Graduates with higher diplomas from Lao state and private education institutions have options available to them when it comes to studying for bachelor’s degrees at some nine faculties of the National University of Laos (NUOL), according to the NUOL.
The university detailed that there are 26 main subjects in the nine faculties of Engineering, Forestry, Social Sciences, Education, Economics and Business Management, Law and Administration, Agriculture, Letters, and Water Resources. There are a total of 12 faculties at the NUOL currently.
Courses connecting to bachelor’s degrees have been on offer at the NUOL for some time now, authorised by the Ministry of Education and Sports.
Students who will be connecting to bachelor degrees must have been studying at least two years, either fulltime or part time according to each subject. Studying part time means that students have choices to study in the evening or over the weekend.
All students must have passed their entrance exams the same as students at secondary school level but the examinations for courses as part of the connecting system will be different from normal entrance exams. Officials from each faculty will be arranging the details of the exams.
The state and private colleges and institutions were temporarily banned from offering bachelor’s and master’s degree courses in the 2013-14 academic year.
This was in line with the country’s education reform strategy after the Ministry of Education and Sports announced it would re-evaluate the qualifications of state and private colleges and institutions.
The announcement came after reports showed many colleges were offering substandard courses. Some had inadequate numbers of both regular and invited teachers, while others had poor facilities and equipment that failed to meet the required standards.
Students who were waiting to enroll to study the bachelor and master’s degree courses can now take them again after some of the colleges and education institutions had their former permissions reinstated.
The NUOL recent kicked off its entrance exams for more than 16,500 school leavers and will take in a total of 3,476 students this academic year.
Applications for entrance to the university closed on August 5 before the exams were set to wind up at examination centres and the NUOL campus recently. Students will know their results by early next month, according to the NUOL.
The most successful students will be offered places at the 12 faculties and will begin their new academic year in the beginning of October, while lower scoring students will be encouraged to take on other fields of study.
A large number of applicants have registered to study in the university’s faculties of Economics and Business Management, Law and Political Science, Letters, Social Science and other fields, while only a small number registered to study in the Faculty of Agriculture.
Source: Vientiane Times
