Dr. Phan Van Kien, what do you think when in recent years your Institute has had a major with almost absolute admission scores?
Dr. Phan Van Kien:The university admission score of a major is based on the enrollment quota and the number of applications submitted to the major. Normally, the school will take from high to low until the enrollment quota is met. In recent years, some schools have not had enough applications, so the admission score is often not high. However, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in general and the Institute of Journalism and Communication in particular have always had a very large number of applications. Therefore, it is understandable that candidates with high scores must be selected.
For university admissions, high admission scores indicate that the major has high social demand. Our modern society today is an information society while journalism and communication in general are the industries that create information flows in society, so the human resource needs of the industry have increased significantly over the years and have never ceased to be urgent. We can see that people's dependence on the media is increasing. Therefore, the journalism and communication field itself has also developed increasingly richly, with complex industries, majors, and sub-sectors. In addition to journalism, in recent years, new media majors have continuously appeared such as multimedia communications, digital journalism, digital communications, foreign communications, media culture, transnational communications, etc.
At the same time, the proliferation of media-related majors in universities, especially private schools, shows the heat of this industry. However, currently the number of schools that train in journalism can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Among them, the Institute of Journalism and Communication Training of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities is one of the most prestigious and traditional units in this field. Therefore, the fact that candidates choose a leading training unit to apply for also makes our Institute's admission score often higher than other majors.
Does the high entrance score put pressure on you and the lecturers at the Institute?
Dr. Phan Van Kien:In my opinion, the entrance score only helps determine two aspects: the demand of society for the field of study and the quality of the input of the learner. That is obviously an important condition in the training process. But it is not the factor that completely determines the quality of the field of study as well as the training institution, and even less the factor that determines the quality of the "output" of the learner. Therefore, it is obvious that in the context of competition and university rankings becoming the key factor, it cannot be said that we are not under pressure. However, our pressure does not come from the entrance score.
Our pressure comes from two main aspects: First, in the context of university rankings becoming increasingly important, the pressure to "fall in rank" is always something that makes leading schools and majors struggle to constantly innovate and improve their quality.
Second, the journalism and media industry is a sector that depends heavily on the social context and the development of technology. While society and technology change every day. Therefore, in the context of Industry 4.0 and the current strong digital transformation trend, the pressure on journalism and media training institutions and lecturers is how to ensure the academic character of a traditional university without becoming old or outdated compared to the rapidly changing reality.
What is the "identity" of students of the Institute of Journalism and Communication, sir?
Dr. Phan Van Kien:The Institute of Journalism and Communication was formerly the Faculty of Journalism of Hanoi University of Science, the “cradle” of the country’s basic science. Therefore, the Institute inherits the comprehensive tradition with its identity being fundamental knowledge of social sciences and humanities. In addition, with the characteristics of an applied science training and research unit, our Institute has invested in a modern and synchronous equipment system, helping students have the opportunity to practice and work in a digital media environment. Therefore, it can be seen that the two “identities” of journalism and communication students at the Institute of Journalism and Communication are fundamental and modern knowledge.
To train a simple journalist with basic working skills, it may only take 2 years, even many generations of journalists in Vietnam up to now have become famous without sitting a single day in a journalism and media school. But to train a journalist in the true sense of these two words, basic, fundamental knowledge is very important.
To become a journalist quickly, one only needs to learn skills, but to become a successful journalist and go a long way, basic knowledge of social sciences is the decisive factor. Therefore, in our Institute's training program, subjects related to basic knowledge play a very important role. We also have the advantage that this knowledge of students is often equipped by experts, leading units in social sciences and humanities at our school today.
With that identity, when press agencies need to carry out in-depth topics, requiring knowledge and vision, critical thinking, analysis, and evaluation skills, journalists trained from the "general" training center show an advantage.
How do you evaluate the current human resource needs in the field of journalism and media?
Dr. Phan Van Kien:For a long time, Vietnam mainly trained journalism personnel. However, in recent years, the media market has developed very rapidly, making the demand for personnel in this field always high.
The development of new media platforms has expanded the scope of work in this field. Nowadays, journalism and media human resources are no longer directly provided to companies, organizations or human resource organizations. A journalism and media student can now design his own work and organize his own company on the internet platform with an income that is not inferior to that of a job in any international corporation.
Thus, it can be seen that journalism and communication students today can be extremely flexible and proactive in their work after graduation. In addition to traditional jobs such as reporters, newspaper editors, PR staff or advertising, marketing, etc., jobs related to design ideas and content creation have expanded to most areas from organizations to individuals.
It can be said that job opportunities have never been as open to human resources in the field of journalism and media as they are today.
What do you have to share with high school students who want to become students of the Institute of Journalism and Communication?
Dr. Phan Van Kien:As mentioned above, students studying at the Institute of Journalism and Communication, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi have two basic characteristics: being equipped with a solid foundation of knowledge and being quickly updated with modern media technology trends. Therefore, high school students with a broad and solid knowledge base are an advantage. In addition, you should also gradually approach new technology trends in journalism and communication such as artificial intelligence technology, virtual reality technology, augmented reality as well as other technology platforms of the digital transformation process...
And obviously, to have the opportunity to develop the above advantages, the first thing you have to do is face relatively "tense" competition to have a "place" to become a student of our Institute.
In your opinion, which majors at the Institute of Journalism and Communication will have high entrance scores in 2024?
Dr. Phan Van Kien:The Institute of Journalism and Communication is often one of the units with the highest entrance scores of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and at a high level among social science schools nationwide. Therefore, it can be said that both undergraduate training majors of the Institute, Journalism and Public Relations, can have high threshold scores.
In 2024, the Institute will develop a tuition program and roadmap according to economic and technical standards, so there may be some fluctuations in tuition fees as well as admission scores. Students can follow the admission consultation sessions directly as well as online on official newspapers, radio, magazines as well as on the official channels of the school and the Institute of Journalism and Communication to get the most accurate advice at each time.
