The Liberal Arts Department has been renamed as Dharma College starting from the 2014 academic school year. Until last year, it was literally a department that is considered to be subordinate to the concept of a college. However, as it changed its name to Dharma College, it has the same status as other colleges such as College of Social Science. Dharma means general value or principle that people pursue throughout their lives. In keeping with this idea, intellectuals in universities will find general truth and balanced values through Dharma College. Also, it aims at developing people who think of their abyss and the essence of the world.

Freshmen will have to take 28 credits of liberal arts to graduate, which are four credits more than those who entered last year. The quota of each lecture has been decreased so that students can participate in the lecture more actively. It is intended to boost students’ ability of writing, debating, and speaking.

There is also a change in policies for retaking courses. Students are now restricted from retaking common liberal arts courses during the semester. They can only retake them in vacation sessions. The problem is that students have to pay 90,000 won per credit to take courses during the vacation sessions. Jang Gil-nam, who majors in Political Science and International Relations, stated,  “It is irrational to keep students from retaking common liberal arts courses during the semester. Especially in case of Practice in Seon, which is zero credit during the semester, but one credit in vacation session, which we have to pay for.”

A personnel who works in Dharma College, Kim Young-hun, said, “As the quota of a lecture decreases, the number of lecture naturally increases. We have no choice but to limit the quota to maintain good quality of lectures. Normally, common liberal arts courses are for freshmen. To deter upper graders from taking spots intended for freshmen, we had to introduce this policy.”

As Dharma College is in its starting line, there still are many plans to develop its programs. Dharma College is going to offer workshops or seminars for professors. Also, it is going to operate an overall evaluation meeting every semester which is conducted by Dean of each college.

Kim You-jeong  youjeong719@dongguk.edu

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