Vietnam: Conditions for university students to transfer to another training institution

Conditions for university students to transfer to another training institution

According to Clause 2, Article 16 of the Regulation on undergraduate education issued together with Circular 08/2021/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, students are considered for transfer to another training institution when meeting the following conditions:

- The student is not a first-year student or final-year student, is not considered for forced leave from school and has not exceeded the permitted study time limit mentioned in Clause 5 Article 2 of the Regulation on undergraduate education issued together with Circular 08/2021/TT-BGDDT;

- The student is eligible to enroll in a training program or academic discipline of the target institution in the same cohort;

- The target institution meets quality assurance conditions and is capable of providing the training program or academic discipline as per existing regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training;

- The transfer is approved by the principals of the current training institution and target training institution.

Conditions for university students to transfer to another training institution​ (Image from the Internet)

Can students transfer accumulated credits when transferring training institutions?

According to Clause 1, Article 13 of the Regulation on undergraduate education issued together with Circular 08/2021/TT-BGDDT:

Recognition of study results and credit transfer

1. Study results which a student accumulated from another qualification, academic discipline, training program, course or training institution may be considered for recognition and credits of which may be transferred to units of study of the training program that the student is attending by the training institution providing this program.

2. A specialized council of the training institution shall consider recognition and credit transfer based on comparison of expected learning outcomes, academic content and load, methods for assessment of units of study and conditions for program quality assurance at the following levels:

a) Recognition and transfer for each unit of study;

b) Recognition and transfer for each group of units of study;

c) Recognition and transfer for the whole training program.

3. Training institutions shall publish regulations on recognition of study results and credit transfer. Maximum load that may be recognized and transferred shall not exceed 50% of the minimum academic load of the training program; maximum load that may be recognized and transferred of teacher training programs shall be stipulated by the Ministry of Education and Training.

Thus, students are considered for transferring accumulated credits from their previous training institution's program to the credits of the courses in the current training program.

How are regulations on graduation recognition and degree awarding?

According to Article 14 of the Regulation on undergraduate education issued with Circular 08/2021/TT-BGDDT, regulations on graduation recognition and degree awarding are as follows:

- Conditions for graduation consideration and recognition:

+ The student has accumulated sufficient units of study and credits and completed other compulsory contents required by the training program and achieved the expected learning outcomes of the training program;

+ The student has average GPA or higher for the whole course;

+ At the time of graduation consideration, the student is not facing a criminal prosecution or suspended from study.

- Principals shall issue graduation recognition decisions and award degrees to students eligible for graduation within 03 months starting from the time where the students become eligible and have fulfilled all obligations with their training institutions.

- Degree classification shall be determined based on GPA of the whole course according to regulations in Clause 5 Article 10 of this Regulation, in which, the degree classification of students with excellent and very good GPAs will be lowered by half in any of the following cases:

+ Retaken units of study exceed more than 5% of total credits required for the whole program;

+ The student received a warning or a more severe penalty when they attended the program.

- For students whose study time has exceeded the maximum permitted limit, if they are not yet eligible for graduation due to incomplete national defense - security or physical education unit of study or failure to meet foreign language or information technology standard, within 03 years after they complete their study, they may fulfill the missing requirements and apply for graduation.

- Students not graduating may be awarded certificates of units of study accumulated throughout the training program of the training institution.

- Training institution regulations shall provide for the following matters:

+ Procedures for graduation consideration and recognition, graduation consideration timeline in a year;

+ Retention and recognition of accumulated study results of students not graduating;

+ Permission for students whose full-time study time have expired to transfer to the corresponding part-time or remote study (if any) provided by the training institution if they have not exceeded the permitted study time limit for the latter mode of study according to regulations.