Many local universities are breaking education rules by permitting fresh vocational school graduates to enroll as transfer students in their transition programs leading to a bachelor’s degree.

By current law, only fifteen universities designated by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) are allowed to enroll these vocational diploma holders (a vocational program usually takes two years) in degree completion programs which usually require two more years for a participant to land a university degree.

The Electric Power University in Hanoi has been admitting such candidates to its university courses since last year while the school has yet to obtain a permit from the education ministry.

Likewise, the Hanoi University of Science and Technology already placed a number of students in a degree course by way of an admission test in August this year.

The Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology, also located in the capital city, says in a recent notice that candidates who have just completed its occupational courses can apply for a transfer to the undergraduate programs it is offering, despite the institution’s failure to gain a MoET license.

Another school in Ho Chi Minh City, the HCMC University of Technology, has even promised to its current vocational course takers that they will be transferred to an undergraduate program upon graduation though it has yet to get MoET’s permission.

A ministry official has vowed to clamp down on those practices whereas the list of such lawbreakers is growing.