Universities use social media for enrollment with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic
During the Covid-19 epidemic outbreaks, universities have been unable to reach candidates in the traditional way - direct enrollment, they opted for promotion of communication channels on Facebook, TikTok, Zalo and schools’ websites.
For instance, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology has launched a series of programs named Fifteen minutes to understand the industry as well as the 2022 Career Handbook online on the school's media channels and social networks to soon reach candidates. This is also the way that many other schools choose to replace the traditional enrollment.
Schools have no longer relied entirely on high school graduation exam scores or academic records, but they are now tending to add more criteria besides academic results to choose the right person.
In the enrollment plan in 2022, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology combined criteria to comprehensively evaluate candidates, including academic ability, social contributions, literary and artistic activities, essays, letters of recommendation and interview. In which, learning capacity can be assessed based on high school results, graduation exams, competency assessment exams, foreign language certificates and international enrollment certificates. The new feature of this year’s enrolment is social contribution.
Several large universities such as Vietnam National University in Hanoi, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, National Economics University will hold a competency assessment exam in 2022.
Vietnam National University in Hanoi plans to organize capacity assessment exam up to 7-8 times a year for candidates next year. According to Director of the Vietnam National University in Hanoi’s Examination Center Professor Nguyen Tien Thao, 47 universities have so far registered to use the results of the school's ability assessment exam to for their enrolment in 2022.
Many schools volunteered to become venues for the 2022 National University of Hanoi exam with the desire to bring the highest convenience to candidates, especially in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic. Director of Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City Associate Professor Vu Hai Quan said that in 2022, Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City will add the method of direct admission of best candidates from high schools.
Additionally, the school has developed methods of admission by combining academic ability, essay and interview for international transfer candidates. The changes in admission methods have shown that even top schools have been looking for talented students.
One more interesting factors in this year admission is that many high school teachers received a thank you letter on November 20 from Hanoi University of Science and Technology as these teachers had written letters of recommendation for their good students.
Letters of recommendation is one of the mandatory conditions that students need to have when applying for admission to Hanoi University of Science and Technology according to the talent selection method based on ability and academic achievement combined with interviews.
Obviously, the Hanoi University of Science and Technology has been very proactive in looking for good students. Head of the school’s Admission Department Professor Tran Trung Kien said that high school students today have a lot of options for their school of choice; therefore, schools need to change to attract learners.
A university with many good candidates will have good reputation. For an educational institute, this is a very important aspect; the more trust a university/college builds, the more likely they are to increase the number of admissions.
In addition to proactively looking for learners, schools also understand trends in employment to add more training courses. At the end of 2021, the Vietnam National University in Hanoi issued a list of training courses including more new majors.
Head of the Training Department of Vietnam National University in Hanoi Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc said that compared to the current programs, this new list of training courses has many new majors such as Artificial Intelligence, Technology Administration and Innovation in Technology. Creation, Energy Management and Sustainable Development, Logistics, Industrial Design and Multimedia, Urban and Building Management (smart), Financial technology and digital business.
It can be seen that the engineering - technology major and other subjects related to the human resource needs for the industrial revolution 4.0 will be important majors in the school’s list of training course showing that universities are sensible for trend of employment.
Professor Nguyen Dinh Duc added that opening majors with technology elements and updated trends partly meets high-quality human resources for the labor market in the coming time.
According to him, in the coming time, the schools will not only change the list of occupations, but also change the curriculum structure, the form of training management organization as well as the knowledge and skills base, and output standard. Subsequently, the school’s content and methods of admission will certainly change.
The industrial revolution 4.0 has been creating and will continue to create strong changes, affecting all aspects of life - society. With the strong development of science and technology, higher educational institutions must provide skills and innovative thinking to learners to meet the country’s development. All people expect higher education will be better.
