Conferment of Domestic and Foreign Colleges’ Joint Diplomas

Domestic and foreign colleges will be able to confer joint degrees to their students beginning this year.

Two-year local colleges will also be able to carry out joint curriculums with foreign universities.

On February 10, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources announced that it will revise its “Regulations on Co-operation of Domestic and Foreign College Curriculums” and implement the new measures beginning the first semester of this year.

So far, local and foreign colleges have granted a dual-diploma for an individual who completes a joint degree program or who registers in a credit exchange program.

However, domestic and foreign colleges will now be able to give one joint degree certificate, which presents the names of the two schools, one by one, according to the revised bill.

In the past, foreign professors had to make up more than 50 percent of the class, and the class needed to be instructed in a local language. Now, however, educational authorities have eased these limits regarding the ratio of foreign professors’ participation and the language spoken in the class.

In addition, domestic colleges can establish relevant major departments through an agreement with foreign schools when the local schools do not have the same majors as the foreign universities, and colleges can decide joint operating areas independently, which have up to this point been limited to the areas of fundamental sciences and hi-tech industry.

Hyo-Lim Son aryssong@donga.com