Universities brace for overcrowding on popular programs as undecided major quotas rise

K-campus

Universities brace for overcrowding on popular programs as undecided major quotas rise

Published: 30 Jul. 2024, 17:51

LEE TAE-HEE
lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr

Attendees attend a presentation about 2025 university admissions, detailing which admission tracks will become more competitive following the increase of undecided major programs, held by Jongro Academy on July 21. [NEWS1]

Universities have already increased admissions quotas for undecided major programs and are devising methods to prevent students from flocking to popular majors or causing the quality of education to falter due to overly crowded classes.

The Ministry of Education announced in January that it will provide funding to universities that innovate, with the number of undecided major students being one of the major factors.

Following the announcement, Korean universities allocated a total quota of 37,270 to undecided major programs for the 2025 academic year, up 277 percent compared to the previous year's quota of 9,894. The total figure includes programs that allow students to freely choose majors, with the exception of medicine, nursing and education, and programs that allow students to choose majors within the college they apply to.

With universities already deciding to admit more undecided students, schools are trying to find ways to prevent students from choosing to pursue the same majors.

Hanyang University's Erica Campus will open the Lions College in the spring 2025 semester, which will be the university's department offering undecided major programs. The department will have an admissions quota of 448.

The university hopes allowing freshmen to do a deep dive into different academic fields will encourage students to find majors they are interested in, rather than following popular choices or lucrative majors.

"One professor from each of our majors will also work as an academic adviser at the Lions College," said Hwang Seung-jun, dean of the Lions College. "The professors will give assignments related to their major and students will participate in project-based classes in which they have to solve those assignments."

Gachon University will open introductory courses, previously only offered during the spring semester, in the fall too starting next year, aiming to have students explore various fields as much as possible.

The university will admit 321 students as undecided majors under the Gachon Liberal Arts College for 2025, up 529 percent from 51 the previous year.

Its College of AI Humanities, College of Law and College of Semiconductor are other undecided major programs, allowing students to select a major within the college in their sophomore year.

For those colleges, the university will be expanding the scope of courses.

The university renamed its College of Humanities to the College of AI Humanities in 2024, aiming not only to focus on humanities education but also to teach AI to students. According to the university, one-third of the courses in the college are focused on fusing AI and humanities, such as using AI to create language-learning content.

"We've been assigning well-received professors to freshmen introductory courses of our undecided major programs and have been creating courses that use generative AI such as ChatGPT," said Jeong Handero, vice dean of the university's Office of Academic Affairs. "Universities and majors can't attract students if their courses don't have a competitive edge."

Even if students do all choose popular majors, universities are preparing the necessary academic infrastructure.

"Freshmen or sophomore courses that are expected to have a lot of students signing up will be taught as large lecture classes, with some also offering online course options," said Kwon Kyung-mi, head of Sookmyung University's Office of Strategic Planning. "We've already hired more professors for majors that are expected to have a lot of students, such as economics, IT or software engineering."

Another concern is that students drop out of school to apply to other universities or degree programs.

With students not being assigned to a certain major, this also means they will not have a sense of belonging in their freshman year due to a lack of direct connections to upperclassmen of the same major.

Dongguk University aims to solve the issue by having students who are part of the 108 Leaders student club become mentors for undecided major freshmen.

The 108 Leaders program recruits students in their junior year, allowing them to participate in activities that help develop leadership skills. Starting at the end of this year, the group will focus on helping undecided students.

"We will be recruiting new participants earlier than we usually do in November, planning various support programs for our undecided major students," said Kim Eun-jin, a student who is part of 108 Leaders. "Starting with planning a freshman orientation for those students, we will participate in various volunteer activities and much more throughout the program."

The new career and academic counseling center created at Chungbuk National University [CHUNGBUK NATIONAL UNIVERSITY]

Chungbuk National University used to have multiple career and academic counseling offices split across various majors, but they have combined into one organization for students to access together.

"Our career and academic counseling services will be integrated into the new Student Success Support Center and a new location for the center will be created at the university library's first and second floors, which many students visit," said Lee Jung-mi, head of the university's Financial Business Planning Team. "Our existing faculty and academic advisers for undecided major students will be at the center."

Despite various efforts to effectively operate undecided major programs, there are many concerns.

A joint association of university professors held a press conference at the National Assembly on Monday, urging the government to stop pressuring universities to suddenly increase the number of undecided major students.

The joint group was created in February last year, consisting of seven associations such as the Korean Professors' Union, Korea Federation of National University Professor Associations and Union of Korean National University Professors.

"The Ministry of Education has been offering various types of funding to private universities to encourage schools to admit students to interdisciplinary education programs and undecided major programs, and it also started to pressure national universities to increase undecided programs using funding as bait," the joint association said in a statement.

"Considering students have a strong tendency to choose popular majors that have good career prospects, increasing undecided majors without careful consideration will lead to the collapse of the academic system and hinder the balanced development of academic disciplines."

BY CHOI MIN-JI, SEO JI-WON, LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]