Vietnamese Universities set English as Admission Criterion

We’ve highlighted below some of the most recent developments and occurrences in youth-related news and events. In this week’s Friday news we speak about Irish government’s statement that the UK students in Ireland will be paying the EU rate next year, Vietnamese universities’ requirements and inability of the University of South Africa to enroll new applicants.

UK students in Ireland will be paying the EU rate

Due to the university entrants’ concerns over the impact of Brexit on the tuition fees, the Irish government announced on January 11 that UK students studying in Irish universities will continue to pay the current EU rate for the next year, reports University Times. Furthermore, Irish students applying to study in the UK in the 2019/20 academic year will be eligible to avail of SUSI grants. “It is vital that both Ireland and the UK continue to build on the strong and valuable co-operation which currently exists”, Irish Minister for Education Joe McHugh said in a press statement, adding that he would strive “to bring longer term clarity for both Irish students wishing to study in the UK and UK nationals wishing to take up studies in Ireland.”

Vietnamese universities set English as admission criterion

Several Vietnamese universities have decided to include English as one of the criteria for the enrolment of new students in the 2019/2020 academic year, reports Vietnam News. For instance, HCM City Medicine and Pharmacy university’s plans include requirements such as TOEFL iBT 60 or IELTS 6.0 score. Similarly, Foreign Trade University requires that applicants have an IELTS certificate score of 6.5, or a TOEFL PBT of 550 or TOEFL iBT of 90 points. Dr. Đỗ Văn Dũng, who is the president of the University of Technical Education HCM City, stated: “If they have good English skills, students can enroll in free online learning courses, and after graduation can receive higher salaries and have more career opportunities abroad.

University of South Africa can’t enroll new applicants

University of South Africa or Unisa, has warned the public that they will be rejecting thousands of qualified applicants because of the space limitations, reports IOL. For the first time in its history, Unisa will be unable to enroll applicants, even though many of them are eligible to be accepted. This issue sparked students’ strike at the main campuses, and it was not stopped until Unisa agreed to make a concession and take in 25000 more qualified students. During the application process, the university has received in total more than 540000 applications. Unisa spokesperson Martin Ramotshela stated: ‘’This thing of enrolment (limitation) may have started a year or two ago. We have what we call the enrolment planning policy framework, which is the policy position of the Department of Higher Education and Training that says that every one of the 26 public universities must be subjected to a limit in terms of the number of students that they can take.’’

Author: Muamer Hirkic
Photo: Shutterstock / Design: Martina Advaney

Support us!

All your donations will be used to pay the magazine’s journalists and to support the ongoing costs of maintaining the site.