Admissions: Maintain quantity - Improve quality

The bright spots

During the 2019 university admission season, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities received nearly 40,000 applications, an increase of more than 10,000 applications, equivalent to an increase of 34.5% compared to the 2018 admission season. The admission results were positive in both enrollment scale and input quality with a total of 2,178 candidates enrolled.

Professor, Principal Pham Quang Minh delivered the opening speech at the Conference.

In particular, to meet social needs, Japanese Studies, which was previously a major in Oriental Studies, has now become an independently recruited training major. Three socialized CLC training programs under Circular 23 of the Ministry of Education and Training, which were recruited for the first time this year (including Journalism, Management Science, and Information Management), have been well received by society, meeting and even exceeding the expected enrollment targets.

2019 Training Conference held in Thai Nguyen

This year also saw a significant increase in the number of candidates using foreign language subject combinations for admission, up to 65% of registered candidates. Even some majors such as Hotel Management, Tourism and Travel Services Management, and Japanese Studies only considered admission based on foreign language subject combinations from 2019. The benchmark scores of some majors are quite high, in which the admission score for group C of Oriental Studies is the highest in the civil system nationwide.

Speaking about the QH-2019-X class, Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan - Vice Principal shared: They are the "golden" generation of Humanities students, with outstanding advantages in learning ability, foreign language ability, independence and initiative in life. Young people today have clear personalities, know how to define goals and persistently pursue their passions. They choose the majors of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities because they love and are determined to pursue their chosen career to the end. With such quality input, combined with the current strong innovations of the University in the training program and process towards flexibility and integration, it is certain that the training quality and output products in the future will be very good.

Dr. Hoang Van Quynh - Deputy Head of Training Department presented the results of the University's university admissions in 2019. He said that this year's communication activities have received strong investment and the coordination of units - this has contributed to the good results of the admissions activities.

Similarly, the postgraduate recruitment work last year was also very positive. After two recruitment rounds, the University recruited 348 masters, reaching 87% of the assigned target; 50 PhD students, reaching 100% of the assigned target. In recent years, the University's masters recruitment contributed about 20-25% of the target of the entire VNU, and doctoral recruitment contributed about 50% of the general target. In particular, the local application-oriented masters training continued to be organized with the Journalism major in the three provinces of Vinh Long, Binh Duong, and Da Nang.

Media footprint

At the Conference, when talking about the highlights of training activities, Dr. Hoang Van Quynh - Deputy Head of Training Department said that communication activities were an important factor bringing success to university admissions last year. Compared to previous years, the promotion and admissions consulting (TVTS) in 2019 received more investment. In particular, the timely appearance of teachers participating in TVTS and promoting the school's image on major media agencies such as VTV, VOV, VTC, Education, Dan Tri ... created a good effect.

Dr. Do Van Hung - Head of the Faculty of Information and Library Science shared some experiences in recruiting students for the CLC Information Management major according to Circular 23 of the Ministry of Education and Training at the Conference. He shared: Recruitment is similar to a business trying to market its products, which must be customer-centric, always keeping in mind that its products or services must truly bring true values ​​to customers. Promotional activities for the CLC Information Management major are mainly deployed on online platforms: website, facebook, youtube, livestream ... The Faculty also actively participates in TVTS talk shows on the media to inform candidates about the new major in the spirit of: sincerity, updated and clear information, understanding the needs of learners.

TVTS activities were also carried out persistently throughout the period from January to the end of August 2019, from before candidates registered for the exam, registered for admission until the results of the national high school exam were available and during the admission process. For the first time, the school established an Admissions Communications Board with the role of a focal point for implementing communications and TVTS work throughout the school. This year also marked the strongest participation ever of training units, especially units enrolling for the first time in the CLC training program. With good investment in promotion and TVTS of the Faculty of Information and Library, the number of applications for the Information Management major increased 5.5 times compared to 2018. This is a typical example of the effectiveness of communications in the unit's enrollment work.

In addition, the admissions department also designed and built a new admissions portal, systematized all information content, continuously updated new admissions information, added many articles on career counseling, introduced professions, looked up exam results... During peak days, there were more than 20,000 visits to the school's admissions website.

TVTS is also promoted through the TVTS fanpage with more than 30 thousand followers and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities fanpage with more than 90 thousand followers. Realizing the positive effects of online communication, since 2018, the admissions department has increased the form of paid enrollment information promotion through fanpages to better interact with candidates. In addition, the fanpages of VNU, training units, the Student Union and Student Ambassador program also actively update information to support candidates throughout the enrollment season.

Dr. Nguyen Son Minh (Deputy Director of the Institute of Journalism and Communication) (right) shares the Institute's experience in postgraduate recruitment. In 2018, the Institute of Journalism and Communication successfully recruited two Master's classes in Vinh Long and Ca Mau with a total of 100 students. In 2019, the Institute continued to open applied Master's classes in Vinh Long, Binh Duong and Da Nang, with a total of more than 100 students. To achieve these results, the Institute has actively built close relationships with the Provincial Party Committee, People's Committee and local departments, especially local press agencies and press management agencies; integrating recruitment with professional activities in provinces and cities (such as research, media consulting) to both enhance the position of the training institution and open up other cooperation opportunities.

The survey results of the School's admission information access channels conducted by the Training Department show the prominent role of online information channels, especially the School's admission website and Admissions Consulting fanpage. Accordingly, candidates accessing information from the admissions website accounted for 58.9%, from the Admissions Consulting fanpage was 42.4%, from the Admissions Information Portal of the Ministry of Education and Training was 25.5%, on other websites and information channels was 34.9%.

TVTS activities in localities have also been expanded: participating in admissions consulting programs organized by Tuoi Tre Newspaper and VNU in 6 provinces and cities; bringing the Student Ambassador program to more than 120 high schools in 17 provinces and cities in the Northern region.

Keep up the momentum

Proposing the direction of enrollment activities next year, the Admissions Department recommends continuing to invest in building and improving the content and interface of the enrollment website, advertising the website through online search engines such as Google, Facebook...; continuing to maintain and develop the TVTS page on Facebook, paid advertising to increase followers; building promotional content on social networks with many followers such as YouTube, Instagram...; building some specialized content on enrollment to post on major electronic newspapers and enrollment information portals of VNU, the Ministry of Education and Training... In addition, units need to proactively build their own enrollment promotion products for their majors. The school needs to continue to make the most of other communication channels: such as participating in online counseling programs on television, online counseling programs of VNU, of high schools and localities.

Prof. Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan - Vice Principal of the School concluded at the Conference

Speaking at the 2019 Training Conference, Vice Principal Hoang Anh Tuan affirmed: Admissions consulting and promotion activities have been on the right track, with high efficiency, especially online channels such as websites and Facebook are increasingly playing an important role, have a wide reach and are the main source of information for candidates. In addition, it is necessary to commend the efforts of some units in diversifying their approach to potential candidates and having a methodical communication campaign. In the coming year, admissions work needs to continue in the direction ofMaintain quantity - Improve quality. Successes in undergraduate admissions communications will be studied and applied to graduate admissions.