Prof. Dr. Nguyen Tien Thao, head of the Department of Higher Education at the Ministry of Education and Training, reported that more than 874,800 students registered their university preferences – an increase of almost 25,000 from the previous year – and that over 633,000 of them have already confirmed their enrolment.

A striking feature of this admission round is the strong focus on STEM fields, with roughly 212,600 candidates opting for science, technology, engineering or mathematics programmes.

Within the STEM group, more than 121,000 students secured places in 15 core categories that cover basic sciences, key engineering branches and strategic technologies.

Universities themselves enrolled 150,400 learners across 44 strategic technology disciplines, which accounts for 22 % of all admissions, according to the ministry’s data.

To reinforce this trend, Decree 179 provides monthly scholarships of VND 3.7 million to VND 8.4 million for about 23,000 eligible students who scored at least 22.5 points and rank in the top 30 % nationwide.

Admission standards are also rising: many artificial‑intelligence and data‑science programmes required scores above 25 points, while more than 60 % of microchip and semiconductor courses set the minimum at 22.5 points, the same level used by computer‑science, electrical‑electronics, mechanical‑engineering and materials‑science programmes.

"The structure of the workforce is clearly shifting toward science, technology, and fields that the country needs," Thao said, emphasizing that the surge in high‑scoring STEM students is reshaping Vietnam’s future labour force.