Gov't to offer funding to universities that admit more undecided students

Students study at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies' library in Dongdaemun District, eastern Seoul. [YONHAP]

The government plans to offer funding to universities that admit more first-year students as undecided majors, while some fear the push would make students neglect the not-so-lucrative majors.

According to a draft of the University Innovation Support Project plan for 2025 and 2026, 354 billion won ($272 million) out of the project's annual budget of 885.2 billion won will be used to fund universities that increase the number of students they accept as undecided majors. A total of 51 universities based in greater Seoul qualify for the funding.

The Ministry of Education has been running the University Innovation Support Project since 2018, offering funding to universities that attempt to innovate and enhance the quality of education.

To be eligible for the funding, universities can choose between two options.

The first option gives students more freedom in choosing their major, as undecided students can declare their major later in college in any field except for the majors in medical or teaching schools.

To get the funding, Universities must submit plans to admit five percent of their incoming class as undecided majors in 2025. The figure needs to be brought up to 10 percent in 2026.

The second option, on the other hand, allows students to choose a major only in their designated academic discipline. For example, undecided humanities students can only choose a humanities major.

Universities that choose to adopt the second scheme will need to admit 20 percent of their students as undecided majors in 2025 and 25 percent in 2026 to receive the funding.

The drafted plans will be finalized by February.

The change was hinted at in a press conference held in October last year, with Education Minister Lee Ju-ho saying universities should allow "around 30 percent of the students to choose majors they want freely."

Amid the possible change, some are concerned that students will only go for popular majors that are employable.

"For universities that don't have that many students, there could be some departments that end up with no students if everyone chooses the popular majors," a professor teaching at a private university in Seoul said. "It will also be a problem if there are too many students in one major, making it difficult for the professors to adequately offer assistance to students."

Some universities have a college of liberal studies or interdisciplinary studies that allows students to choose majors freely, but they are typically small in size, accounting for only around one percent of the university's student population.

In addition, some of such schools place restrictions on what majors their students can choose.

Korea University's school of interdisciplinary studies admits students as undecided majors but sets quotas for each major, meaning not everyone can study the major of their choice.

For instance, 320 students from its school of interdisciplinary studies can choose to major in business this year. There are 115 slots for computer science and 100 for English language and literature. If there are more applicants than the quota, students are selected based on their G.P.A.

International students are exempt from such restrictions.

"It's clear what the popular majors are," a professor from a private university in Gyeonggi said. "If too many students graduate with the same major, there's going to be issues [regarding] whether we as a society can foster talented students needed in various fields."

"If there are a lot of students from major Seoul universities that graduate with those popular degrees, getting a job is going to be more difficult for students graduating from universities that are considered to be less reputable."

Despite concerns, the government hopes innovation can solve such problems.

"Even the renowned universities prioritize students' freedom to choose majors, with professors who weren't chosen by the students working hard and focusing on research to be chosen again," a spokesperson from the Education Ministry said. "It is time for our universities to attempt to innovate like that."

Some say this could lead universities to discontinue less popular majors.

"Physics was very popular around 10 years ago, with articles back then saying we should stop admitting so many students to the physics department," another professor from a Gyeonggi university said. "But now it's considered to be one of the less popular majors."

"Just because a major is popular now doesn't mean it's going to be popular forever, and just deciding not to offer majors because they aren't as employable would be a way of ruining university education."

The Education Ministry plans to discuss the matter with universities and finalize the plan.

"We plan to thoroughly listen to voices of university and education officials regarding the current concerns, announcing the finalized plans later on," the Education Ministry spokesperson said.

BY LEE HOO-YEON, CHOI MIN-JI, CHANG YOON-SEO, LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]