How to register for credits: 5 schools' ĐKHP dates and seat-grabbing tips

What is course registration, and how many periods is one credit?

Course registration (ĐKHP), or credit registration, is the step where you pick the courses and class sections you will take next term, instead of receiving a fixed timetable as in high school. Vietnam adopted a US-style credit system in 2007 and required every university and college to switch from the 2009-2010 academic year, so almost every school works this way. Each student accumulates credits according to a personal study plan, which is why your timetable can look completely different from your classmate's.

In terms of workload, 1 credit equals 15 periods of lecture (50 minutes each, spread over 15 weeks) plus about 30 periods of self-study (about 100 minutes a week). A 3-credit course therefore usually means 45 in-class periods, i.e. 3 periods per week. A full bachelor's or engineering program typically packs 120–140 credits; spread over 4 years that is roughly 30–35 credits a year, or about 15–18 credits per regular term. Treat these as averages to picture the load — the actual minimum and maximum are set by each school's regulations (see below).

Required vs. elective courses, and what a prerequisite course is

Before you hit register, you need to tell a few kinds of courses apart, because your priority order when grabbing seats depends on them. Your program curriculum (CTĐT) lists which course belongs to which type — TDTU publishes each cohort's curriculum at cktt-cdr.tdtu.edu.vn, and other schools usually post it on the academic affairs or faculty site.

• Required courses Fixed in the curriculum; you must take and pass them to graduate. Public and private schools alike share a common required block: political theory courses (Marxist–Leninist philosophy, Ho Chi Minh Thought...), National Defense and Security Education (residential; HCMUTE and EIU schedule it in the summer term for first-years) and Physical Education.
• Elective courses You pick from a list to reach your program's elective credit requirement. This is where you can avoid an overly heavy course or choose a lecturer who suits you, and electives usually have more sections, so you don't need to fight for them in the first minute.
• Prerequisite courses If course A is a prerequisite for course B, you must pass A before you can register for B; the system usually blocks you automatically otherwise. Failing a prerequisite can throw off your whole path in later terms, so these are the courses to register for and retake first.
• Prior / co-requisite Some schools also distinguish prior courses (must have taken, not necessarily passed) and co-requisites (must be registered in the same term). Names and how the system enforces them vary by school, so read the notes in your curriculum carefully.

A sensible registration order: prerequisites → required courses with few sections → required courses with many sections → electives. A full elective can be swapped; a missed prerequisite delays the whole chain.

How to register for credits step by step on the academic portal

Every school's interface differs (Bach Khoa's MyBK, HCMUTE's online portal, EduSoft...), but the registration process is basically the same. Finish the preparation steps before opening day, and on the day itself all you have left is typing in class codes.

• 1. Read the ĐKHP notice The academic affairs office posts a notice before each round: number of rounds, opening time, who is eligible, min/max credits, tuition deadline. HCMUT, for instance, published its 2025-2026 academic schedule and the HK1 registration plan with all three rounds on its faculty and academic affairs pages.
• 2. Check your eligibility Unpaid tuition, failed prerequisites, or academic warning status — the system may block you or cap your credits. At EIU, missing the week-5 tuition deadline means you cannot register for the next term.
• 3. Plan from the curriculum Pick courses from the curriculum, then look up the planned timetable. UEH publishes each term's timetable file on daotao.ueh.edu.vn with no login, plus a public lookup showing lecturer names; HCMUT moved entirely into MyBK from HK1 2025-2026; at HCMUTE, TDTU and EIU you have to log in to the school's portal to see it.
• 4. Register on the portal Select the course → select the section → save. The system will flag time clashes, full classes or missing requirements; handle one course at a time rather than selecting everything and saving at the end.
• 5. Confirm and follow up Review your timetable, screenshot the list of registered courses, and note the adjustment round and tuition deadline. Log back in a few days later to check whether any class was cancelled for low enrollment.

When does registration open? Each school's portal and term structure

There is no nationwide calendar, and because term structures differ from school to school, opening dates differ too: the exact dates and times exist only in your school's academic affairs notice. If you want to know, say, when registration for term 2 of 2025-2026 opened, you have to check your own school's notice — there is no common date. A real example: HCMUT (Bach Khoa) ran 3 rounds for HK1 2025-2026 — round 1 from 17 to 24 June 2025, round 2 from 13:00 on 30 July to 17:00 on 6 August, round 3 from 19 to 21 August — so the first round opened back in June, more than two months before the 25 August start of term.

Term structures differ too, so "term 2" is not the same moment at every school. UEH runs on the calendar year with 3 terms (per the school's 2026 framework: first term 5 Jan–21 Jun, mid term 22 Jun–9 Aug, final term 10 Aug 2026–3 Jan 2027). HCMUTE splits each 22-week semester into đợt 1 and đợt 2 (9 teaching weeks + exams each), with the milestones ĐK1, ĐK2, ĐC (adjustment), RT (withdrawal) and ĐKBS (supplementary registration for đợt 2) marked right on the academic-year chart. EIU works in quarters: each term is 10 teaching weeks + 2 exam weeks, and registration for the next term opens 2 weeks before it starts, overlapping weeks 11–12 of the current term's finals. TDTU has 2 main semesters (15 teaching weeks + 3 exam weeks) plus an optional summer term (7 + 2 weeks), but exact dates are only visible after logging in to stdportal.tdtu.edu.vn under Đào tạo → Kế hoạch năm học.

The table is drawn from 2025-2026 academic charts and notices, plus UEH's 2026 framework. Schools issue a new calendar every year, so check the latest academic affairs notice before you plan your timing.

Registration tips for first-years: what time to log in and how to grab seats when the server is overloaded

The registration site crashing on day one, courses you had registered vanishing from your timetable, classes cancelled for low enrollment — this is familiar at many schools; the press recorded back in 2019 (Tuoi Tre) a single term with as many as 40 course sections cancelled. So instead of relying on luck, prepare before the portal opens and have a backup for every course.

• Prepare 2–3 timetable options For each course, pre-select a main section and a backup in a different time slot. Write the course/section codes in a note so you can type them immediately instead of scrolling while the site lags.
• Register in priority order Prerequisites and required courses with only 1–2 sections first, electives with many sections later. Secure a seat in each course before fine-tuning your time slots.
• What time to log in Opening time is set by the school in its notice — HCMUT's round 2 for HK1 2025-2026, for example, opened at 13:00 on 30 July. Log in a few minutes early on a stable connection; hammering refresh only makes you more likely to get kicked out of the system.
• Screenshot the result After a successful save, screenshot your timetable and course list. If the data "evaporates" — a bug that has hit many schools — this is your evidence when you go to the academic affairs office.
• Re-check a few days later See whether a class has been cancelled for low enrollment, so you can switch sections during the adjustment or supplementary round in time.

Clock times differ by school, so when you borrow tips from a friend at another school or use a timetable app, don't compare by period number: "period 7" is 11:30–12:45 (75 minutes) at UEH, 12:45–13:30 at HCMUTE and 12:45–13:35 at TDTU. EIU has not published a public period grid — read the times directly from the timetable in the AAO portal. The full period times for all 5 schools are in the guide "Class periods and class hours at each school".

On YourCampus: YourCampus has the period times of HCMUT, UEH, HCMUTE and TDTU built in, plus a course list that is being expanded (over 690 UEH courses so far), so you can draft your timetable before the registration round and see which sections clash. App user guide

How many credits per term, and how many credits in one year of university?

To be direct: each school sets its own minimum and maximum in its training regulations, the cap also depends on the type of term (main or summer) and may depend on your previous term's results, so this guide does not give a single number that could be wrong for your school. Look up your school's "quy chế đào tạo" or read the registration notice — the number is usually stated right there.

How many credits is one year of university? About 30–35 on average, since a 120–140-credit program divided over 8 main terms comes to roughly 15–18 credits per term. Registering for more to graduate early is something many students do, but it comes at two costs: tuition and grades. If your school charges per credit (for example UEH, cohort K51 entering in 2025-2026, first year: 1.1–1.3 million VND per credit for the standard program, with later years allowed to rise by up to 10% a year; practical or fully English-taught courses multiplied by 1.2 or 1.4), every extra credit is extra money that same term; and if you overload and fail, you pay to retake and drag your GPA down at the same time.

For first-years, how soon your first self-registration comes depends on your school's term structure: HCMUT puts first-years entering in early September on a separate track; HCMUTE and EIU reserve the summer term for National Defense Education; EIU opens next-term registration 2 weeks before each quarter starts. Use the first term to gauge your grades and your capacity before deciding how many credits to take next.

The first term you register on your own, take a manageable load; increase gradually once you're used to it. Before going above the average, also count the extra tuition if your school charges per credit.

Class full or registered late — what now? Supplementary rounds and course withdrawal

Class full: retry a few times, then switch immediately to your backup section; if the course has only one section, note it and wait for the adjustment or supplementary round — seats reopen when other students drop, and some schools open extra sections or raise the cap when enough students are waiting (school-dependent; ask your faculty or academic affairs office directly).

Registered late: most schools run more than one round. HCMUT had 3 rounds for HK1 2025-2026, the last on 19–21 August right before the term started; HCMUTE marks ĐC (adjustment) and ĐKBS (supplementary registration for the semester's đợt 2) on its chart; EIU lets you change or drop courses free of charge during week 1 of the term. If you miss even the final round, file a request with the academic affairs office as early as possible — once the deadline has fully passed, you usually have to wait for the next term, which pushes your path back by one term.

Dropping and withdrawing are two different things. Dropping during the adjustment round is usually free (EIU states this explicitly: free changes and drops in week 1), while withdrawing after the term has begun usually has a deadline and may cost money. EIU spells it out most clearly in its 2025-2026 student handbook: withdraw by the end of week 2 to receive a W grade and pay 30% of that course's tuition, with no withdrawal possible after week 2; HCMUTE sets a separate RT (withdrawal) milestone on its chart. Your school's deadline and fee rate may differ, but the general rule is: if you see you can't cope, withdrawing early beats failing.

• EIU: 2 weeks before term Registration opens for the next term (overlapping weeks 11–12 finals of the current term).
• EIU: week 1 Change or drop courses free of charge.
• EIU: end of week 2 Withdrawal deadline — W grade, 30% of the course tuition; no withdrawal after this.
• EIU: weeks 3 and 5 Week 3: tuition notice by email; week 5: payment deadline — miss it and you cannot sit finals or register for the next term.

Registering isn't the end: at EIU, missing the week-5 tuition deadline costs you both the final exam and next term's registration. Every school ties a tuition deadline to registration — put it in your calendar alongside the opening date.