SNU Students Select Majors In Junior Year

Seoul National University decided to recruit students with no selected majors in addition to regular students, introducing an American-style “University College” system from as early as 2005.

The system enables students to learn some basic subject until the second grade and then choose majors in their junior year, which will be first introduced to the Humanities, Social Science and Natural Science Departments.

President of SNU Jung Woon-chan said at a press conference celebrating his first year in the position on July 21st, “The current educational system that focuses on major subjects is limited in nurturing world leaders in the future. So, we are planning to introduce “University College” from 2005.”

Under the new system, freshmen will get basic educational training in writing, speaking and discussing without selecting majors for two years, and get to select their majors in the junior year.

In relation to this, an official from the University said, “Just like in the U.S., the system will enable students have more knowledge about basic subjects while furthering their studies in the graduate level. It will widen the freedom to choose whatever majors they want.”

However, some controversies are bound to arise given that there are a lot of professors who do not agree on the existent similar selection process where students from similar departments are selected together.

President Jung said, “The new system will be implemented according to each college and department`s participation will. We are also reviewing the possibility of selecting some of the students in a department as University College students.”

President Jung also expressed his strong will to establish professional graduate schools such as a law school and medical school.

He implied that relevant discussion has already started by saying, “The law circle, professors and alumni are much more positive toward the law school than the past.”

Regarding the regional balanced selection system for 2005, he said, “We have yet to release exact details, but students would be able to get admission only with good high school grades,”

He told at an exclusive interview with this paper on July 18th that any government policies to prevent academic cliques are rather likely to depend on populism.

He said, “It is not good that some of those people from prestigious universities have taken most of the important positions in each area, but it is a universal phenomenon through the world. I do not think it would be possible to eliminate SNU.”

He also said, “The government should consider a way to revive the previous entrance exam for high schools to normalize the nation`s junior high school education.”

He criticized the lack of professionalism and consistency in the government`s education policy direction saying, “It might be difficult to satisfy all the people, but there should be at least any consistency in its direction. It is so worrying to see the government change its words every day.”

An official from the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development welcomed SNU`s decision to introduce the new system saying, “The University College System is further expanded from the current college-based system, which is on the same wavelength as our future policy direction.

Jin-Young Hwang Jin-Yeong Lee jameshuh@donga.com ecolee@donga.com