University admissions guidelines for 2018: Continued innovation is needed.

Speaking at the conference, Rector Pham Quang Minh agreed with the figures and summaries that clearly reflected the positive aspects and limitations of the 2017 university admissions process. To overcome the remaining limitations, the Rector suggested that each unit within the university must innovate in thinking and work, pay more attention to students, contribute to promoting the university's image more widely, and create conditions for recruiting high-quality students.

The conference also reached consensus on the basic points for undergraduate and postgraduate admissions in 2018. Accordingly, the University will continue to focus on promoting its image "pre-admission," continuing to disseminate admissions information and promote the University's image through channels deemed effective in 2017 such as: website, fanpage, student ambassadors, appearing in the book "University Admissions 2018 - Things You Need to Know" (Education Publishing House)... In addition, faculties/departments need to create their own admissions promotional products such as writing articles on career orientation, creating infographics introducing the majors, etc. The University will develop a plan for direct admission of students from specialized high schools and establish close cooperative relationships with some key high schools to attract talented students.

In addition, the school and departments need to consider admitting students based on appropriate subject areas, selecting priority points, and adjusting admission quotas accordingly based on the admission practices of previous years.

Regarding postgraduate admissions, Faculties/Departments need to plan and prepare the necessary conditions for admissions, specifically by announcing plans for opening supplementary courses, reviewing groups of candidates in related or suitable fields, and simultaneously informing the Training Department to coordinate information for prospective students. At the same time, they should strengthen the personnel of the admissions department, especially for the admissions promotion phase.

Essentially, the 2018 admissions process needs significant innovation, particularly in the "pre-admission" phase from February to May 2018. This is the period when prospective students are most interested in learning about universities to make informed choices. Therefore, during this time, the university will focus on communicating and promoting its image widely to high school students across all provinces and cities. According to Associate Professor Hoang Anh Tuan (Vice Rector of the university), utilizing resources from the website and online fan page is essential and should be further promoted and developed in the future, as these are easily accessible information channels for many people.

Some opinions at the Conference also suggested that the School could organize its own Open Day (an event for high school students interested in learning about universities), alongside participating in the Admissions Counseling Day organized by Tuoi Tre newspaper at Hanoi University of Technology as usual.

Furthermore, to guide the development and implementation of a plan for promoting and advising on regular university admissions in 2018 and subsequent years, the Admissions Department of the Training Division conducted a survey on the level of access to information about the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the reasons for choosing the University of Social Sciences and Humanities among students of the QH-2017-X cohort. The survey results showed that the majority of candidates learned about the University of Social Sciences and Humanities through the University's website (60.9%) or other online information channels such as the dedicated Facebook page (27.9%), website, and other information search channels (29.7%).

A survey of the information channels that high school students commonly use to find admissions information also showed the dominance of online tools, with Facebook and other websites accounting for 69.8% of the survey results, and the school's website accounting for 56.8%.

A survey on the reasons for choosing the University of Social Sciences and Humanities showed that the quality of training and the university's brand are extremely important criteria, having a great appeal to students (47.8%). The survey also showed that current high school students have a high degree of independence in choosing their field of study, with 51.2% choosing a field of study based on personal interest.

These are all useful reference materials for guiding the promotion and admissions counseling for regular university programs in the coming years. The university leadership and the Admissions Council will base their work on the updated data available, while also considering feedback from various departments, to develop specific strategies for the upcoming 2018 admissions season.