With this new recognition, the PEIC will now be accepted for university admission in Vietnam, alongside other certificates like IELTS or TOEFL.
With this new recognition, the PEIC will now be accepted for university admission in Vietnam, alongside other certificates like IELTS or TOEFL.
The Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training has decided to acknowledge the Pearson English International Certificate as equivalent to the six-level foreign language proficiency framework utilized in the country.
With this new recognition, the PEIC will now be accepted for university admission in Vietnam, alongside other certificates like IELTS or TOEFL.
The PEIC is an international standard for assessing English proficiency, encompassing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills.
Aligned with the six levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, the test is structured to evaluate learners’ abilities and measure progress at each stage of language proficiency enhancement.
The PEIC is issued by Pearson Education, a prominent education company, and the test is administered in numerous countries globally.
PEIC certificates, provided by Pearson Education, are globally acknowledged. The test is conducted extensively in various countries worldwide and holds recognition from businesses, universities, and government agencies across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa.
In Vietnam, EMG Education, a strategic partner of Pearson Education, is responsible for administering the PEIC certificate.
The Ministry of Education and Training has approved EMG Education and Pearson to jointly organize the certification exam. Currently, the cost for a four-skill PEIC test is VND1.2 million (US$50) per candidate.
Opting towards IELTS
Since 2017, the Ministry of Education and Training has waived the English test requirement for high-school graduation exams for students holding IELTS or TOEFL certificates. Notably, an increasing number of students opt for IELTS qualifications.
In this year’s examination, the Ministry specified that an IELTS score of 4.0 would be considered equivalent to a perfect score of 10 on the English graduation exam.
More than 28,600 students utilized their IELTS scores to exempt themselves from the English test in 2021. This number increased to over 35,000 in 2022 and nearly reached 47,000 this year.
Surge of international students in Vietnam
The Ministry of Education and Training has reported an average annual increase of eight to 10 percent in the number of international students studying in Vietnam from 2018 to 2023.
Up to this point, approximately 22,000 international students have engaged in educational programs across Vietnam through scholarship initiatives under various agreements, other scholarship channels, and self-financing arrangements. This figure excludes those participating in short-term training and research courses.
Strengthened Vietnam-UK partnership
A delegation from Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training recently strengthened its partnerships in the UK — with the two countries exploring the viability of UK education institutions expanding their presence in Vietnam.
The delegation, led by Deputy Minister Hoang Minh Son, participated in the Going Global conference by the British Council and attended the launch ceremony of the Transnational Education strategy in Edinburgh.
He emphasized the strengthened collaboration between higher education institutions in Vietnam and the UK across areas such as training, research, and academic exchange during the Vietnam-UK principals’ forum on cooperation between institutes, schools, and enterprises for sustainable development.
