Vietnam: General regulations on the content of entrance examinations for master's degree training programs

General regulations on the content of entrance examinations for master's degree training programs (illustration)

The Regulations on Master’s Degree Training issued with Circular 15/2014/TT-BGDDT stipulate the following general regulations on the contents of the master’s degree admission exam:

1. The contents of the master’s degree admission exam must meet the following conditions:

- Suitable to the bachelor’s degree training program, capable of evaluating and categorizing the candidates' levels;

- Appropriate with the stipulated time for each exam subject;

- Ensuring scientific accuracy, clarity, coherence, closely following, and covering the exam contents published in the admission announcement of the training institution, within the scope of the bachelor’s degree training program.

2. The exam format is decided by the head of the training institution based on the proposal of the head of the specialized unit, clearly stated in the admission announcement. The exam format for foreign languages must ensure the determination of the foreign language competence level as prescribed by the training institution, based on the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam issued by the Ministry of Education and Training (hereinafter referred to as the 6-level Foreign Language Proficiency Framework for Vietnam).

3. The exam proposers (including those drafting the exam question bank, introducing source questions, chief examiners, and exam reviewers) must satisfy the following conditions:

- Possessing expertise suitable to the exam content, having a sense of responsibility, professional reputation, and experience in exam proposition;

- Foreign language exam proposers must hold at least a master’s degree; proposers for other subjects must hold a doctoral degree;

- Maintaining confidentiality regarding the exam proposition, responsible for the content and quality of the exam; subject to disciplinary action if the exam proposition is incorrect or violates principles and procedures of exam confidentiality.

4. The exam may be sourced from the exam question bank or independently proposed:

- If using the exam question bank, the bank must have at least 100 questions for essay exams or 30 times the number of questions for each exam with other formats to construct a minimum of 3 sets of exam questions for each subject; or at least 30 complete sets of exam questions to randomly select a minimum of 3 exam questions;

- In the case of independently proposed exams, each subject must have at least 3 source exam questions presented by 3 different individuals for the chief examiner to compile two or three exam questions. The chairman of the admission council directly invites the source exam proposers, receives the source exam questions, and keeps the information about the exam proposers confidential.

More details can be found in Circular 15/2014/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, effective from July 01, 2014.

Ty Na

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