Sponsored with KRW 8.6 billion over 3 years to nurture community innovators tackling social conflict
Selected for the most innovation and convergent talent cultivation programs (cutting-edge industries, humanities and social sciences) along with Seoul National University
Dankook University was chosen as a participating university in the social structure division of the Humanities Utmost Sharing System (HUSS) program hosted by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea.
Dankook is taking the lead in convergence education in the humanities, being selected for the second time for HUSS after being named a lead university for the HUSS program in globalization and culture last year. This year, DKU stepped up its efforts to foster future industries and convergent talent after also being chosen as a lead university in the next-generation display division of the Convergence and Open Sharing System (COSS) program after participating in the National Center of Excellence in Software program.
In fact, DKU was selected for five government programs related to talent cultivation. Three were in biomedicals, next-generation displays, and semiconductor components as part of the COSS program and two were in globalization & culture and social structures as part of the HUSS program. This is the most among Korean universities, tied with Seoul National University. DKU also ranked first, along with Kookmin University, as a lead university on the most projects, leading in biomedicals, next-generation displays, and globalization & culture.
Dankook is participating in the ‘HUSS Consortium for Building a Community for Mutual Growth’ together with Sogang University (lead university), Sangmyung University, Daejeon University, and Wonkwang University. Grants worth KRW 8.6 billion over the course of three years will be provided to DKU to focus on the key initiative of ‘change in social structures as a response to building a healthy community ecosystem’ and to develop a convergence curriculum focused on the humanities and social sciences, to improve educational foundations, and to renew relevant academic systems.
One hundred and seventeen faculty members representing thirty-two departments from the five universities will work together to nurture 5,000 ‘community innovators’ armed with humanities insight, social analytics, cultural content production capabilities, and technological knowhow in using artificial intelligence and big data.
The consortium is broken down into ‘family and education,’ ‘urban and rural regions,’ ‘organizations and industries,’ and ‘culture and generations’ majors and will develop over 60 professional courses. Each major consists of four career tracks – Creator, Strategist, Practitioner, and Analyst – to cultivate AI convergent talent that can contribute to social integration and building communities for mutual growth. Moreover, innovative education models, including modular curricula, short-form & microlearning, telepresence lectures, living labs, and cohort learning, will be adopted and shared across universities in the consortium through the Echo Integrated Platform.
Seven departments from Dankook, namely political science and international relations, counseling, public administration, urban and regional planning, history, philosophy, and statistics and data science, are participating in HUSS. Experts in these areas will be involved in developing and delivering courses and a specialized curriculum for those majoring in urban and rural regions and family and education. Through the living lab, we will carry out project-based learning programs to address local issues where Dankook is located, such as in the Seoul metropolitan area and Choongcheong provinces, partnering with local communities to seek solutions for real-world challenges they face. Furthermore, the university will strengthen areas of the liberal arts needed in modern society, such as everyday philosophy content based on our research capabilities in contemporary studies of the humanities, while strengthening AI and software education by offering software and introductory AI courses as part of the core curriculum for students studying the humanities or social sciences.