▲ View of CWNU (Source: CWNU Waggle)

Changwon University has the slogan, ‘Leap to become the top 10 National Universities and the No. 1 University in the community.’ With this goal, CWNU has made many steps, such as implementing the, ‘Changnyeong Upo Wetland Customized Cultural Brand Maker Project for Carbon Neutrality,’ and making a, ‘Win-Win Agreement on Content Industry Development,’ to strengthen Changwon's competitiveness. On September 16, CWNU received the highest Grade A in the, ‘Second Annual Evaluation of University Innovation Supporting Business,’ and ‘Comprehensive Evaluation of 1st to 3rd Years,’ conducted by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Research Foundation.

The Ministry of Education thought that in order to flexibly respond to the demands of future social change, it was necessary to make efforts to improve the quality of university innovation and develop educational capabilities. Therefore, since 2014, they have conducted the, ‘2018 Basic University Competency Diagnosis Evaluation,’ which evaluates universities every three years by dividing the period for structural reform, into three years. In this evaluation, CWNU was selected as a ‘self-regulating university,’ a university that has autonomy over student selection and where financial support is provided. CWNU has been receiving financial support without reducing the number of students since 2019.

In addition, CWNU received an A Grade in the, ‘Second Annual Evaluation of University Innovation Support Projects,’ and the, ‘Comprehensive Evaluation of the 1st to 3rd Years.’ The University Innovation Supporting Business, is a project of the Ministry of Education that supports the establishment of a future creative talent training system for universities, which was selected as ‘self-regulating universities,’ as a result of the, ‘2018 Basic University Competency Diagnosis Evaluation’. In this project, CWNU received an annual evaluation, which is the second year (2020-2021) business results evaluation, and a comprehensive evaluation, which is the business results evaluation of the first to third years (2019-2022). The annual and comprehensive evaluations were executed through qualitative evaluation that evaluated project promotion and execution performance, project performance management, etc, and quantitative evaluation that evaluated the degree of achievement of key performance indicators. For example, the recruitment rate of enrolled students, the acquisition rate of full-time teachers, and the total number of courses based on the disclosure data. After the evaluation, the Ministry of Education calculated the overall score with the annual and the comprehensive evaluation scores at 70% and 30%, respectively. They divided universities respectively into A, B, and C grades according to the overall score ranking of each university.

Among 17 universities in Busan·Ulsan and Gyeongnam that execute this business, CWNU received an A Grade. Especially, in terms of the result of establishing quality management systems for lectures in the COVID-19 situation, CWNU got high scores. CWNU operated a class management committee and established a lecture studio to establish a quality management system for lectures. In addition, essential equipment rental for instructors' lecture filming and laptop rentals for students' online learning, was conducted. CWNU established a system for university members, to aid in conducting consumer demand surveys for students and graduates, meetings and briefing sessions, and reflected opinions in each core business area (major education, liberal arts education, and comparison education). CWNU received an excellent evaluation in these categories. Thanks to this, CWNU will be able to carry out the university innovation supporting business from 2022 to 2025, following this year. CWNU became a step closer to the goal of, ‘Leaping to the top 10 in National Universities.’

In response, Park Kyung-hoon, the head of the CWNU’s Innovation Supporting Business Team said, "For educational innovation at CWNU, many departments, including the Creative Convergence Education Center, Human Resources Development Institute, Start-up Education Center, and Technology Management Center, are working hard. Based on the results of this evaluation, we will do our best to foster creative convergence talents who contribute to local communities and national growth engines for the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, nearly half of campus life of students are passing through, ‘non-face-to-face campus life.’ I hope COVID-19 will diminish as soon as possible and fill the campus of CWNU with the vitality and energy of students.”

Until now, CWNU has been striving to improve its convergence and shared major-linked academic structure to foster local customized talents, such as establishing a smart manufacturing convergence major, establishing a curriculum model, improving its academic structure, and promoting its academic system. In addition, in order to improve the quality of students' learning, the reading room and cafe on the first floor of the Central Library, and the reading room on the second floor, were remodeled. In addition, ‘CAN-D ZONE’, a college study room, has been established and operated in social science and engineering colleges to innovate student-centered educational infrastructure.

CWNU was able to achieve good results in this evaluation due to the efforts of many CWNU officials, not only for the operation of the school, but also for the development of CWNU. As CWNU was selected as a General Financial Support University, plans to receive more than 10 billion won in government financial support over the next three years (2022-2024), to promote qualitative innovation and appropriate scale of education suitable for university development plans and specialization strategies. I hope there will be positive results for CWNU's goal of fostering professional, creative talent.

By Lee Yeon-jin, cub-reporter  dlduswls45@naver.com

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