What is IBIS ?
The International Business Innovation Studies (IBIS) programme is Inholland's new challenging, fully international (English-taught) 4-year full-time bachelor programme. It is aimed at providing the business world and society with agents of innovation who can help the business they work for to survive and thrive in this age of rapid change. These are professionals who look at the (business) world from a fresh perspective, who can see beyond the conventional 'business as usual', who spot or create opportunities, who understand customer needs, who come up with new ideas (for products, services, business models, ways of doing things within the business) and who are capable of implementing these in the existing business context.
Why did I choose IBIS ?
When I was still in high school in Vietnam, I was thinking a lot about what I want to be and to do in the future. I thought about doing business but isn’t it really boring to study specifically and only business administration ? So I looked up in the internet, I found the IBIS course, I read all the information about the programme and my mind was blown. The course has almost everything, the diversity of the subjects really changed the way I thought about studying abroad. It gives me the change to develop and sharpen my skills such as defining trends and developments, problems, issues, opportunities, necessary changes; designing value-adding solutions that meet the end users' needs. Also, I can learn how to combine and apply them to new developments on an international scale in order to set high visions, execute innovations profitably and manage innovation. I think I have found a place that suits me well.
What have I learnt so far ?
First, I got to know about creating a website, about HTML and CSS ( to be honest it was the first time I have ever heard about a thing which called HyperText Markup Language ), about everything is contained in " Webville ”. A big thanks to the lessons, I finally know that there are more than the words, the images, the videos we read, we see and we watch; the websites we spend hours a day to surf. It is more seriously complicated than that. I have gone through some stuffs like the elements, the layouts, navigation, hover, etc and in the end, I came to the point that what I had known about the computer world was nothing compared to those really exist.
The most important thing I have learnt during the past 2 months was the activeness in class. I am an Asian student in general and a Vietnamese student in particular. I did not go to the international private schools in Vietnam ( for your further information : be accepted to Vietnam public schools is kind of a pride because we normally have to get the high scores in national entrance examinations to get in ). The way Vietnamese education works is completely different than the western. The common learning techniques like presentations, mind map, brainstorm, note-take is not widespread in public schools. The teachers mainly focus on theories, they make you to learn most of things by heart to gain the knowledge ( not a effective way I believe ) and there is almost no interaction or activeness during class. What western people think of asian people like me is somehow true, I am not an active person, sometimes I feel insecure and embarrassed to speak my mind or make a presentation in front of everyone. I think that is my biggest weakness that block my way to my main goal. However, I had a chance to face that fear in most of classes, I learnt to be more participate in class, to ask more questions, to be more confident during a presentation. I am not saying that I have magically turned into another person who is more active or confident. I am still shy sometimes but I think I made some small steps and I believe in the future, maybe after 4 years of IBIS, I will make it to the goal of becoming a true innovator who is capable of coming up with new ideas for products, services or business model, who can confidently accept the challenges.