[Universities, Talking about the Future] Kookmin University President Jung Seung-ryul

In an interview with this newspaper, Kookmin University President Jung Seung-ryul said, “It's not fun to follow the rules made by others,” and “Our goal is to continue to present and change new standards instead of the stereotypes that exist in Korean society.” / Reporter Park Sang-hoon

Until now, university education has taken it for granted that students would continue to study the same major and field of study they chose when they first enrolled. Starting next year, several universities will break this stereotype and introduce a “non-major system” that allows students to freely choose their major while attending school. Among them, Kookmin University will accept the largest number of students with “non-major (autonomous major)” among major universities in the Seoul metropolitan area. Of the 2,966 freshmen, 1,140 are enrolled in the “major-free” program.

In a recent interview with this newspaper, Kookmin University President Jung Seung-ryul (62), who has boldly led the innovation, said, “The purpose is to transcend the academic areas, curriculum, subjects and co-curriculum, and the division between grades that have been constantly pointed out as problems in the previous education system.” President Jung, who took office in September last year, graduated from the Department of Economics at Sogang University and received a master's and doctoral degree in management information from the University of Wisconsin and the University of South Carolina, before joining Kookmin University as a professor of information management in 1997.

The non-major system at Kookmin University is divided into two types. One is Type 1, in which students can freely choose from all departments and majors without any distinction between humanities, natural sciences, and arts and physical education, and Type 2, in which students choose a major from a specific college. Next year, 828 students will be admitted to Type 1 and 312 to Type 2. Both types of students will experience various majors after admission and decide on their major at the end of the first semester of their freshman year. “In order to nurture the convergent talents that society wants in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), the key is to build an educational ecosystem that has no academic or physical boundaries,” said President Chung. ”If you have to decide on a career path when you are in your senior year of high school and then spend your whole life doing that, isn't that too young? You definitely need time to explore two or three career paths and find the one that suits your aptitude.”

If students are accepted without a major distinction, hundreds of people can sign up for a specific course at once. President Chung is building a customized integrated information system called “Smart Mentor” to help students efficiently select courses and change majors. This is a service that analyzes individual student data and provides a systematic roadmap, such as which courses to take by major and which major will help with “career after graduation.”

Jung Seung-ryul, president of Kookmin University, wearing a graduation cap. / Reporter Park Sang-hoon

Jung said, “This will open up infinite possibilities for students, and from the department's perspective, it will be like moving towards an infinite competitive system where each student is treated as a ‘customer’ in order to survive.” He added, “Through this, we plan to naturally induce interdepartmental cooperation and structural reorganization.” The university plans to come up with measures such as expanding the number of seasonal semesters so that students can graduate within four years even if they change their major frequently.