Vietnam grade
to United Kingdom

Converting Vietnam grades for study in the UK

The UK gives the clearest answer of any destination we have looked at, and it is two different answers. For a bachelor’s degree the answer is no — your Grade 12 certificate will not get you in anywhere, and no conversion changes that. For a master’s the answer is unusually precise: 7.0 out of 10 is a 2:1, and eight universities publish that same number independently.

Your Grade 12 certificate will not get you into a UK bachelor’s degree

This is not a matter of your marks being too low. The UK school system runs to 13 years and Vietnam’s runs to 12, so the Bằng Tốt Nghiệp THPT finishes a year short of what a UK university starts from. Universities say so plainly:

• Durham — “The Upper Secondary School Graduation Diploma is not suitable for direct entry. However, it can be considered on a case-by-case basis to fulfil GCSE requirements.”
• Glasgow — “Country qualifications not accepted, A-levels, IB, Glasgow International College or other accepted qualification required.”
• Leeds — “You will need to complete a foundation programme, such as the University of Leeds International Foundation Year, or other level 3 qualifications such as A-levels or the International Baccalaureate.”
• Liverpool — students who followed the national curriculum “are advised to complete a Foundation Certificate at University of Liverpool International College or an equivalent foundation programme.”

Every university checked said some version of the same thing. There are exactly two published ways across the gap.

Route one: a foundation year

Published Grade 12 thresholds for entry to a UK foundation programme:

Route two: a year at a Vietnamese university — and Durham prices it exactly

The alternative is to start a Vietnamese bachelor’s degree and transfer. Durham publishes the most useful table on this page, because it tells you what a year of Vietnamese university study is worth in A-level terms:

Durham: “Pass year 1 of a Bachelors degree from a recognised university in a relevant subject with a CGPA of…” Note how narrow the band is — 0.7 of a grade point separates an ABB offer from an A*A*A one.

Others accept the same route without pricing it as precisely: Bristol considers applicants who have completed year one of a Vietnamese degree (and also accepts the Cao Đẳng associate degree); Southampton asks for year one at a GPA of at least 7.0; Nottingham “can typically accept Year 1 CGPA results ranging from 7.5 to 8.0”; Queen Mary considers holders “with excellent grades who complete the first year of study at reputable universities in Vietnam”.

Postgraduate: 7.0 is a 2:1, and they all agree

The contrast is striking. Where undergraduate entry is a wall, master’s entry is the most consistent set of figures in this whole cluster:

Vietnamese scores out of 10, from a four-year Bằng Tốt Nghiệp Đại Học unless stated otherwise. Several universities also give a 4-point equivalent — Sheffield 3.7 / 3.0 / 2.4, Glasgow 3.0 / 2.5, Durham 2.80, Edinburgh 3.4 / 3.0.

And the two systems line up almost exactly

Put those numbers against Vietnam’s own classification bands. Circular 08/2021 Article 10 §5 puts Khá at 7.00–7.99 and Giỏi at 8.00–8.99 on the 10-point scale. The UK consensus puts a 2:1 at 7.0 and a First at 8.0.

So a Khá degree is a 2:1 and a Giỏi degree is a First — the boundaries coincide, not approximately but exactly. That is the first time in this cluster that two grading systems have agreed without anyone having to stretch a band, and it makes the UK the one destination where you can read your own classification off your transcript and know what it is worth.

Sheffield’s 5.7 is the lowest bar published anywhere

Sheffield sets its 2:2 equivalent at 5.7/10 or GPA 2.4/4.0 — well below every other figure on this page. For perspective, Circular 08/2021 Article 14 §1 requires a cumulative average of 5.0 out of 10 simply to graduate in Vietnam. A Sheffield 2:2 sits about seven-tenths of a point above the Vietnamese graduation minimum. If your average is in the high fives or low sixes and you have been told a UK master’s is out of reach, that is worth checking rather than assuming.

The phrase nobody defines: “a recognised university”

Almost every requirement above is conditioned on the Vietnamese institution. Edinburgh asks for “a recognized Vietnamese university”. Queen Mary says “reputable universities”. Nottingham goes furthest: “Our entry requirements for degrees from Vietnamese universities vary depending on the university where you have studied.”

None of the twenty-one universities we checked publishes a list. No tiers, no bands, no named Vietnamese institutions. So there is no way to check in advance whether your university clears the bar — which makes it a reasonable thing to email an admissions office about before you pay an application fee. It is also the one place where UK practice is less transparent than Australian practice, where several universities publish their approved Vietnamese school lists in full.

One ambiguity worth catching

Bristol states its master’s requirement as “a minimum GPA of 3.0” and does not say which scale. On a 4-point scale that is a 2:1; on a 10-point scale it would be below a Vietnamese pass. We have not assumed either reading. If you are applying to Bristol with a Vietnamese transcript, ask.

Newcastle is the one confirmed blank: it maintains a Vietnam country page that publishes no figures at all.

Sources

The documents this page rests on. Every one was read in full unless noted.

• University of Sheffield — Vietnam entry requirements — the fullest published set: First 8.0, 2:1 7.0, 2:2 5.7, with 4-point equivalents. Verified directly.
• Durham University — South East Asia — “not suitable for direct entry”, and the A-level to Vietnamese year-1 CGPA table (A*A*A 7.5 down to ABB 6.8). Verified directly.
• University of Glasgow — Vietnam — “Country qualifications not accepted”; 2:1 at 7/10, 2:2 at 6/10. Verified directly.
• University of Edinburgh — postgraduate entry, Vietnam — First 8.0+, 2:1 7.0–8.0, on a four-year bachelor’s. Verified directly.
• University of Leeds — Vietnam — First 8, 2:1 7, 2:2 6, and the foundation-programme requirement for school leavers.
• University of Nottingham — Vietnam — 2:1 7.0, 2:2 6.5, foundation at 7 out of 10, and the statement that requirements “vary depending on the university where you have studied”.
• University of Bristol — Vietnam — source of the “minimum GPA of 3.0” printed without a scale, flagged on this page as an ambiguity rather than resolved.

Warwick, Birmingham, Southampton, Queen Mary, Cardiff, Liverpool and Newcastle are linked inline where their figures appear.

Every figure was read from the university’s own website, linked above. Sheffield, Durham, Glasgow and Edinburgh were each checked a second time directly against the source page. Where a university publishes nothing for Vietnam, we say so rather than filling the gap from an agent or a converter site.

Requirements change and a published minimum is a floor, not a competitive target. Admission is decided by the university; the figures on your official Vietnamese transcript are always the authoritative ones.

Is it competitive?

Most United Kingdom master's programmes look for the equivalent of a US 3.0+ (an upper-second / good average), with competitive and funded programmes wanting more. Convert first, then check each programme's stated minimum. For a credit-weighted multi-course result, use the WES iGPA calculator.

Which Vietnamese rules apply to your transcript depends on when you enrolled. MOET Circular 08/2021 took effect on 3 May 2021 and applies to intakes admitted after that date; earlier intakes fall under the superseded regulations. Institutions on the year-based (niên chế) system do not calculate a 4-point GPA at all. See how Vietnamese grading works before relying on any conversion — and note that a widely-circulated conversion table converts the wrong thing, giving a different grade for most marks.