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SNU postpones cross-major application scheme

Posted December. 28, 2013 05:59,   

한국어

Seoul National University has decided to postpone the introduction of a system allowing majors of humanities in high schools to apply for its medical, dentistry and veterinary medicine colleges, which it pushed to introduce beginning in the 2015 school year, the year when the current 11th graders will enter college. The move comes amid a flurry of complaints from ordinary high schools and science high schools over the planned introduction of the measure, and in the wake of an official request to reconsider the policy made on December 17 by the Korean Council for University Education.

“The measure was considered with the aim of nurturing human resources with convergence knowledge, but we took into consideration that a drastic change in the admissions system could cause confusion to schools and test-takers,” Seoul National University’s admissions office said on Friday. “We will decide whether and when to introduce the measure by taking into account educational conditions and social environment.”’

Seoul National University already allows students of humanities and natural science majors at high schools to apply for different educational areas of colleges except medical, dentistry and veterinary medicine colleges. The university said, “There was unexpected opposition to the measure due to symbolic significance of the medical college, but over the long-term it is desirable to allow cross-major application,” indicating its intention to push for the measure.

After SNU announced the plan to expand cross-major application for its different colleges on November 14, the education community analyzed that “The measure would be disadvantageous to students of ordinary high schools, while it could be advantageous to those of foreign language high schools who are the best students in academic performance in the humanities field.” In fact, after SNU announced the plan, the average competitive ratio of admission to foreign language high schools in the Seoul region jumped from 1.5 to 1 last year to 2.1 to 1 this year. It means that top-performing students seeking humanities major at high schools who wish to enter SNU’s medical, dentistry and veterinary medicine colleges sought to enter foreign language high schools en masse.