For final year students of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication, doing a graduation thesis (KLTN) is a source of pride. Because KLTN is a special assignment, not only helping students demonstrate all the knowledge and skills accumulated throughout their university years; but also reflecting their research orientation or interest and love for current social issues through a professional perspective. Many KLTNs have been highly appreciated by teachers for the novelty of the topic, for their sharp thinking and judgment, or simply for the great investment of effort and love that students have for their KLTN. For many students, KLTN is also an important bridge to the career they are passionate about.
Best thesis
With a score of 9.86, Bui Bich Lan became the student with the highest KLTN score in the Faculty of Journalism and Communication with the topic: "Building a business brand through a website" (survey of the top 500 largest enterprises in Vietnam in 2012) instructed by Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen (Deputy Head of the Faculty).
This topic has been with Bich Lan since she did her thesis under the guidance of Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen. After receiving her advice on corporate communications, Bich Lan fell in love with this new topic and was determined to pursue it. She always remembered her teacher’s words of encouragement: “As long as you love it and try hard, you will definitely succeed.Finally, the topic: “Survey on the model and organization of public relations department activities of the top 500 largest enterprises in Vietnam on the website"Bich Lan's thesis became a highly regarded thesis. Following this success, Bich Lan developed the topic into a student scientific research project: "Using websites in public relations activities at enterprises”won the school-level Student Research Award. Finally, still very fond of this topic, Bich Lan developed from the foundation of the two topics above to become the KLTN with the highest score of the Council.
Bich Lan also shared that, because of the long research process on corporate communication issues, she had many advantages in the process of doing KLTN. Not only was her professional knowledge "more solid", but her research methods and project implementation were also "more fluent".
In KLTN, Bich Lan set out the following tasks: to present a fundamental theoretical basis revolving around the contents of branding, public relations with the use of websites for the strategy of building and developing brands in current businesses; to conduct a direct survey of brand building and development activities on business websites; to comment, evaluate and propose some solutions for businesses. This is a topic that the Council assessed as new, practical and highly topical, the author's proposals are also very useful for businesses themselves in building their brands.
When referring to the success of her thesis, Bich Lan said: “For the success of my thesis, I would like to thank Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, who has really given me a lot of attention and enthusiastic guidance. She not only guided me professionally, but also created favorable conditions, sympathized with me and shared with me the difficulties throughout the process from writing the thesis, scientific research to the graduation thesis. And most importantly, she has awakened in me a love for the work I have done during this time.
Bich Lan also shares her experiences to successfully do KLTN: “The most important thing is passion, which comes from the fact that you really want to work on the chosen topic, and do it with all your sense of responsibility. Second, it is having cooperation and working effectively with the instructor - which determines 50% of the success and efficiency of the work. Third, is an attitude of receptiveness and humility to learn.
KLTN is the first TVC
During this year’s thesis defense season, the TV product evaluation board had a KLTN that, although not achieving the highest score and having the shortest duration, was the most original and also the first milestone for a product in the advertising and PR field. That was the product “TVC for Business Loans” by student To Hai Phuong, guided by Master Bui Viet Ha.
As part of the strategy to innovate training activities towards improving professional practice, for many years the Faculty of Journalism and Communication has allowed students to defend their graduation thesis with television products. However, the television products are mainly reports and documentaries (with a duration of 10 minutes or more) and only this year has there been a TVC advertisement (duration of 30 seconds).
While still in school, Hai Phuong had decided to work in the advertising and PR field after graduation. In fact, she signed a contract to work with InfoTV company in the advertising field, so Phuong really loved and was determined to make this TVC advertisement.The luckiest thing for me during the process of doing my thesis was that my supervisor, Ms. Viet Ha, wholeheartedly guided and defended my point of view before the council so that this product could be defended and defended successfully."– Hai Phuong shared.
Hai Phuong completed the TVC in 2 months. The special thing is that Phuong made this TVC according to the order of a client of InfoTV company with a cost of 150 million. Phuong's TVC production team consisted of 4 people, not including the filming and actors who were outsourced. Phuong directly participated in organizing the production "from A to Z", was the person who came up with the script idea and also worked as a copywriter - positions that only experienced people can do well.
During the process, Phuong realized that, because TVC is a product ordered by customers, it must be made according to their ideas and in reality, the perspective of a business person and a pure media person have many differences. Besides, "TVC filmed with Red One, 4K images are 5-6 times more difficult to post-process than normal full HD filming. Filming with Red One will give an image size 5 times larger than full HD, which is twice the size of a theater, and dozens of times more expensive than normal.- Phuong said.
“And fortunately, I received a lot of positive feedback from the Council. The TVC was rated 9.7 points - a high score that I did not expect. The teachers highly appreciated the TVC because it is not only a KLTN but also a product on the market."– Hai Phuong happily said.
Hai Phuong's TVC product was accepted by the customer, approved and broadcast 1 day after you submitted the product to Khoa.
Phuong shared: “I want this product to be a starting point for future KLTN advertising products. I hope that the students in the next course can study and work harder on advertising and PR when they graduate so that our Faculty can have students with more diverse expertise in their careers.
“The person living in memories” – Meaningful KLTN
“Thank you for the meaningful documentary about teachers!”. “On behalf of the students of the Faculty of History, we would like to thank you.”, “We want the film to reach all students of the Faculty of History, University of Social Sciences and Humanities.”,…For any filmmaker, receiving the above comments when their film is released is truly a success. And student Chu My Lan has done that through the documentary film “People living in nostalgia”.
This is a documentary film depicting the portrait of a personality, a talent, a kind teacher - the late Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Hai Ke, former Head of the History Department, University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
More than a graduation product, the film is a student’s tribute to their respected teacher – Mr. Nguyen Hai Ke. Lan said: “I feel the need to do something so that the image of the Teacher will live forever and be passed on to many generations of students in the future. It is rare to find a teacher who is so devoted to his students and is loved by them. And I want as many people as possible to know the Teacher, to know his personality and character even though they have never met him.
From the beginning, My Lan encountered many difficulties when pursuing this topic. Many people feared that with the ability of a 4th year student, it would be difficult to make a good documentary, especially a film about a Teacher who left many impressions and emotions in the eyes of everyone. Lan also determined that: “If done badly, it will be an injustice to the deceased"Besides, finding documents about the Master is also quite difficult.
A 15-minute documentary, recreating the portrait of a deceased personality, by a final year student without any specialized training in television, with more than 1 month to make is not easy. From getting to know the alumni of the Faculty of History, contacting colleagues, relatives of Mr. Hai Ke, then gradually you have searched for interview characters that have weight in the film. For Lan, the most difficult stage in the process of making this product is post-production, it took you 2 days to do graphics and 4 days to edit.
“Actually, before starting post-production, during the whole pre-production and filming process, I was always in a state of anxiety and pressure. I was just afraid that if I didn't do well, I would first be at fault to my deceased teacher, and then to my instructor. Because he helped me very enthusiastically, he even took the time to go with me to film. During the 4 days of post-production, I always left home in the morning and came home at 1 or 2 am."– My Lan shared.
My Lan's film achieved the highest score in the defense with a score of 9.8 and received many positive responses from teachers, students and those interested in the product. But for Lan, the most successful thing is not the score but the feelings, the tears of those who watched the episode.
Looking back at the process of being a KLTN, My Lan affirmed: “I feel more mature after making films, and realize that once you accept a challenge, you should pursue it to the end to see how far your abilities really go.”.
Building a QHCC plan for Vovinam Vietnam
Although not achieving excellent scores, KLTN "Building a public relations strategy for the Vietnam Vovinam Federation until 2020”Pham Thi Hong Thuy's project received many compliments from the Council for its applicability, practicality and feasibility.
“A completely new and highly applicable topic”– Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen commented. Teacher Long (President of Vietnam Vovinam Federation) said: “The thesis can be completely applied to build and develop the image of Vovinam.”.
KLTN of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication, but last year there were not many topics about the field of public relations. If there were, the topics were mainly research and description of the communication strategy or public relations of a product or a company. Hong Thuy's topic was about public relations but in a very unique and quite "boney" way. That is, building a public relations strategy for the traditional martial art Vovinam. "Building a QHCC strategy for the Vovinam Federation is an idea that I have cherished for a long time, because I love this martial art, I have studied Vovinam for quite a long time. I want to contribute to the development of this unique traditional martial art of the nation. And when my name was on the list of candidates for my thesis, I did not hesitate to choose this topic even though many people suggested that it would be very difficult"-Hong Thuy shared.
Hong Thuy's thesis has a simple but concise structure with two main chapters. Chapter 1 is the entire theoretical part of public relations entitled: "Public relations and the role of public relations in developing sports brands". Chapter 2 is the core part of the thesis entitled "Public relations strategy for the Vietnam Vovinam Federation to 2020". Thuy's topic is a strategic view of a martial art from a media perspective, an effective combination of specialized knowledge of Journalism - Communications as well as in-depth knowledge of Vovinam.
Thuy said: "The most difficult part for me was the survey. I did two surveys, one survey collected opinions from 100 people, the other survey and in-depth interviews with 10 experts on Vovinam. Interviewing experts was difficult because Mr. Long (President of Hanoi Vovinam Federation) and Mr. Tuan (Head of Vovinam Department of FPT University (the martial arts school with the most students in Vietnam) were both very busy. The thesis only had 1.5 months to complete and it took me 1 month for these in-depth interviews.”.
Thuy also happily revealed that: “Mr. Long said that if the thesis is good, he will use it for the Vovinam Federation. That makes me even more motivated to do well in this thesis.”.
Doing this KLTN not only helps Thuy have more relationships, a deeper understanding of the traditional martial art that she is passionate about, and a broader knowledge of the subject of QHCC, but also satisfies her desire to use her specialized knowledge of BC-TT to contribute to the development of Vovinam.
Currently, Thuy is continuing to complete her research topic to apply it to the practical activities of the Vovinam Federation. Initially, some items of this QHCC strategy are being realized such as: opening Vovinam clubs or bringing Vovinam images to television.