Around November, students get busy recruiting classmates to sign up for the classes they need to take over the winter session. On every possible bulletin board and even in the bathroom, posts looking for classmates can easily be found.
“I am in desperate need of one more course within my major to graduate. So I tried to take a class on my wish-list which I could not take until now for reasons. However, most classes I was planning to take were not even on the demand survey, and the period for the demand survey on winter session only lasted a week in September which made it harder for students to participate since every start of semester is crazily busy,” Lee Hwa-yeon (Human Movement and Performance, 4) said.
The number of courses opened during the winter session is unbalanced among colleges, and students are curious about the system that decides which classes are offered; from registration to the qualifications for opening classes.
This winter session, total 847 students participated in demand survey for the winter session within 418 courses.
The rate of participation in the survey used to see what classes are in demand is pointed to as the main cause for the imbalance between departments. For example, for the Department of Economics, only 44 students participated in the survey and no courses were opened. As for the School of Business, a total of 144 students participated in the survey and got four courses opened for the winter session.
“We promote the demand survey for the winter session at the start of the new semester using posting notification on school newspapers and text messages to students, asking for their active participation so that we can forecast the needs of certain classes to be opened. Still, not many students participate in survey, which makes it hard to find out the potential demand for courses,” said Kang Hye-sun, the staff of the Office of Faculty and Academic Affairs (OFAA).
The OFAA conducts course demand research once a semester to see how many students want certain courses to be open for the summer or winter sessions. If more than 10 students show interest in a course, the college in charge of the course is advised to open the class. This year, the OFAA conducted the student demand survey for the winter session from Sept. 14 to 23.
However, it has been pointed out that the one-week is too short for students to participate in the survey due to insufficient information and promotion about the survey.
“I posted a note on school bulletin boards asking classmates to join the survey. I already got 20 phone calls from students interested in taking classes together. I put a lot of effort and time to meet the qualifications to open a class, hoping more classes become available for students and the period for the survey to be extended,” Hyun Eun-kyeong (Korean, 4) said.
Departments that do not have any open courses this winter encourage students to take the survey request summer courses they want.
The winter session registration will be from Nov. 22 to 24. Students who wish to take winter courses should register during the period through the homepage (http://sugang.ewha.ac.kr). Also, students will be able to withdraw their class registrations from Dec. 6 to 8.