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Students of TongMyung University assemble a boat to be powered by solar energy at the Human and Solar Powered Vessel Festival held in Ulsan, Aug. 9 last year. / Courtesy of TongMyung University |
TongMyung University strives to meet demand of industry
By Bahk Eun-ji
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Sul Dong-kun, president of |
"The foremost part of our curriculum is to provide differentiated vocational education so that the students are capable of performing their jobs well at their workplace after graduation," Sul said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
TMU has firmly established itself as a key provincial higher educational institution, focused on helping students develop job-related know-how and competence.
According to the school's statistics, 67 percent of its seniors landed jobs in the 2013 academic year. The figure was 11 percentage points higher than the national average employment rate for students graduating four-year universities.
"It is important for us to provide students with practical education in cooperation with industries," Sul said.
The president pointed out that each university has a different role, saying that leading universities located in Seoul and other central areas pursue academic achievements while provincial colleges such as TMU are focused more on vocational training.
The problem employers often find with college graduates, according to him, is that businesses have to train them for a certain period in order to make them adjust to their job, which is quite a burden for firms.
"Vocational education in colleges has to keep up with the changing demands of industry. The competitive edge depends on how the school can offer a differentiated curriculum," Sul said.
Setting a goal of becoming one of the leading vocational universities in the country by 2015, TMU began to train its students with unique programs.
"The Motivating Semester is one of our unique programs for freshmen. Every student is obliged to take the semester for three weeks when they first come to the school," he said.
During the semester, students are offered leadership programs, special lectures from various businesspeople, and field training at different workplaces they are interested in, the president explained.
Students have given positive reviews of the program, as it gives them tremendous help in finding what they want to do after graduation and what they have to do to achieve that goal, Sul added.
"The Double Mentoring Program is also a well-received one by students. Imagine you have just graduated from high school and are beginning college life. Although you choose your major, you would barely know what you want to do and what you have to do for paving your career path. Double mentoring is the perfect program for giving the right guidance to those students," he said.
Professors and business-related people mentor the students and give them practical advice about career development.
"Through the program, students learn practical knowledge, which they can apply to their workplace right away. It's satisfying for both students and employers in that sense."
Currently, branch managers from the Industrial Bank of Korea are participating in the program to help students, Sul said.
The curriculum of TMU is also very unique. Of the 15 weeks in a semester, only 10 weeks of classes are run by professors and the remaining five weeks are conducted by experts or specialists from the business and industrial sector.
"We are aiming at nurturing students who don't need on-the-job training in order to properly adjust to the work environment. Employers won't have to train them twice, as they are already professional when they gain employment," he said.
The Ministry of Education recently pledged to scale down student quotas at universities nationwide in line with the falling number of students.
The number of applicants to universities will continue to fall over the next decade. It is expected to fall from the current 650,000 to 410,000 in 2023. So the restructuring of colleges and universities will be inevitable as many schools are expected to close due to low enrollment.
The ministry recently said it will evaluate universities across the country according to a five-tier ranking system and forcibly cut student quotas at those in the lower rankings from 2015.
Sul, is concurrently chairman of the advisory committee of education policy at the ministry, thinks that it is high time the education system were upgraded and reformed to be in line with the government's university restructuring plan.
"Professors, employees, and students of TMU have already reached a consensus for the change. The only way we can stay competitive in this situation is to make a differentiated curriculum and create our own brand value," he said.
The president pointed out that targeting a niche market is one of their strategies for winning the competition.
"Marine engineering and offshore plant design departments are the examples. All of the students graduating from the departments have become employed and they are our representative majors," he said.
He promised to make further efforts to enhance the competitiveness of those departments so that his university can develop more cooperative ties with industries.
"And eventually those departments will lead other departments to a higher level, I believe," Sul said.
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