Proposal to limit university admission wishes from 2026

Faced with the reality of the large number of applications for university admission in 2025, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed limiting the maximum number of applications for candidates, while also learning from the problems arising in admission methods and technical errors.

Minister Nguyen Kim Son said that the Ministry of Education and Training requested that institutions announce their admission methods early from 2026. (Photo: Thu Trang)

This decision aims to improve transparency, candidate responsibility and system operation efficiency in the next admissions periods.

At the 2025 Higher Education Conference, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tien Thao, Director of the Department of Higher Education (Ministry of Education and Training) said that this year, 625,477 candidates completed their admission confirmation, an increase of 13.82% compared to 2024. Of which, the university sector alone had 613,335 students, accounting for 52.87% of the total number of candidates taking the high school graduation exam (in 2024, it was 51.3%). This result shows that the general university admission for the 2025-2026 school year has basically been completed as planned.

In 2025, the total number of candidates registered for admission will reach 852,000 with 7.6 million wishes for more than 4,000 majors and training programs of more than 500 universities and colleges nationwide. The entire process from registration, fee payment, virtual filtering to admission confirmation is done entirely online, ensuring synchronization and transparency.

Faced with the above reality, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tien Thao raised three major issues that need to be learned from for the upcoming enrollment plan:

Firstly , having many admission methods helps candidates have more choices, but at the same time makes the registration process more complicated and sometimes confusing. The percentage of candidates admitted by graduation exam results is about 90%, considering academic records is 32% and other methods is about 18%. The question is whether to combine all methods in one admission round to reduce pressure, or continue to maintain many rounds as at present. This content has been included in the survey form by the Ministry of Education and Training to get opinions from delegates attending the Conference.

Second, the number of registered wishes is too large. Nearly 150,000 candidates alone have created up to 7.6 million wishes - a huge number, both overloading the virtual filtering system and wasting resources. In reality, many candidates register their wishes emotionally and without careful consideration. In this context, the Ministry of Education and Training has proposed limiting wishes. In addition to the option of keeping it the same (no limit), the two new options are to limit the maximum number of wishes to 5 or 10. This is an issue that needs to be discussed carefully to both create opportunities and increase the responsibility of candidates.

Third, during the implementation process, about 16 universities encountered technical errors related to score entry, determining the minimum score and admission algorithm, affecting nearly 1,000 candidates. The schools promptly handled the problem to ensure the rights of the students, but the issue also emphasized the need to strengthen process control and improve transparency in system operations.

Preparing for 2026-2027 enrollment: Limiting wishes and taking exams on computers

According to Minister Nguyen Kim Son, the previous policy of not limiting wishes was intended to create favorable conditions for candidates, but in reality it caused difficulties when they did not clearly identify their priorities.

Limiting the number of wishes will make data processing easier and reduce the number of virtual filtering times. The Minister also said that the important task in 2026 is to prepare for graduation exams and university entrance exams on computers according to Resolution 71 of the Politburo . Enrollment in 2026 will remain stable as in 2025, but from 2027, the computer-based exam will be initially implemented, so the Ministry and educational institutions must prepare early.

The Ministry of Education and Training also requested that institutions announce early admission methods from 2026 (October 2025) and issue an admission plan applicable for 2027. The Ministry also sought opinions from schools on maintaining admission based on academic records and limiting candidates' registration wishes.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/de-xuat-gioi-han-nguyen-vong-xet-tuyen-dai-hoc-tu-2026-328146.html