A teacher dedicated to Psychology

Through the time of fire and flowers

Professor Nguyen Huu Thu is a descendant of one of the famous scholar families of Hanoi (with 6 doctoral steles preserved at the Temple of Literature and 2 doctoral steles in the ancient capital of Hue - Nguyen Thuc's family) and had the honor of growing up in a land rich in revolutionary tradition, Van Ha commune, Dong Anh district, Hanoi. In May 1970, when he was only 17 years old, the young man Nguyen Huu Thu followed the sacred call of the Fatherland and joined the army to fight to protect the country when he had not yet graduated from high school. As an infantry soldier, after 3 months of training, Nguyen Huu Thu was assigned to Unit C16, Regiment 8, Division 324, the main force of Thua Thien - Hue. In the fight to liberate the South and unify the country of our people, Thua Thien - Hue was one of the fiercest battlefields. Because this is the border gate, an important traffic artery from the Northern rear providing manpower, weapons and food for the entire Southern battlefield, it is also the place where the US and puppet regime concentrated many elite forces, many artillery pieces, many types of bombers that regularly bombed and dropped dioxin chemical poison to destroy life, cut off the lifeline and destroy the vitality of our troops.

It was the life with the extremely fierce experiences of the battlefield that tempered and helped soldier Nguyen Huu Thu understand the suffering, sacrifice and happiness of every Vietnamese person, making his love for his homeland and country increasingly stronger. A question that always troubled the young soldier's mind was: What can be done to make the lives of the Vietnamese people independent and happy? In June 1975, when the South was completely liberated and the country was unified, Nguyen Huu Thu was demobilized to his hometown and continued his unfinished studies. With extraordinary determination and willpower, the young soldier chose to continue his studies. After three months of reviewing his knowledge, Nguyen Huu Thu passed the university entrance exam with high scores and was called back to Thanh Xuan University of Foreign Languages ​​(Russian language department) to study in the Soviet Union. By chance, the Vietnamese student came to study Psychology from 1976 to 1982, at Rostov-on-Don University - Soviet Union.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Thu/Photo: Thanh Long

For Professor Nguyen Huu Thu, pursuing Psychology is a constant effort and passion. Graduating from university in 1982 with achievements in teaching and scientific research, he was sent by the state to take the doctoral exam in 1988 and passed with high scores and continued to be sent to study at Leningrad State University, Soviet Union. Here, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis in Psychology. From 1982, when he was working at the School of Management Staff of the Ministry of Universities and Vocational Secondary Schools until he transferred to the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (in 1997), with great contributions in the field of training, scientific research and application of Psychology to life, in 2005 he was awarded the title of Associate Professor. Continuing to promote his achievements in training and scientific research activities, in 2015, he was awarded the noble title of Professor.

Stick with Psychology

As a person who is passionate about his profession, in his teaching activities, Professor Nguyen Huu Thu always focuses on using the accumulated knowledge and skills to impart to students, graduate students and postgraduate students majoring in psychology. With his acumen, he realized that psychology subjects in Vietnam are still heavily theoretical, not oriented towards application to meet practical needs. Therefore, he believes that it is necessary to change the training program at the Faculty of Psychology - University of Social Sciences and Humanities, aiming at practical needs, creating conditions for students to have more job opportunities after graduation. During the 2006-2011 term, with the high trust of lecturers in the faculty, Professor Nguyen Huu Thu was elected as the head of the Faculty of Psychology and that was a favorable opportunity totProfessor Nguyen Huu Thu has implemented his innovative ideas. He proposed that the school establish two more departments under the faculty with high applicability: Management - Business Psychology and Counseling Psychology. Currently, according to the training program, 4th year students of the faculty are selected according to four majors:Social Psychology, Business-Management Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Counseling Psychology. This has helped students have the opportunity to form and practice professional skills and problem-solving skills in practice. Thanks to this "innovation", the job opportunities of students after completing the training programs of the Faculty of Psychology have increased significantly.

Currently the Director of the Center for Psychological Support and Counseling of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Professor Nguyen Huu Thu sets the goal: (1) Support training; (2) Apply psychology to life and (3) Research psychological and social psychological issues arising in the process of industrialization and modernization of the country.Under his leadership, the center has become one of the internship and practice facilities for students of the Faculty of Psychology. In addition, the center also organizes consultations for other social subjects (children, adults) on issues such as: autistic children, children with intellectual disabilities, marriage and family issues, career counseling and psychological support in studying for VNU students... The center has coordinated with businesses to research and solve psychological issues in business management such as: recruitment; soft skills training; building corporate culture and building business strategies. Professor Nguyen Huu Thu has directed the center to conduct scientific research topics in the direction of applying psychology into practice to enhance the role, position and prestige of Psychology in society.

And the results achieved

Professor Nguyen Huu Thu is always humble in learning, improving his foreign language skills, professional qualifications, and improving teaching methods to develop skills and creative thinking for students. Although he is old, he is still in charge of 5 subjects in the bachelor's training program (Management Psychology, Business Administration Psychology, Media Psychology, Tourism Psychology, Advertising and Propaganda Psychology); and 2 subjects in the postgraduate training program of the Faculty of Psychology (Psychological approaches in human resource management, Economic psychology).During his teaching career, he has guided over 30 students to successfully defend their graduation theses. In particular, he has guided 10 PhD students, 7 of whom have successfully defended their PhD theses; and guided 26 graduate students, 22 of whom have so far successfully defended their Master's theses.

Along with performing training tasks, Professor Nguyen Huu Thu also contributed a lot to scientific research and building learning materials for the faculty. In just a short period of time from 2000 to 2015, he has carried out and successfully completed dozens of research and translation projects (from English and Russian), effectively serving the training work of the faculty, as well as training links and cooperation with foreign countries (especially with some French universities).

Not only is he passionate about psychology, Professor Nguyen Huu Thu is also a profound teacher in life, interested in guiding generations of students and young colleagues. He is a great example for generations of students and young staff in the Department of Psychology to follow and learn from. For us, Professor Nguyen Huu Thu is always a role model in cultivating, improving professional qualifications, training the capacity and qualities of a teacher; being active and proactive in training and scientific research activities with the desire to contribute more to the cause of training high-quality human resources for the country, solving well the psychological problems arising from practice; being active in internal and external activities, contributing to enhancing the position and role of psychology in society and gradually integrating Vietnamese psychology with the psychology of countries in the region and internationally.