14 UEH Initiatives in 2021 - The transition from development to sustainable action (Part 2)

University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City University (UEH) has been implementing a strategy of restructuring and forming a Multidisciplinary and Sustainable University with the consensus, solidarity and efforts from all collective leadership, lecturers, officials and employees. Those efforts have been clearly demonstrated through 14 outstanding initiatives in all fields, contributing to the overall development of the school. We would like to invite UEHers to follow UEH 2021 initiatives (Part 2) as follows:

[5] Orientation program for new students and learners

In accordance with UEH Regulations on student work, Annual Guidelines on organizing Citizenship - Student Week by Ministry of Education and Training regarding students of centralized university system, on reference foundation from the works for students at top universities in the world, UEH Department of Student Affairs has advised UEH Board of Directors to design and build a program of first-class activities according to international standards. “Orientation Activity for Students” is organized in the form of combined top-down and horizontal communication, thereby, enhancing multi-dimensional interaction among speakers and listeners, among listeners and listeners. In particular, the form of information transmission has been renewed from a text format to a variety of forms, vivid multimedia, concise presentation combining video clips, Powerpoint and so on and spend a lot of time on direct interaction, exchange and discussion.

What is more, the addition of contents regarding UEH itself through the form of multiple-choice tests in addition to the traditional essay form also creates a variety of assessment methods. “Orientation activities for new students” as an activity at the beginning of the course has been applied, for the first time, to training levels and systems other than the centralized landscape university system, listed as: 2^nd Diploma, college-transfer mode, working-and-learning training mode, Post-graduate level.

[6] Measuring UEH brand influence nationally and internationally by "Writing a multidisciplinary and sustainable university story together with UEH" International Slogan contest.

In 2021, UEH officially implements our restructuring and brand positioning strategy, aiming for University of Multidisciplinary and Sustainability. In order to prepare and survey the community's response to UEH brand repositioning, UEH Department of Marketing and Communication advised UEH Board of Directors to organize a meeting, instead of investing in conducting a large-scale market survey: “Writing the story of a multidisciplinary & sustainable university together with UEH” International slogan contest. With 03 objectives: (1) Identifying UEH image in the minds of domestic and international communities; (2) Exploring communication, awareness and understanding of the meaning and content regarding UEH Brand positioning; (3) Looking for a suitable slogan for UEH in the new period.

Being held for 2 months with 03 international studios, this contest has received active support from the domestic and international community with nearly 150 entries, of which 30% are from international, 60 media channels. In addition, this approach helps UEH save a large amount of budget to do brand health assessment survey, which is especially necessary before repositioning. This contest also has an impact on raising UEH brand, indirectly affecting UEH enrollment, training, research, consulting and community connection activities.

[7] Building and developing UEH Endogenous Database Management Software (UEH Digital Repository): scientific products, authors’ profiles, sharing information resources in an open direction.

UEH Digital Repository, a digital collection of scientific products (articles/research results) of UEH community, is managed by open source software DSpace. UEH Digital Repository has been officially implemented since October 2018, as a result of the process of UEH Library research with detailed design and testing since the end of 2016. Up to November 8^th, 2021, UEH Library has compiled entries and publishes 17,572 documents on UEH Digital Repository; 13,800 documents indexed by Google Scholar (equivalent to 80%). The current version, aiming at users as graduate students and graduate students, focuses on exploiting theses and dissertation collections. In 2021, UEH Library made a breakthrough, choosing DSpace-CRIS 6.x and implemented a customized version 2021 (demo) aiming at users of the domestic and international academic communities, promoting UEH scientific products and connecting UEH researchers with scholars in a digital environment.

UEH Digital Repository contributes to increasing the citation index of scientific products by optimizing the ability to link and display on many search tools as well as learning, teaching and research systems; concurrently, supporting the accrediting and ranking of universities (QS Ranking, Webometrics, AUN-QA, FIBAA) and contributing to the success of “Strengthening UEH Academic Reputation for 2020- 2025 period” Project.

[8] Access control system by smart IOT lock technology

Towards digitization in UEH administration and operation, a smart lock system has been deployed at UEH, allowing to unlock the door through a mobile application, fingerprint or password without using a key, saving management time and effort.

Administrators can authorize UEH officials to access rooms and the time they are open. In terms of officials, if they need to enter any room, they can register online at key management application. During the process of use, the manager can count the specific numbers of the in-or-out turns of the room at a certain period of time. In terms of meetings taking place at UEH campus, the list of meeting members will be granted the right to unlock the meeting room automatically through the weekly schedule. In terms of lecturers, the system automatically grants the right to unlock via the phone application when there is a lecture in a room with a smart lock, instead of having to wait for the room manager to open the door like before.

[9] Fireside Chat Innovation Startup Incubator

Fireside Chat is a series of interactive and inspirational sharing chats with entrepreneurs, startup founders and experts regarding their life lessons and inspirational stories. Believing that every idea has a story, it's important for young startup founders and students to be inspired by positive thinking, invaluable lessons and sparking momentum. More than just a productive conversation, it's also an informal (but) active learning through sharing, questioning, debate and reflection.

Consequently, UEH Innovation Institute (UII) has implemented the idea of organizing talks for startup projects, students and the startup community to exchange experiences on entrepreneurship and to learn from new knowledge and technological development trends. In addition, the fact that the form of creating a knowledge-sharing community is not only held domestically but also internationally attracts many experts to attend and be aware of Institute of Innovation. Up to the present time, this program has released 4 issues with domestic and foreign experts, attracting nearly 200 participants of the project incubating at UEH Incubator. With the amount of knowledge and experience shared by the speakers, this activity is open to all students who love entrepreneurship and wish to hone their employability skills.

We would like to invite all distinguished readers to look forward to UEH 2021 Initiatives - Part 3.
Please review UEH 2021 Initiatives - Part 1 HERE.

News, Photos: Department of Marketing – Communication