At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Education announced a draft of the University Innovative Support plan for 2025 and 2026, and universities have also released a plan that they will expand the number of students who haven’t decided their major yet. Students will be admitted without a major and can decide on their major while attending college.

From the point of view of high school students, the government policy can ease the burden they have of choosing a major before entering the college. In Korea, high schools do not teach detailed information about diverse college majors. Thus, they can finally find their area of interest after entering college and taking various lectures. In my experience, it took a lot of time to realize my aptitude and I switched my major twice while attending school. So, this scheme could help students save time in deciding on their ultimate major.

But we should also consider the shortcomings. There might be an imbalance in the chosen majors. Students will only focus on popular majors because it is closely related to getting a job. If there is a gap in the number of students between unpopular and popular departments and this imbalance situation continues, the unpopular field will disappear. Besides, if basic prerequisite knowledge is not prepared, there will definitely be a difference compared to the students who studied that major from the beginning. Students usually take lectures on the basic knowledge of the major in the first and second semesters.

Education and society have closely intertwined and influenced each other. So, the government and universities must make a careful choice when it comes to this controversial issue.

By Kim Ga-ram, Junior, Dept. of Physics