Faculty of Business English

Abstract

In a university’s organizational structure, the faculty is not simply a group of separate students who pursue the same major. Its role should be expanded beyond merely teaching, that is, to create an united group of student as well as provide them the chance to support each other. This paper studies the lack of such a connection among Faculty of Business English (FBE) students. Through realistic observations from inside the Faculty, the necessity of an internal student connection within FBE is affirmed. I also conduct a survey to show how limitedly the students of FBE are connected with peers in their same faculty. Finally, I propose some suggestions, which are based on both the results of other research papers / actual programs and the approval of FBE students themselves, to improve the faculty’s student connection. The benefit of each measurement will be presented simultaneously.

Literature Review

The issue of connection within a faculty seems to be ignored in Vietnam’s academic culture. People are more concerned in the connection between schools and enterprises or students’ interaction via student clubs. Therefore, it is understandable that there is no domestic research related to this issue.

Foreign colleges, on the other hand, pay more attention to this. We can find several research papers, instructions and many actual programs pursuing the similar goal: to bring students closer to their faculty.

- In terms of paper literature: Adam Duberstein in his article “Building Student-Faculty Relationships” lists some benefits of building this relationship and provides suggestions to do this. Komarraju et al. (2010) points out the role of this interaction in developing self-concept, motivation and achievement. Laura Saret proposes in “Retaining Students” various methods as a teacher to help student as much as possible.

- In terms of actual programs reported by universities: The University of Delaware, US, operates a comprehensive Faculty Connection Program to offer opportunities for students and faculty to connect outside of the classroom. Wake Forest University, US, promotes similar faculty-student engagement with several programs. UC Santa Cruz’s Porter College, US, gives students an instruction on how to meet and discuss with faculty members. The University of Dundee, UK, also offers a mentoring service called Peer Connections, in which the Connectors serve as the advisors to other students.

        Nevertheless, most of them are not a proper academic research. They, moreover, just stop at the point of faculty-student relationship. Few have reached the extent of student-student interaction. Dr. Ginger Holden in “The Power of Connecting” mentions only a little about this: “When students feel connected with their instructors and classmates, they develop a ‘positive academic identity.’ ”

        From the perspective of Vietnamese higher education, we can notice that the issue of student-student connection between generations (e.g. K50 and K51 in FTU) is left untouched by any paper. Of course, there is also no relevant literature that narrow its scope to Foreign Trade University (FTU).

        With such a review, my research paper will serves as a proper one discussing this issue further. To make it more useful for FBE students, the scope of the paper will focus on the Faculty only. The results and suggestions will also be adjusted to fit the current educational situation of Vietnam. Due to lack of time and necessary data, the relationship between teachers and students will not be included in this research.

        Introduction

        FBE has been merely a group of teachers who provide the teaching service to students so far, without much effort to build the student group as a whole. Classes from different years work and study separately with little communication between each other. Precious experience from older generation are kept secret and brought away when the students graduate, leaving the new one completely “fresh” when they first encountering the problems in the university. The faculty common events are poorly participated and mainly attract first and second years students, not to mention the “internal” events between teachers, in which the students are not even informed at all. In contrast, when attending the university, freshmen are advertised that the Faculty’s students and teachers and closely connected. Even without the advertisement, the faculty should not limit its potential capability of connecting students.

It is necessary to develop a strong union of student within a faculty. Watching and learning is the natural instinct as well as the unlimited demand of human. The faculty has the responsibility to provide such a chance for its students in order to increase the quality of higher education. The quality of higher education that can be improved by student connection includes the effectiveness of studying, of teaching, the expansion of social circle, and the enhancement of soft skills,…

        The people belong to the same faculty has the key advantage of sharing the same syllabus, similar knowledge and similar goal. Therefore, they have an edge on students outside the Faculty in coolaborating and supporting each other. For example, a FBEer’s concern may not be his own concern but also the whole class’. Moreover, the older FBEers who have the same experience, since they have studied the same subjects, might have the answer to that concern. Another advantage is that the population of a faculty is not as many as a school’s, thus it is easier to manage and unite the students.

What does “connect” mean in the extent of students of a faculty? To achieve a proper “student connection” in a college’s faculty, the students must:

        - Know at least 50% of the faculty’s students, especially students from other classes from different years. Direct conversation is not required.

        - Feel free and be able to contact and exchange information with students from other classes at any appropriate time.

        - Take part in Faculty’s collective events, with a participation rate of at least 80% of all Faculty’s students. If the event requires a core organizational team, that team should consist of all four classes’s students of each year, making up at least 10% of the students.

As stated earlier, this research focuses on FBE students only. Therefore, the term “students” will be used to indicate FBE students. “Class” refers to FTU’s class of different academic years (K52, K53,…) in FBE.

        Methodology

        The main data were collected through a survey questionnaire which consisted of 6 questions relating to how well the students are connected in FBE, the reasons for the lack of connection and the suggestions for improving connection. From over 300 students in FBE, 70 were surveyed. Of these, 61% were third-year students, 33% were first and second-year and 6% were fourth-year or earlier. The survey was anonymous and was carried out in December, 2014.