Students had to confront two major changes for course registration for the fall semester. One change is that the students can add extra three credits to their maximum credits. The other is that students could choose between online and offline classes depending on the class size. Such flexibility in registration may have caused higher demand for registration especially mandatory liberal arts courses such as Reading Classics and Writing, Share Leadership, and College English.
The frustration regarding course registration is severe for students who enrolled before 2020.
Students face trouble signing up for courses
An open KakaoTalk chat room was made for those who could not enroll in Share Leadership this semester. As of Aug. 23, there are 369 students in the chat room demanding for more classes.
“I joined this room because the school told us we would have to gather at least 135 students to open another class,” said Kim Hyun-ju, a sophomore majoring in English Language and Literature. “I am extremely annoyed by the lack of classes for students who are designated to take this semester. I don’t understand why the school is incapable of making more room for us.”
However, Professor Yang Min-suk, who is teaching one of three Share Leadership classes this semester expressed a different opinion for the eight classes not offered this semester.
“Starting from 2020, some liberal arts courses are no longer mandatory including Share Leadership,” Yang said. “As 40 percent of this class was allotted to freshmen but they are no longer required to take the course, it was natural that we open less. We had already opened one class this summer semester heeding to student demand.”
The Office of Academic Affairs and HOKMA College of General Education decide how many classes to open by tallying the number of students designated to take the course (the school provides guidelines for when students should take certain mandatory courses semesters), those who did not take the course, and those who might retake the course.
“I presume that due to the extra three credits given; students are enrolling in more liberal arts courses. Also, more students want to retake the course,” Yang said.
In response to student requests, professors are considering opening an additional course.
Global Language Education Office (GLEO) also decided to open a few liberal art courses.
“The demand for liberal art courses have increased by 15 percent,” GLEO said. “Changes have been made as we supplemented four classes without course divisions and expanded the number of students in each class.
After the registration, many students still requested for other courses, prompting GLEO to conduct a survey on the demand for additional openings from Aug. 18 to 21. The staff are surveying for Spanish II, Research Writing, College English, and Advanced English for non-native speakers, and Advanced English for the College of Art & Design students. Additional openings of these classes were noticed on Aug. 24 after the demand survey.
The rising demand in registration was also present in majors like business and economics which has many double major students.
The School of Business decided on opening one additional course or expanding the size of each class in a single course so that both major and double major students could register. This decision was the same for the Department of Economics as they finalized on adding classes for Microeconomics and Principles of Economics. Registration for these courses are from Sept. 1 to 7.
“I recommend students to take courses in their designated semester especially for liberal art courses,” a staff member of GLEO said. “This is the best way to make registration less stressful for others and oneself without having to consider taking the summer semester.”
However, the school is yet to provide any concrete solutions to course registration issues.