How Higher Education Works in Vietnam: Universities, Degrees and Admission

The institutions that make up the system

Vietnam's higher education sector sits under the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET ), which sets national policy, approves programs and issues the credit-based training framework every university follows. Below MOET, institutions fall into a few clear categories: public national universities, public regional and specialized universities, private universities, and a small group of foreign-invested or joint-venture international universities.

Two flagship systems sit above regular public universities: Vietnam National University Hanoi (VNU Hanoi) and Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNU HCMC). Each is a multi-school system covering fields from science and engineering to economics and law, and each carries more autonomy over admission and curriculum than a standard public university. Alongside them, large public universities such as Hanoi University of Science and Technology, National Economics University and Foreign Trade University run their own direct admission processes.

Private and international universities

Private universities have grown quickly since reforms opened the sector to non-state investment, and now cover everything from business and IT to hospitality. Tuition at private schools runs well above public tuition, since they receive no state subsidy. A newer tier of foreign-invested or joint-venture universities, including RMIT Vietnam, VinUniversity and Fulbright University Vietnam, teach mainly in English, follow curricula closer to an international standard, and charge tuition closer to international rates than domestic public tuition.

Degree structure

• Bachelor's degrees: 4 years for most fields, occasionally 4.5 to 5 years for engineering, architecture or medicine-adjacent programs.

• Medicine and pharmacy: 5 to 6 years as a direct-entry undergraduate program, following a separate professional track from general bachelor's degrees.

• Master's degrees: typically 1.5 to 2 years, coursework or research-based depending on the university and field.

• Doctorate: 3 to 4 years, research-based with a thesis defense, usually requiring a master's degree first.

Universities run on a credit system, where students accumulate credits across required and elective courses rather than following a single fixed-year curriculum. This lets stronger students finish early by taking a heavier course load, and lets others extend their timeline within limits set by the university.

Academic calendar

The academic year generally opens in September and runs through the following May or June, split into 2 main semesters with a shorter summer term at some universities for makeup or extra credits. Exact start dates and semester breaks vary by university, so check each school's own academic calendar rather than assuming a single national date applies everywhere.

Grading and how credits work

Vietnamese universities grade coursework on a 10-point scale, which most universities also convert into a 4-point GPA scale for transcripts used in scholarship or transfer applications abroad. A typical bachelor's program requires around 120 to 150 credits to graduate, spread across general education, foundation and major-specific courses, with each credit tied to a set number of class hours plus expected self-study time.

Because the system runs on credits rather than a fixed year-by-year curriculum, a student who fails a course retakes only that course in a later term rather than repeating an entire year. This also means 2 students in the same intake year can graduate in different terms depending on how many credits they carry each semester.

Language of instruction

Most public university programs teach in Vietnamese, which remains the default for the large majority of bachelor's places nationwide. High-quality and advanced tracks at public universities increasingly teach core modules in English, especially in business, engineering and computer science, while keeping some general education courses in Vietnamese. Foreign-invested and joint-venture universities such as RMIT Vietnam, VinUniversity and Fulbright University Vietnam teach almost entirely in English, closer to what a student would find at a university in Australia, the UK or the US. Check the specific program's language of instruction rather than assuming the university's general reputation carries over to every track.

How quality and accreditation work

Vietnam does not run one single national accreditation body the way some countries do. Instead, education accreditation centers, several of them attached to VNU Hanoi, VNU HCMC and other major universities, carry out program and institutional accreditation against standards set by MOET. Many stronger Vietnamese programs also pursue international accreditation such as AUN-QA (ASEAN University Network Quality Assurance) to signal quality to regional employers and to universities abroad considering credit transfer or articulation agreements. Checking whether a specific program holds current national accreditation, and whether it carries any international accreditation, is a reasonable step before enrolling, since accreditation status affects whether a degree is recognized for further study or licensed professions.

How admission is organized for local students

Admission to Vietnamese universities is organized mainly around the national high school graduation exam, school transcript records, and university-run competency assessment tests, with the exact mix of these methods set by each university rather than applied uniformly nationwide. A companion guide covers the domestic admission process, exam schedule and deadlines step by step, since the mix of methods and their weighting shifts from year to year.