Lee Min-Ju Cub-Reporter

This upcoming fall will mark the 30th anniversary of the Special Thursday Lecture in Kookmin University (KMU). The Special Thursday Lecture is KMU’s representative course from the College of General Education, as well as its most popular. As the name suggests, the lectures are held every Thursday, starting from 3:00 p.m. in the Administration Hall.

The course offers one credit on a pass or fail basis, and unless a student is absent for more than three lectures during the semester, they will receive a pass. Each week, the course invites experts from various fields such as humanities, science, social sciences, art and culture as lecturers to provide students with invaluable academic opportunities while fostering an appreciation for culture, knowledge on IT, and entrepreneurial thinking. The lecturers speak about significant subjects in their fields, current trends in their industry, and inspiring life stories, allowing students to enhance their academic knowledge, as well as an understanding of life and values.

The course can be registered for at the beginning of the semester by all KMU students regardless of their major or grade. Over 200 students take the course every semester; therefore, the registration process is said to be fierce and difficult to apply for. Students can also audit lectures depending on their interests by contacting the team or Professor Kim Hee-Sun, who is in charge of the Special Thursday lectures, for those who are still interested but were not able to apply for the lecture. Past lectures are recorded and posted on the KMU website under the Special Thursday Lecture page and are also published as a book collection every other year. Lecturers are selected each semester through various channels, including the Special Thursday Lecture Committee, student nominations, and the university’s public relations team, inviting lecturers from different fields, genders, and generations. 

The origins of the Special Thursday Lectures dates back to 1994 when it was first established to expand the university’s education beyond its major-centered approach. KMU is the first university in the country to introduce special lectures featuring prominent social figures as speakers, later influencing similar special lectures in many universities across the country. Notable lecturers over the last 29 years include the late President Roh Moo-Hyun, author Rhyu Si-Min, film director Park Chan-Wook, Monk Pomnyun, and United Nations (UN) Ban Ki-Moon.  

This semester has seen many intriguing lecturers, including Business Growth Fund (BGF) Retail Managing Director, Seo Ki-Mun, who spoke about the increase in popularity of convenience stores in Korea and the changes it brought; Professor HongSuk-Kyung from Seoul National University (SNU) who spoke about Hallyu, K-Trend, and the impacts it had worldwide; and the Director of Naver Cloud AI Lab, Ha Jung-woo, who spoke about ChatGPT and strategies to navigate the changes brought by the AI technology super-giant. 

The final Special Thursday Lecture of this semester will be held on May.30 by Kim Byung-Yeon, a professor and the director of the Institute for Future Strategy at SNU.  
 

minjulee@kookmin.ac.kr