Korea University (KU) President Yeom Jae Ho has been causing quite a stir in the media with his new policies. Ever since his inauguration in 2015, Yeom constantly carried out reforms such as three-no policy and abolishment of merit-based scholarship. Although they remain controversial, it is clear that KU has set a new paradigm in the academic circle as one of the nation’s major universities. Yeom plans to continue with his experiment by creating two new facilities in KU.

   
▲ A three-dimensional picture of the SK Future building from the Central Plaza. Provided by Design and Construction Department.

KU plans to construct the SK Future Hall right across from the Centennial Memorial SAMSUNG Hall, near Central Plaza. The building will have five floors above ground and three underground.  Just like most of the other buildings in the Liberal Arts campus, the SK Future Hall will be done over in a modern style, but with a slight mix of postmodern added to it.

The main purpose of the construction of the SK Future Hall is to provide a space where students can freely discuss various topics. So far, many of the classes in KU are held in big lecture rooms that can each fit over 100 students. With this great number of people per class, it has been impossible for students to communicate as a whole. Students simply listen and take notes, making themselves passive learners.

The SK Future Hall, on the other hand, will comprise 80 small lecture rooms, where students can discuss in small groups. Discussion topics will be related to the online lectures offered in a flipped class. Although class flipping is a newly introduced teaching style in KU, it is expected to be applied in most classes by 2018, the year when the SK Future Hall’s construction is expected to be complete.

Therefore, once 100 or more students listen to the same online lecture at home, they will be split into small groups. Each group will consist of around 20 students, and students within each group will either solve problems or engage in discussions in a lecture room at the SK Future Hall. Professors who have knowledge of the course will also be assigned to each group to answer any queries students may have and lead the discussion in the right direction.

The groups that take the same class can vary in regards to course material. Even if the students listen to the same online lecture for a particular class, professors can help students find how the subject specifically relates to their own majors. For instance, an Economics professor could provide problems that are more mathematical for a student majoring in Statistics.

Furthermore, the SK Future Hall offers hundreds of one-square-foot rooms that serve a similar role as the reading room, otherwise known as dokseosil in Korean. A chair and a table will be arranged in each room and there students can immerse themselves by taking a moment to review what they have learned and discussed in class that particular day.

   
▲ A three-dimensional picture of the SK Future building from the People’s Square. Provided by Provided by Design and Construction Department.

Ma Dong Hoon (School of Media and Communication), who is the Director General of the Future Strategy Department, believes that the SK Future Hall will allow more “flexibility” in KU. For this flexibility to take place, however, KU needs to make sure that there are enough professors who can teach as small-sized classes replace the conventional big lecture rooms. KU also needs to decide how it will assign students into different discussion groups. Hopefully, KU will spend the remaining three years wisely by drawing up specific plans.

Meanwhile, another building will be built this year as part of the KU Business Incubation Support Team’s brand new project. It is a five-story building made out of 30 to 40 container boxes, and the area where the building will be situated is called Pioneering Village. Pioneering Village will be created in between the Media Hall and College of Political Science and Economics. 

The purpose of this village is to give students a space where they can discuss their plans for a business. According to Professor Ma, Korean students do not have a place where they can gather together and endlessly work on their business item. “In the United States (U.S.), there is a garage. Even Bill Gates and Steve Jobs started off in their garage. There, they worked on their items with their friends. There is no such garage in Korea, so students go to the library and study alone,” said Ma.
 
As a result, Pioneering Village will be open to KU students 24 hours a day. Students can study and debate incessantly among themselves. Once students have finalized their ideas, they can conduct a test run in this village to see if the business works in the direction they hoped.  If the idea becomes too successful, KU can help with attracting investment, too.
 
   
▲ A three-dimensional picture of Pioneering Village. Provided by Design and Construction Department.
The most remarkable thing about Pioneering Village is in its creativity. It is like a real village in that there will be a village chief, passports that enable students to enter the village and money that can be only used in this village. Moreover, there will be a variety of facilities like a convenience store and a bank so that students can enjoy an easy and convenient life.
 
This creative space will foster creative minds. In an open atmosphere like Pioneering Village, students are more likely to come up with brilliant ideas. “Future education should be taught in a playground-like environment, not in a room filled with partitions. In Apple, for example, it is not difficult to find an employee working right next to another employee strumming on a guitar,” said Ma.
 
Once Pioneering Village settles in KU, there is a great chance that students would consider school as a “fun” place. Students will want to come to school everyday and be more motivated to carry out their own ideas. To manage this great place though, KU would need to make sure that there is a steering committee that administers the facility so that it does get not degraded to a common room.
 
 
The SK Future Hall and Pioneering Village are very original models designed by KU. Thanks to this change, students would no longer be stuck behind the hard desks but rather study in a congenial environment. Even though there are a few concerns as to how the new facilities will be run and maintained, students will definitely look forward to this change. Hopefully, KU will yield good results from this change and set a good example for other universities. This way, our society will make ceaseless progress led by creative minds.

 
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