On September 21st, 2016, Dongguk University was selected as a part of the WE UP (Women in Engineering Undergraduate Leading Program) plan promoted by the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Ministry of Education.
The WE UP plan is a long term program which is expected to contribute to training more skilled female workers in the engineering industry. Dongguk University was selected through a high competition rate of 4.8 to 1, among the 48 universities which signed up to be promoted. The ten selected universities including Hanyang, Sungkyunkwan, and Dongguk University receive an annual half a billion won aid from the Ministry of Education for the next three years.
To such regard, Dongguk University plans to train female engineers who can lead the industry with creative ideas among the 1,000 female students in the College of engineering. Cho Kyungeun, the professor of the Department of Multimedia Engineering and also the director of this promotion stated that the main theme of the WE UP plan in Dongguk University will be the “Maker Project.” “The ‘Maker Project’ is simply an engineering of something new via the sharing of knowledge and ideas with students of different academic fields,” she said. “It will be designed to support female students who could not actively participate in the male-oriented engineering academies before.”
The plan includes three basic courses for freshmen and sophomores, and three major courses for juniors and seniors of the College of engineering. Core liberal courses such as mandatory “Career Path Map Out for Women” and the optional “Culture Sharing Program” are also included. “From the WE UP plan, we expect to lead the trending ‘Maker Industry’ andbloom the specialized capabilities of women that are necessary but lacking in the current engineering field,” commented Professor Cho.