제 21 호 Increasing the Quota for Undeclared Majors: Agree or Disagree?
Kicker: DEBATE
Increasing the Quota for Undeclared Majors: Agree or Disagree?
by Ji-Min Baek, Editor-in-chief
Are you satisfied with your major? I would also like to ask if your major matches your desired job.We usually don't have much time to worry about our majors while we are busy preparing for university entrance exams, and there are quite a few phenomena in which our majors and occupations don't match for various reasons. The Ministry of Education took this phenomenon seriously and prepared measure. The system of university admission is to increase the quota for undeclared majors. From now on, let’s find out what the plan is and conflicting opinions about it.
About Increasing the Quota for Undeclared Majors
The Ministry of Education has decided to provide incentives to universities that select lots of students with undeclared majors when they enter a university, with the aim of giving students freedom in choosing majors. This system is divided into Type 1 and Type 2. In both, entering with an undecided major is the same, but the methods are different. Type 1 allows students to select all majors except medical, education and health departments, and Type 2 selects majors within the departments after recruiting them by departments.
It is not that we did not have this system before. Under the same name as the Department of Free Majors or there was a method of selecting majors after recruiting by departments such as humanities and natural sciences. However, the undeclared major admissions system differs in choosing a major after entering the university. Since the existing system allows the freshmen to select a major they want by competing with grades after completing the first grade, they should get high grades to get the major they want. On the other hand, since this new system does not have such restrictions, they can freely choose their major as they enter the second grade after entering the university without a major.
Conflicting Opinions on Increasing the Quota for Undeclared Majors
There are advantages and disadvantages of this system. First of all, I think the biggest advantage is the guarantee of major selection that students can freely choose a major after entering with undecided majors. In addition, with the rapid development of technology, the competencies required of students are also changing. Therefore, when this system is implemented, it can help educate new skills and foster talent accordingly. However, it is true that there are also concerns about various side effects. When students enter the second grade and choose a major, they will be very likely to choose a popular major that is advantageous for employment. If students flock to such a highly preferred major, there is a fear that basic studies that are relatively unpopular will be eliminated. In addition, there are many problems to be solved, such as expansion of lectures and recruitment of professors, which will occur about the phenomenon of students flocking to popular majors.
There are conflicting opinions in the education world over the system with these advantages and disadvantages. The Ministry of Education believes that students' diverse right to learn is important and that they should expand their major autonomy. In addition, about the concerns, they said that the system should be provided with support for designing career paths after admission, and contrary to the concerns, the need for basic studies will be expanded. On the other hand, the universities criticized that despite the different situations among universities, the Ministry of Education is pushing for policies without reflecting the characteristics of each university.Moreover, if students enter university with undeclared major admissions, there will be a program to help students design their major, so the burden on the university is expected to increase.
This system, which will be a new change according to the changing times, will be a great opportunity to think about students major after entering university. However, there will be confusion if various side effects occur and no countermeasures are prepared. It is expected that some readers may have considered about their major before entering university and had experiences that applied for the Department of Free Majors. Therefore, I would like to ask readers who have already chosen a major and entered the university what they think of this system. Regarding this issue, do you agree or disagree about increasing the quota for undeclared majors?
Sources:
https://www.dailian.co.kr/news/view/1323798/?sc=Naver
