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It is now the peak enrollment season but Phuong Dong, a Ho Chi Minh City-based occupational course provider, could just manage to recruit 100 students out of its 800 target.

Suffering the same fate, Tan Thanh – another school – has enrolled fewer than 300 students so far while it plans to grant admission to 1,900 candidates this year.

No candiate has applied to West Saigon, also a sufferer, to date when its peer Van Tuong already ceased enrolling new students for this school year because it had been able to find a mere 10 qualified candidates.

Tran Van Giap, president of the Maritime Vocational College Ho Chi Minh City, said the school has had to close down three majors because of low numbers.

Impossible to compete with universities

Bui Hong Diep, Tan Thanh principal, explained that ‘open’ admissions at the undergraduate level have been snatching candidates from vocational schools.

Vietnam has witnessed the mushrooming of higher education institutions in recent years, many of which are willing to compromise on selection standards to enroll as many students as they can.

“Nobody would apply to a vocational school once securing a seat at university is as easy as at the present,” Diep said.

The board chairwoman of an occupational school in the city complained that the Ministry of Education and Training is rubbing salt into the wound as it has just lifted a ban on vocational courses at tertiary schools.

“How on earth would a vocational school be able to compete against a higher learning institution in this situation?” the chairwoman complained.

Selling schools

Unable to find enrollees, many vocational schools have changed hands.

Gia Dinh, one of those, has been sold to a university whereas new owners have also taken over Tan Thanh and West Saigon.

Likewise, Phuong Dong is now on sale because of similar enrollment problems.