Closure of Myongji University's Go department will proceed, Seoul High Court says

K-campus

Published: 09 Jul. 2024, 14:48 Updated: 09 Jul. 2024, 17:26

Closure of Myongji University's Go department will proceed, Seoul High Court says

Students enrolled in Myongji University's Department of Baduk Studies practice playing Go on the university's campus in Yongin, Gyeonggi. [JOONGANG ILBO]

An injunction requesting that the Korean Council for University Education (KCEU) halt plans to shut down Myongji University's Go department, Korea's only program of the kind, was rejected, the Seoul High Court said Tuesday.

The injunction, filed by 69 students and faculty at Myongji University's Department of Baduk Studies and high school students who wish to apply for the program, requested that the KCEU withdraw approval for the university's new admissions plans. Under the proposal, the university would stop admitting students to its Go department starting with the 2025 academic year.

The revised plans did not include methods to protect current students of the Go department's right to study, according to the injunction.

Myongji University has been discussing shutting down its Department of Baduk Studies since 2022 due to declining interest in Go and the university's financial struggles. It revised its regulations in April to state that it would stop admitting new students starting with the 2025 academic year. The KCEU approved the decision.

The court stated that Myongji University needed to change its academic structure due to financial difficulties and that it should not take on the responsibility of keeping the department open just for the significance of maintaining Korea's only Go program.

“Students who wanted to enroll in the Department of Baduk Studies are put in a difficult situation due to the department shutting down,” the court ruling reads. “But if the injunction is accepted, the university will have to cut the admissions quota for other majors, thus also affecting other students.”

Myongji University's Department of Baduk Studies was founded in 1997. The department has an annual admissions quota of 20 and currently has around 100 students including international students enrolled outside the quota.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]