The Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) has demanded a Ho Chi Minh City university stop allowing dozens of students, who are civil servants, to study in a master’s program despite their failure to gain admission into it.

Recruiting such candidates violates the current regulations on education at the graduate level, said Bui Anh Tuan, chief of MoET’s higher education body.

Tuoi Tre recently found that the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) placed 57 candidates, who failed the entrance tests, in a master’s program in public finance, which the school opened last month at a campus it leases from a junior college in the southernmost province of Ca Mau.

Only twelve of 62 civil servants Ca Mau government agencies sponsor to study in this program were able to pass the admission tests, according to findings by the newspaper.

The Ca Mau Department of Education and Training explained that the university might have recruited these candidates first and asked them to re-take the tests later on.

But UEH and the provincial People’s Committee argued that the failed students were not admitted to the program, which was revealed by Tuoi Tre.

The 57 candidates were signed up in a non-degree training course and had to pay the tuition by themselves, the committee said.

The university elaborated that it was providing further education for them to help improve their capability so that they can supply better service to their agencies.

These civil servants will have to pass another admission exam next April before they can study for a formal degree, the committee added.