Student affairs: Not just regulations - need brains and hearts!

Society is changing so fast…

In his opening speech at the Conference, Associate Professor Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan (Vice Principal of the School) acknowledged the improvement in the School's student affairs in the past school year, and emphasized the need for innovation to adapt to a world that is changing very strongly and societies that are changing too quickly, with four main keywords that create the concept of the VUCA world: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity. The current VUCA world poses challenges on a global scale not only in the political and economic fields, but also for higher education. Therefore, universities are facing many challenges; students are facing many difficulties when graduating. In that context, the student affairs of the School need to be innovated quickly and updated more frequently, especially in the context that the School has just welcomed more than 2,000 new students of the 2018 class - the first generation of 10X students.

The challenges that Associate Professor Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan mentioned are:

Firstly, employers increasingly demand higher qualifications and skills from workers, creating pressure for schools to innovate in teaching knowledge, training skills and shaping positive attitudes towards life and work for students. In addition, career trends fluctuate and change rapidly in the context of the 4th industrial revolution, causing training to face the risk of falling behind new human resource needs. The 2016 annual report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) predicts: "For the generation of students starting primary school today, 65% when they go to work will do jobs that do not exist yet". Also according to the WEF's forecast, in the period 2015-2020, on average, for every 6 million jobs lost, there will be only about 2 million new jobs, the public administration sector will decrease sharply while new jobs are mainly in the high-tech sector and management sectors".

Second, the traditional training model with basic science majors has and will continue to face many difficulties in enrollment and training in the next few years. The number of Vietnamese youth studying abroad has increased steadily in recent years and the trend of "on-site study abroad" through distance training programs or online programs of foreign universities, international joint programs of domestic universities... will explode strongly in the coming time. This reality is a real challenge for domestic universities if they do not innovate their programs, methods, approaches to support students, invest in renovating facilities... Currently, dozens of domestic universities have closed social science majors, many training institutions have had to consolidate majors, faculties, departments or convert to a training - research institute model because they cannot recruit students in social sciences and humanities. That risk is not absent for the future of the school's enrollment and training, especially for basic science majors.

Third, the employment structure of students after graduation in recent years has tended to shift to the non-public sector (private, international, non-governmental, start-up...). This poses requirements for adjusting the training program structure, investing more in skills, proactive attitudes and learning mindset so that students can adapt to different working environments. The World Summit on International Education Innovation (WISE) held in New York last September emphasized the importance of cognitive education and "lifelong learning" thinking because the knowledge learned at university will become outdated very quickly in the 4.0 society, so only when there is a view of continuous learning and a lifelong learning mindset can workers adapt to career changes.

Fourth, many managers and education experts have continuously warned about the slow innovation of university management thinking, especially in public schools, not keeping up with regional and world university training trends, not being able to perceive and forecast human resource market trends, not even understanding changes in the needs of learners themselves... leading to a situation where university education management "cannot keep up with the needs of learners" as the Ministry of Education and Training and the Association of Vietnamese Universities and Colleges have recommended.

Fifth, the requirements of learners and parents for training quality are increasingly higher, not only stopping at knowledge content but also accompanying services during the training process. If in the past learners were mainly interested in the category of lecture halls (receiving knowledge), today they also require other accompanying activities and services such as: facilities and learning equipment, living and self-study space, canteen, internship, practice (especially going abroad), professional clubs, literature-sports-arts, business connections, start-up support, especially the quality of support and care for students during the training process...

All these changes and challenges pose new requirements and tasks for student care, support and advice activities: "Has our thinking about training and student affairs really caught up and kept pace with the increasingly rapid changes and increasing demands of society?" Associate Professor, Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan said that to do that, it is necessary to "practice and materialize student care and academic advice activities; training units need to strengthen student learning orientation according to the motto "all students are cared for throughout the learning process", through academic advice activities to promptly detect, invest in, and nurture excellent students of training majors..."

Need to get down to the nitty gritty – Must consider effectiveness

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Quang Lieu (Head of Student Affairs Department) said that in the past school year, student affairs activities have been innovated, becoming more practical and aiming for efficiency. The school has effectively implemented the “one-stop” mechanism, minimizing administrative procedures to better serve students. Meetings between school leaders and successful alumni are held more frequently, thereby connecting more closely with the school’s alumni network. Cooperation between the school and businesses has been strengthened, creating more internship, practical and job opportunities for students.

MSc. Dao Minh Quan (Deputy Head of Training Department) said that there is still a certain overlap in student support and consulting activities: from the units' perspective, there are academic advisors (CVHT), homeroom teachers (GVCN); from the Political and Student Affairs Department, there is the Center for Support and Consulting (CASA) and the Department's team of specialists... Therefore, to improve the effectiveness of CVHT and GVCN work, it is necessary to increase interaction between CVHT and students, have periodic assessments of CVHT activities, provide periodic training for CVHT, and properly recognize the contributions of CVHT.

Speaking at the Conference, many teachers and leaders of training units expressed their expectations for innovation and improving the effectiveness of counseling and support for students. Dr. Pham Hoang Giang (Deputy Head of the Faculty of Philosophy) shared his "heart-to-heart" experience in discovering and nurturing groups of students passionate about their majors, creating a source of scientific research and postgraduate studies. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Binh (Deputy Head of the Faculty of Linguistics) shared valuable experiences from many years of studying and teaching in the Thai university environment, suggesting Jennifer Bloom's 6D model (Disarm, Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver, and Don't Settle) in counseling students. Dr. Dang Hoang Giang (Assistant of the Faculty of Vietnamese Studies and Language) shared his personal experience in supporting international students to integrate and study effectively...

The conference determined that in the 2018-2019 school year, a number of key activities of the Student Affairs Department were discussed and approved by the Conference, such as: strengthening academic discipline, promoting the building of school culture, substantivizing and making effective the activities of homeroom teachers and student support staff, updating handbooks and organizing training for the nearly 100 homeroom teachers and student support staff of the School, regularizing and enhancing the roles and responsibilities of the homeroom teachers and student support staff...

Student affairs and training work: must be closely linked!

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc (Head of Training Department, Hanoi National University) emphasized: “Student affairs is also training. These are two inseparable tasks”. Therefore, student affairs is not only the task of teachers working in functional departments, not only the task of homeroom teachers and student affairs officers, but also the task of the entire teaching staff. Through their lectures, teachers inspire students about learning goals, learning methods, attitudes towards work and life. Each teacher not only helps equip students with professional knowledge but also has to share and sympathize with each student’s situation, understand each student’s personality and ability.

“What skills and qualities do we need to train students now?”, according to Prof. Dr. Nguyen Dinh Duc, it must be “vision”, ambition, and ideal; from there, we can determine the appropriate qualities, knowledge, and skills. The school and teachers must also train students to have a strong character, tempered by difficult challenges. Therefore, student affairs must be linked to vision and the times.

Concluding the conference, Vice Principal Hoang Anh Tuan affirmed the need to continue to innovate and improve the effectiveness of student affairs in the coming time: "trying to ensure that all students are cared for and taken care of throughout their studies". To achieve that goal, the School recommends that units consider integrating the two positions of GVCN-CVHT to save human resources and improve operational efficiency, enhance the efficiency of communication between related departments, update and integrate the GVCN-CVHT handbook for teachers to use conveniently, and invest appropriately for teachers participating in the GVCN-CVHT task...

But above all, “student work is not just about following existing regulations; if you want to bring the best things to your students, do it with both your mind and your heart: the mind brings us more creativity and effective solutions than rigid regulations, love and responsibility for students will help connect, share, and support them more” - The Vice Principal emphasized and called on everyone to join hands for the development of the school's student work in the coming time.