The knowledge gained from CT Stirling exceeded all expectations!

Ha Anh is a young girl with full of enthusiasm and energy. Passionate and ambitious about work and life, Ha Anh is the type of person that fits everyone's imagination of human resources working in a dynamic and high-pressure field like media. She has 5 years of experience as a communications specialist at ABB - one of the largest Swiss multinational corporations with more than 100 subsidiaries worldwide.

Ha Anh shared that although she has a bachelor's degree in Law, her extroverted personality, passion for creativity and challenges, along with the ability to connect and communicate well with people have brought Ha Anh to the attractive media job. It is easy to see the love and passion that goes all the way to the job, which is filled in her stories about her current job. The openness in culture and working mindset when working in a multinational business environment; the diligence in planning and implementing communication strategies to promote the company's image through specific products; the concerns when having to invest brainpower to build a smart and impressive communication idea; the trips side by side with colleagues and leaders in activities demonstrating the business's responsibility to the development of the community; Interviews, writing articles, approaching specific media audiences of the company... - Ha Anh has access to and fully experienced the diversity and liveliness in the work of a professional communications specialist.

Bui Nguyen Ha Anh - one of the first students to graduate from the Master of Media Management program jointly organized by the Faculty of Journalism and Communication (University of Social Sciences and Humanities) and the University of Stirling (UK). She received a diploma with honors from the University of Stirling.

But the more Ha Anh worked, the more she realized that she still lacked the basic theoretical knowledge of communication to serve as a foundation for her practical communication activities to become sharper and more in-depth. Ha Anh cherished the idea of ​​taking an intensive training course on communication and public relations - a course that was expected to bring the most useful and updated professional knowledge with information on communication science in the world. Extremely happy to hear that the communication management course was officially launched by Stirling University in Northern Vietnam in collaboration with the leading journalism and communication training unit in Vietnam, the Faculty of Journalism and Communication, Ha Anh did not hesitate to contact immediately and passed the strict selection round to become one of the first students of this program.

“What I have learned in a short period of time (16 months) is very valuable and far exceeds all my initial expectations” - Ha Anh happily shared.

Programs like CT Stirling give young people the opportunity to participate in a high-quality study program according to international university standards in Vietnam without having to stop their current favorite job and still have family support during their studies.

Passionate about the media profession, Ha Anh decided to join this course with the desire to acquire basic and updated knowledge about media science to take her work to a new level. And she received things beyond her initial expectations.

At first, Ha Anh and her classmates were overwhelmed and pressured by the large amount of new knowledge that the teachers imparted. Studying while still having to work, combined with certain obstacles when studying academic knowledge entirely in English, was a challenge but also a motivation for change and adaptation.

“Don’t think that studying in Vietnam is easier than studying abroad. Not only the content of the class but also the learning process must follow the assessment standards of the official system of the University of Stirling in the UK. Right from the first lessons, foreign professors have shared and warned about the phenomenon of plagiarism - which will be strictly monitored to ensure the value of each graduation thesis as well as the study and research efforts of each individual.”

A clear difference compared to other courses is the teaching and learning thinking of foreign professors. Lecturers always respect and help build independence in thinking and orientation of learners. The assigned topics are very open and students must find their own specific direction based on their knowledge and practical experience. That is the way to help turn the knowledge of teachers into one's own and effectively apply theory to practice.

Poster introducing the Master of Communication Management program at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication

After several months of struggling with her graduation thesis, closely monitored and supported by a British supervisor, and reading dozens of related English documents, Ha Anh’s thesis was completed with no small amount of pride for the young girl. The thesis was sent to three professors from different universities in the UK for grading to ensure fairness.

From a person with no experience in research, only after acquiring knowledge from the subject of research methodology in the program, Ha Anh was confident and did quite well with her initial research work. Although she had to read a lot, including undergraduate documents of the communication industry abroad to refer to how they approached knowledge from basic to specialized, Ha Anh considered those efforts to be worthy: "Now I can completely give small advice related to implementing a research for new students from my own experiences".

Students of the first course of the Master of Communication Management Program

When asked about the value that the course brings, Ha Anh did not hesitate to answer: Previously, when someone asked about my job, I often listed the tasks in a simple way. But after completing the course, I was able to look at communication work with a more general and in-depth view: from the first basic knowledge such as what is communication, the role of communication... to the models, typical activity groups of communication, factors of the communication process, skills of each specific job.

With each assigned task, Ha Anh knows how to find a new approach and supplementary resources to help the project succeed: “If before, I mainly worked based on experience, now I understand and apply theoretical principles as a foundation to create a powerful communication strategy, achieving the set goals. I am much more confident in my work and especially in convincing leaders to see the effectiveness of the project I will implement. In addition, very new knowledge such as handling media crises, for example, is also applied to my current job and is highly appreciated.”

Despite her young age and career ambitions, when asked about advancement to higher positions, Ha Anh shared some profound thoughts: High or low leadership position is not as important as understanding the work you are doing, dedicating yourself to achieving results, and satisfying your career aspirations. This course not only gives me basic knowledge as a guide in my work, but more importantly, it inspires me to go deeper and further with the work I have chosen. And I think that is success.