[Lee Byung-jong] ‘Out of the Field’ Universities

As the brand new fall semester begins, I face my new college students with each pleasure and dread.

Pleasure as a result of I can discover vibrant youth vitality and unquenchable educational zeal from their glowing faces. Dread as a result of the world exterior our campus is darkish and grim, stuffed with uncertainties.

As soon as they graduate, college students must grapple with not solely the world’s woes, comparable to wars and local weather disaster, but in addition their private perils, notably job shortage. With these blended emotions, I occurred to have attended a college innovation discussion board in Seoul named “Out of the Field” early this week. As I chaired the discussion board, I felt each hope and despair for the longer term from the outliers of at this time’s international training.

The audio system little doubt began with a depressing prognosis of at this time’s training surroundings, significantly insurmountable challenges universities face. As know-how develops on the pace of sunshine, altering all the things round us, universities are criticized for not altering quick sufficient.

Each in and outdoors Korea, faculty levels are more and more seen as pointless as universities fail to arrange college students for this fast-changing world. The arrival of synthetic intelligence and different new applied sciences makes college studying all of the extra out of date. A important concern of the educators on the discussion board gave the impression to be whether or not AI will finally take over their jobs.

The scenario is especially dire in Korea. As its start fee hit the bottom degree on this planet, inflicting an alarming inhabitants decline, scholar enrollment charges are falling at many Korean universities. Particularly, regional universities and faculties have difficulties in recruiting new college students and filling lecture rooms. Most Korean universities endure a monetary pinch as their scholar tuition charges have been frozen for 16 years underneath authorities stress. Science and engineering universities try to draw vivid college students however lots of them desire to go to medical colleges.

But I may sense some hope from the dialogue of the discussion board. Leaders from 4 modern universities at dwelling and overseas have been current to share their experiences of tackling and overcoming the formidable challenges at this time’s universities face. They have been Minerva College from the US, Oxford College from the UK, and Taejae College and Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Expertise from Korea. Gathered on the event of DGIST’s twentieth anniversary, their leaders shed some mild on how at this time’s universities can survive and even thrive on this robust surroundings through “Out of the Field” training improvements.

From Oxford College, Vice Chancellor Chas Bountra impressed the viewers by introducing the college’s mega-hit analysis mission to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. From the onset of the pandemic, Oxford teamed up with AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharmaceutical big, and co-developed the vaccine in simply 9 months.

Having supplied almost 3 billion doses of the vaccine, the university-industry partnership saved a numerous variety of lives around the globe. It was “the most important information switch in vaccine growth historical past,” in response to Bountra.

That epoch-making success, nonetheless, didn’t come by chance, he added. For many years, Oxford has labored to companion with international companies to translate its analysis achievements into real-life purposes. The 928-year-old college, the oldest within the English-speaking world, has been collaborating with quite a few international companions to resolve international issues, such because the pandemic, local weather change and psychological well being. At instances, Oxford researchers and students themselves grew to become daring entrepreneurs, experimenting new concepts and dangerous initiatives.

As a younger, however fast-rising new college within the US, Minerva additionally shared its success story. Arrange by Silicon Valley billionaires solely 12 years in the past, Minerva has ascended at a break-neck pace to turn out to be the “Most Progressive College within the World” for 3 consecutive years by the World’s College Rankings for Innovation, a UN companion group. Due to that popularity, Minerva is now probably the most tough college to enter within the US. At Minerva, solely three out of 100 candidates are accepted, extra aggressive than Harvard or some other Ivy League colleges.

What made Minerva so profitable? Mike Magee, its president, says Minerva’s distinctive admission and educating strategies are largely accountable. In choosing new college students, for instance, Minerva doesn’t take a look at candidates’ standardized check outcomes, comparable to SATs. Slightly, it conducts an in depth and systematic analysis on their future potential, not previous data. It’s also recognized for World Rotation Program the place college students spend three years in main international cities for residential studying packages. Missing precise bodily campus, “the town is our campus,” he stated. Due to its international strategy, Minerva has college students from greater than 100 international locations.

To a lesser diploma, the 2 Korean universities additionally innovate their training. Taejae was established solely a yr in the past as Korea’s first digital college, nevertheless it already makes headlines by experimenting artistic packages. Most notably, it actively makes use of AI to boost class efficacy. For instance, AI screens and limits teacher remarks to incite extra scholar participation.

As a science and engineering college, DGIST strives to boost liberal arts and different topics for a extra interdisciplinary strategy. Slightly than sure by slim majors, college students freely decide their “tracks” that may mix a number of departments. DGIST President Lee Kun-woo believes the way forward for universities will depend upon how they combine completely different disciplines to deal with the big complexity of at this time’s society.

These “Out of the Field” training improvements are after all stuffed with quite a few risks and dangers. As they enter fully unknown territories with daring experiments, many packages are sure to fail or not appropriate underneath completely different environments. However, these audacious experiments appear inevitable in at this time’s more and more hostile training surroundings. With out them, there won’t be that many universities left sooner or later.

Lee Byung-jong

Lee Byung-jong is a former Seoul correspondent for Newsweek, The Related Press and Bloomberg Information. He’s a professor within the Faculty of World Service at Sookmyung Ladies’s College in Seoul. The views expressed listed here are the author’s personal. — Ed.