Let’s Make a Bluebird Fly High in the Sky of Chonnam National University
As the tide repeatedly flows in and out, lots of students flow into and out of CNU. Freshman will spend four years or more attending the university. On the other hand, senior students are preparing to come to fruition and are looking forward to facing a pleasant graduation. Recently, the job market has been as frozen as a glacier of the polar region, and the situation is getting worse and worse. At this point, we are rethinking the functions of the university. Can you positively respond to the question of whether CNU is a proper place to bring up students? To get the answer to this question, five people were gathered. One of the five was Park Sang-cheol (professor of Dept. of Business Administration). The others were Seo Ji-min (freshman, College of Law), Lee Yun-hee (sophomore, Dept. of Genetic Engineering), Lee Eung-ju (junior, Dept. of Civil Engineering) and Park Seong-mi (senior, Dept. of Economics). –Ed.
Reporter: I would like to pose a question to the freshman. Why did you come to CNU? And how are you enjoying your university life?
Seo Ji-min: There are two reasons why I chose CNU. I took pride in CNU being the best within Jeolla Province and CNU has relatively reasonable tuition fees. Henceforth, I will devote myself to both studying my major and developing human relationships.
Reporter: This question is for the rest of the students. Can you tell me about your university life and future plans, briefly?
Park Seong-mi: As I am in the last year of university, nowadays, I spend most time obtaining information about employment and courses. So far, I think that my life in CNU is not so bad. To my dismay, the barrier to getting a job is higher than I thought. However, I will try to achieve my goal again and again.
Lee Yun-hee: After seriously thinking of my future, I concluded that I would
continue to study my major. In the field of genetic engineering, a graduate course is essential. So I am thinking of studying abroad and getting a job there.
Lee Eung-ju: In my case, I am interested in broadcasting. Thus, I will strive to find my
way toward making the best use of my disposition.
Reporter: Now is the time for Professor Park. What do you think of the current CNU
students? You can talk about the differences by comparing to the past.
Park Sang-cheol: Most professors will agree that current CNU students are better
themselves in terms of life attitudes and studying atmosphere. However, I am very
disappointed with the phenomenon that the purpose for studying hard is changing a little
from a national one to an individual one.
★ Negative images of CNU
Reporter: According to the evaluation from JoongAng Ilbo, the ranking of CNU has been
declining since 1998. In addition to this, the number of students who fail to find their hope
in CNU and retry to enter another university is increasing gradually. (We can infer this
situation from the number of students who stay out of university temporarily.) Why do
you think the situations happen?
Seo Ji-min: A negative perception has an enormous influence on the above results.
When I was a high school student, CNU was considered as a third-class university
among my friends. This is not an exaggeration, but a truth. CNU has to try to change
this negative image into positive one.
Lee Eung-ju: Looking into the details of the evaluation, educational facilities are the
first priority in making a ranking. In the case of the College of Engineering, I can’t attend
any lectures where microphones are used at all. Considering the condition of the
classrooms, it results in distracting the students’ concentration. Besides, the lack of
diversity in the curriculum is a more serious problem. Sometimes, I cannot help choosing
a class that is not concerned with my major.
Park Seong-mi: We have difficulty riding on the waves of massive information. The
universities, located near the national capital region, have tremendous advantages in
acquiring information because of the merits of the location itself, in terms of political
affairs, economics, culture, technology and so on.
Lee Yun-hee: I think, although the social prejudice toward local universities is one of
the critical factors, the irregular administration of CNU deprives students of passion for
studying hard. For example, there are four departments related with genetic engineering
at CNU. A few years ago, the main office planned to integrate them into one. The project
seemed to be almost completed as planned, however, in the end the project was in vain.
That happening made us confused and helpless.
Park Sang-cheol: I don’t know exactly how it started, but it is a problem that students
can be members of CNU, regardless of their will. This results from the centralization
toward the metropolitan area but, to some degree, it is also true that CNU didn’t take
proper actions to cope with this problem.
Social psychology research shows us that, whether a selection is made with one’s subjectivity or not makes three times the difference in view of comparing both effects. In other words, involuntary decision prohibits the students from developing love for CNU. An Chang-ho, well known for his feats in the independence movement, said, “Because I am the host of this country, I don’t have an opinion on the pros and cons of the future of the country, I just hope to develop the country.” We can infer that a lack of host consciousness leads ultimately to defeatism from his remark.
★ Methods to overcome the weakness
Reporter: We have found many problems during the discussion. To overcome these,
what should CNU or the students do?
Park Sang-cheol: CNU should set plans concerning the development strategy of the
university, which means finding which fields we should specialize in to enhance
international competitiveness. There is no longer meaningful competition among the
domestic universities. It’s high time that we extend our horizons to the world. In the
meantime, we have a tendency to use an outbound approach, which sends CNU
students abroad. Henceforth, we will consider going forward with an inbound approach
including world famous universities. Through these methods, we will ultimately foster
global leaders who can cooperate and compete with others in a global context.
Lee Yun-hee: First, I request both CNU and professors to have sincere concern for educating students. We are waiting for more attractive programs and lectures for students. On the side of the students, I hope that CNU students recover their own dream rather than seeking to get a more stable job. Focusing on scarce vocations may lead to damaging the diversity of society.
Park Seong-mi: I think the useful programs, provided by CNU, are too many for the students to utilize all of them. Nevertheless, due to lack of effort to notify about it, as well as those of students’ positive postures, the aids aren’t effective now. The students must have progressive minds. Career counseling with professors can be interpreted in the same context. Primarily students should knock and open the first door of interacting with professors.
Lee Eung-ju: The role of university is to provide educational opportunity to students. The rest is up to students. They should study hard with their unique dreams. In addition to this, I recommend university should prepare a variety of standards to choose students to send abroad on International Interchange programs, such as overseas internship and language training programs. When it comes to selections, potential ability must be a priority. However, it is not desirable to consider GPA (Grade Point Average) as the initial criteria.
Seo Ji-min: The consciousness of students has to be changed so they consider their long-term future, rather than short-term employment. I think CNU is short of students who are full of great ambition and passion. Rather, it makes my heart hurt for them to spend their precious moments with regrets.
Park Sang-cheol: According to the remarks of Jung Il-shin who was an exchange student at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) in the U.S., its students do not live under an attitude of defeatism. Because of this unnecessary attitude, CNU students cannot seem to develop their ability. Now is the time for all the students to throw away this bad thing. Every student is unique and has possibility for development. Therefore, do not hesitate to have confidence that you can do anything and consider what you can do seriously. Next, you should try to achieve your goal ceaselessly with temperance.
And so