ngoc Thu, is very worried about her other son, since he is studying at the same school as his brother.

“I need to know whether they will recognize credits earned at international schools or not, as my second son wants to gain admission to a technology university in Hanoi next year,” Thu said.

“It is absurd that they keep passing the buck to each other.”

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