126 Departments of 108 2-Year Colleges Takes 3-Year Program

The 126 departments of 108 colleges will convert their 2-year programs to 3-year programs from 2002 academic year.

Since each college has a different program with the change of the education system, the college applicants should check out the application guidebook carefully before applying.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MOE) announced the program extension plan on the 126 departments of 108 colleges among the 292 departments of 109 colleges that requested the extension of education year.

The 3-year program will be applied to the following departments; construction, early childhood education, optometry, computation, construction facility, emergence rescue, medical engineering, biotechnology, food and nutrition, information technology, environmental science, general art, etc.

Including the existing 9 departments with a 3-year program such as nursing and physical therapy, the 135 departments out of 1073 departments of 158 colleges will take a three-year program, marking 12.6 percent of the total.

The quota allotted to the 3-year program departments amounts to 52,647, 18.1 percent of total 290,178. And the ministry plans to lessen the quota of the 3-year program departments by 5 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent each year for three years starting 2002 academic year.

Juseong College (8 departmnets), Dongyang Technical College, Kyungmin College, (7 departments), Suwon Science College, Shinheung College, and Chung Cheong College (6 departments) have relatively many 3-year program departments.

Lee Jin-Yeong ecolee@donga.com