Proposes several new changes in determining university enrollment quotas.

The draft circular is developed to implement the revised Higher Education Law (2025) and the revised Law on Vocational Education (2025), aiming to standardize and improve training quality and admissions based on requirements for campus space, facilities, and qualified teaching staff.

Compared with current regulations, the draft introduces several important changes, clearly shifting admissions management toward training capacity and real educational quality:

Enrollment quotas set separately for main campuses and branch campuses

First, enrollment quotas will be determined for each training location. The draft stipulates that quotas must be calculated separately for the main campus and each branch campus, ensuring that training capacity at every site is accurately reflected. This helps prevent the concentration of quotas at locations that do not meet required conditions and improves quality monitoring.

Clarifying regulations on adjunct full-time lecturers

Second, the draft adds and clarifies regulations on “adjunct full-time lecturers.” These lecturers can be counted toward enrollment capacity with an appropriate coefficient (equivalent to half of a full-time lecturer with the same qualifications). The regulation also specifies contract requirements, commitment duration, limits, and participation principles to avoid overlapping resources and protect training quality.

Adjusting criteria in line with Higher Education Institution Standards

Third, enrollment criteria will be aligned with the standards for higher education institutions. Adjustments include recalculating lecturer coefficients using PhD-qualified lecturers as the benchmark and encouraging institutions to strengthen faculty quality. The minimum training space requirement will be standardized at 2.8 m² per student equivalent, with a transition roadmap for institutions to upgrade facilities.

Enrollment determined by discipline groups and specific majors

Fourth, enrollment quotas will shift from broad training fields to discipline groups. For health sciences, law, teacher education, and doctoral programs, quotas must be determined at the specific major level to ensure appropriate staffing and program quality.

Linking enrollment growth limits to training outcomes

Fifth, institutions will not be allowed to increase undergraduate enrollment in majors where first-year dropout rates exceed 15% or where graduate employment outcomes are low. This change shifts the focus from procedural control to real training quality and graduate outcomes.

Greater flexibility in admissions management

Finally, institutions may enroll students beyond the announced quota within limits—up to 5% for undergraduate programs and up to 20% for master’s and doctoral programs—provided they still meet training capacity requirements. This aims to give institutions more flexibility while maintaining quality control.

Source: Chinhphu.vn