This semester, problems regarding signing up for courses occurred in Dongguk University. On the second day of registration, the connection of its system was cut off for a few minutes. Moreover, the Department of Statistics suddenly notified that one course of that major reduced its capacity into half so the other half who had enrolled in the course later could not take the course. It caused dissatisfaction among Donggukians since the order of access form is quite a significant part in the course registration system, which is based on the order of completion.
The number of students who can take a course is less than the total number of students who wants to take it. The students cannot help competing for the courses against the clock. In addition, once a student misses a certain class, the opening gets smaller as the students move to higher grade. This kind of system prevents university students from taking lectures they prefer and forces them to apply for the courses which are not related to their interests. Some students also complained that they have to pay tuition fees even if they cannot take the courses they are most interested in.
Although some people think that there is no system as fair as first-come-first-served basis, I think, in such condition, it cannot be the best policy to deal with the course registration system because it results in so many complaints from students. Also, it cannot be regarded as a fair system because it favors those students who have access to the fastest Internet connections and better clicking skills. We have to ask how the majority of university students can be satisfied with their timetables of each semester.
In my opinion, first of all, course enrollment should be more based on students’ educational needs such as which courses should be set up more and what time would be better for the courses. On a sturdy base like this, the school may reduce the burden on students during the nerve-racking registration period. Additionally, the web server for the course registration should be managed more carefully to help prevent the problems which occur almost every semester. By changing the environment so that registration does not get decided by chance, students’ efforts to get their own ideal timetables would not be in vain.
Even if it is one of the chronic problems and is also difficult to resolve completely, there is no reason to abandon efforts to improve the system. The school should endeavor to guarantee students’ rights of taking preferable courses.