At the 2026 Enrollment and Career Counseling Festival jointly organized by Tuoi Tre Newspaper and the Ministry of Education and Training on March 8, a candidate asked: "In the current trend of press mergers, will the demand for jobs in the journalism industry decrease?"

Associate Prof, PhD Nguyen Thi Truong Giang, Deputy Director of the Academy of Journalism and Communication, said it is not only the journalism and communication industry that finds it difficult to get a job, but it is a general issue of the labor market.

“In recent years, especially over the past two years, the merger and streamlining of the apparatus at press and media agencies nationwide has been strongly implemented under major policies of the Party and the state. Not only journalism but many other sectors, agencies and organizations are also undergoing mergers,” Giang said.

She added that in the journalism and communications field, these mergers have changed the number of press agencies. Many newspapers and broadcasting stations, including radio and television, have been merged, affecting the jobs of thousands of journalists.

However, Giang said that in the context of the fourth industrial revolution, especially with the development of AI and social media, the demand for accurate, official and “clean” information across media platforms, particularly digital platforms, remains very high.

“Every day when we wake up, thousands of pieces of information flow to our phones and computers. But selecting useful, appropriate and valuable information among them requires the role of professional journalists. Therefore, mergers may lead to changes in the number of press agencies but they do not necessarily reduce job opportunities. In fact, development space can expand beyond traditional journalism to new platforms such as digital journalism, multimedia journalism and data journalism,” she said.

She believes that students who are passionate about becoming journalists who deliver information quickly, accurately and with humanity can still confidently choose this field of study.

Dang Hong Son, vice rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under Vietnam National University Hanoi, said the journalism and communication field is diverse, from political-news journalism to corporate communication. Besides, personal communication is also developing strongly and playing an increasingly large role.

“Therefore, changes in state management of media and journalism do not narrow but actually expand the labor market, especially in the private sector and among individuals who build and develop their own brands,” the representative said.

At the event, another student raised a concern: “Currently the local government model is shifting from three-level to two-level, and many state agencies have redundant staff. So which major should we choose?”

This candidate also expressed the desire to study at the National Economics University (NEU).

PhD Le Anh Duc, Head of the Training Management Department at NEU, said that in the new era, young people should not worry too much about whether they will work in the state sector or other sectors. First of all, they need to strive to study to become valuable people, becoming human resources that many organizations and enterprises need.

“Therefore, if studying at NEU, in my opinion, no matter which major you follow, you need two basic skills. First is being proficient in English, because in an international labor environment, no matter where you work, you need to be able to use this language. Second, in addition to the professional knowledge of the major you follow, you need digital competency. The higher the digital competency, the easier it is to adapt to many job environments after graduation. In the era of the digital economy and digital society, digital competency will certainly be one of the important criteria in recruitment,” Duc said.

On March 6, NEU announced enrollment information for the 2026 regular undergraduate program. The school will recruit 9,000 students, an increase of 500 compared to last year.

The school is expected to open 15 new majors/training programs, including: Financial Technology (taught in Vietnamese), Digital Economics, Applied Mathematics, Marketing Technology, Environmental Technology and Sustainable Development, Logistics and Supply Chain Management Technology, Internal Audit, International Economics, International Development, Quantitative Risk Management, Valuation, Statistics and Business Intelligence, Creative Industry Management, International Human Resource Management, and Health Economics (all taught in English).

Regarding the enrollment method, the school maintains three admission methods, including: Direct admission (3 percent), admission based on High School Graduation Exam scores, and combined admission method (97 percent).

Thanh Hung