[UEH Through the Lenses of Time #03] Half a Century, A Journey & Hundreds of Thousands of Hearts

13 Aug, 2026

Looking toward the milestone of 50 years of establishment and development of UEH (1976–2026), "UEH 50 Years: Through the Lenses of Time" is a content series originating from the competition "UEH 50 Years - Frames of Knowledge - People - Future" and continuing to spread stories, images, memories, and memorable milestones about UEH. Each "frame" is a slice of time, preserving emotions, the journey of growth, and values cultivated across generations of UEHers, together contributing to portraying the 50-year picture of the University's establishment, development, and continuous innovation.

If every UEHer has their own "frame" of UEH, then there are frames that capture not just a single moment but a whole journey of attachment. For Mr. Đinh Tiên Minh, UEH is where that journey began as a first-year student in 1991 and continued through years of study, study abroad, a return to the lecture hall and a career as a teacher who has accompanied many generations of UEH students.

HALF A CENTURY, ONE JOURNEY & A HUNDRED THOUSAND HEARTS

Author: Mr. Đinh Tiên Minh - Lecturer, School of International Business - Marketing

Category: Stories and recollections of UEH

A featured entry from the contest:

UEH 50 Years - Frames of Knowledge - People - Future

In September 1991, I set foot in the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City for the first time, my admission letter in hand. After more than thirty years, memory has blurred many of the details. But I still remember the sunlight of that day very clearly. The fierce Saigon sun, blazing on the campus grounds, on all those young faces, and on a journey that I could not then have imagined would last almost my whole life.

When a student does not yet know he will become a teacher

In the years 1991-1995, the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City was also living in the hurried rhythm of a country that had just opened up. Outside, the city was changing by the day. In the lecture halls, we too could feel that new energy in every lesson, in every concept that was still so new to a generation of students entering the era of reform.

After two years of general studies, I officially entered the Foreign Trade programme. It was a broad, promising field of study, but one with no shortage of uncertainties. I still remember sitting in class, writing notes until my hand ached, and yet still feeling that something was missing. It was not that the knowledge was insufficient, but that I kept asking myself: how will these theories be applied in a real business?

Before that question could be answered, in 1995 I packed my bags for France on a University scholarship. Returning in 1996, I began a new rhythm of life. By day I worked; in the evenings I taught. What I experienced at work during the day, I brought into the lecture hall at night, sharing it with students from the perspective of someone who had just come from industry. Concepts that seemed dry, when placed beside a real situation, made students’ eyes light up as something clicked. It was those moments that made me realise: teaching is a journey of discovering, together with learners, the real meaning of knowledge. From then on, I knew my “home” was here.

UEH - A home for questions that never grow old

Someone once asked me: "You’ve taught Marketing for decades - don’t you get bored?" I usually smile and answer: "How could I, when the market changes every day?"

Marketing is not a static subject. It is a mirror reflecting society, reflecting people, their behaviour, their desires and their fears. Each generation of students brings a different picture of the world into my classroom: the generation of the late 1990s was still finding its way with the internet. The 2010s generation came to class already knowing how to add someone on Yahoo chat. Today’s Gen Z asks me about AI, about the Metaverse, about virtual influencers - things nobody had even thought of when I was a student.

I am not afraid to tell students that there are things their teacher is still learning too. I returned to France for a master’s degree. I did my doctoral studies at the very university that had nurtured me. I took an additional degree in English even when I was no longer young. My years at UEH have reminded me that a good teacher is one who never stops being a student.

The "frames" in my mind

In nearly thirty years of teaching, I have kept many moments. They are not grand or dazzling moments of the kind people usually tell as achievements. Most are very small, very ordinary slices of life: a first-year student sitting at the back of the room, barely daring to speak up, who by the end of the semester stood and presented in English before the whole class. Groups of students working on a project until two in the morning, messaging me - not because they needed to know the right answer, but because they needed someone to believe they could do better.

Those frames are not in the textbooks, nor in any record of achievements. They live in a teacher’s memory. I have been fortunate to witness many generations of students grow up in this way. And I believe that, in some quiet way, those moments stay with everyone who once walked into that classroom.

50 years - and the question I want to pass on

As UEH turns 50, I too have passed more than half a century of my own life. I realise I have been a teacher for longer than I was a student. But one thing remains entirely intact from that year: curiosity.

Marketing has taught me that the strongest brand is not the one known to the most people, but the one that the most people trust and feel they belong to. Over these 50 years, UEH has achieved exactly that. Hundreds of thousands of UEHers are spread across Vietnam and the world, each carrying a “piece” of this University in the way they think, work and love.

I am one of them. A student, a lecturer, and someone who has chosen to devote almost his entire life to the shared home called UEH.

If there is one thing I would like to pass on to the next generation of UEHers, it is the question I still ask myself every day as I walk into class:

"Have I learned something new today?"

Knowledge has no stopping point.

People have no limits.

And the future always belongs to those who dare to be curious.

Ho Chi Minh City, 17 May 2026

*The content of this entry has been kept as in the original in order to respect the author’s perspective, feelings and message.

💌 Send your wishes now at https://wish.ueh.edu.vn/ to join UEH in setting the Vietnamese record for the "university with the most check-ins and wishes sent on the world map" and to spread the pride of the 50-year journey of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City

UEH 50 Years: Through the Lenses of Time

Preserving the memories of generations of UEHers, creating a 50-year legacy

Looking ahead to the 50-year milestone (27 October 1976 - 27 October 2026), "UEH 50 Years - Frames of Knowledge - People - Future" is where half a century is retold through the memories of the UEHer community itself - through the stories, photographs, keepsakes and shared reflections that have accompanied so many generations, becoming pieces in the shared picture of UEH’s heritage.

Running alongside the series of 22 key activities aimed at repositioning and giving a new role to the 08 heritage values of UEH’s 50-year journey - "Solidarity - Compassion - Dedication - Community - Pioneering - Creation - Sustainability - Internationalisation" - “Through the Lenses of Time” helps to spread those values, connecting past, present and future through the experiences of the UEHer community across UEH’s 50 years of development.

Look forward to a special milestone:
UEH Grand Anniversary – "Embracing Future Together"
27 October 2026 | Hall A.116 & multi-platform livestream

Find out more: https://ueh50.ueh.edu.vn/ or the UEH 50 Years Booklet at this LINK.

News, photos: UEH Trade Union, Department of Communications and Partnership Development