Ho Han & Young Hwa
H
Yoon
n
(Ajo
ou Univers
sity)
Ajou
u Univers
sity is a mid-size university in South Korea wiith about 10,000
students. It is a research-centered private
p
uniiversity wh
hich has grown into one of
Korea'ss most pre
estigious universities in a shortt period off time sincce its incep
ption in
1973. Since it sstarted as an engin
neering college, Ajou
u University's streng
gth lies
particularly in the
e College of
o Engineering and th
he College of Information Tech
hnology.
The Scchool of B
Business Administratiion also has
h a competitive ad
dvantage over
o
its
counterparts in o
other unive
ersities. Fu
urthermore
e, the establishment of the College of
Pharma
acy brough
ht about itts converg
gence with the existiing Schooll of Medicine. On
the fou
undation o
of such accademic exxcellence, Ajou Univversity is m
marching towards
t
"Small but Strong
g Universitty", "Stude
ent-centere
ed Universsity" and "G
Global University"
through
h constantt changes a
and reform
ms.
The College o
of Genera
al Education (GCE)) was estab
blished in 2
2008, whicch takes
in charrge of both
h curricular courses and extraccurricular programs
p
o
on liberal arts for
first-ye
ear studentts. All the first-year students are requirred to take
e certain courses
c
offered
d by the CG
GE besidess basic levvel coursess offered by
b their ma
ajor. It also
o offers
special courses a
and programs to give
e advice firrst-year students. Mo
ost of the Korean
first-ye
ear students have hard
h
time adapting to a colle
ege educa
ation syste
em and
finding an appro
opriate carreer track since the
ey have fo
ocused on college entrance
exam before
b
ente
ering a college, not much
m
consiidering the
eir major and job career. For
this rea
ason, mostt of the co
olleges in Korea
K
offerr a certain type of th
he formal advisory
a
system
m to first-ye
ear studen
nts, which is the dua
al mentorin
ng program
m with Fre
eshman
Semina
ar as a regular course
e and Ajou
u mentoring
g as an exxtracurricular program
m.
Th
he Du
ual Me
entoring Progra
am
Concluding remarks
Freshman Seminar
▪ As a curricular course, GCE has offered Freshman Seminar every semester
since 2009.
▪ The class size is about 20, and 50 or some classes are offered in a year.
▪ Students in class take part in discussions, special lectures, interviews, and field
practice that deal with various topics about college life and career.
▪ The professor decides themes and activities.
Academic
year
No. of
classes
No. of
participant
professors
No. of
participant
students
Average class
size
Average score of
course
evaluation
2009
49
49
969
20
3.89
2010
49
49
816
17
3.91
2011
50
50
948
19
4.06
2012
40
40
850
21
3.99
9
Average
47
47
896
19
The GCE operates 5 point satisfaction scale for the course evaluation.
3.96
9
The average score above is almost similar to the average score of the GCE courses.
Ajou Mentoring
▪ It is an extracurricular program which has been offered for 5 years.
▪ GCE recruits mentor students, and first year students as mentees choose a
mentor, considering a mentor’s activity plans.
▪ Mentors must have official meetings regularly (usually 2-3 times a semester)
and unofficial meetings irregularly upon mentees’ request.
▪ Mentors are required to submit a report at the end of the semester.
Academic
9
9
9
9
Satisfaction
No. of mentors
No. of mentees
2009
294
2,055
4.46
$170,000
2010
344
2,077
-
$165,000
2011
233
2,148
3.39
$163,000
2012
176
1,795
4.62
$110,000
year
score
Yearly budget
Average
262
2,019
4.16
$150,000
The GCE operates 5 point satisfaction scale for the satisfaction evaluation.
The survey was not conducted in 2010.
It is found that the program is beneficial to mentors as well as mentees since most of the mentor
students feel they themselves learn a lot and it is quite rewarding. Mentees are very satisfied
with the relationship with mentors, according to the satisfaction survey results.
Most of the budget has been spent to pay participant mentors.
The goal of the dual mentoring system is to build an atmosphere of caring and
advising for first-year students and help them adapt to new academic environments.
Considering the contents and activities of the programs, it is sure that first-year
students experience a variety of aspects of college life and future career in the
beginning. We began our research to see whether the programs are beneficial to
first-year students and if the current programs need improvement. On the basis of
what we found, we make the following suggestions:
• One faculty member is in charge of one Freshman Seminar, but students would like
to discuss various topics, participate in more activities, and make a relationship with
many faculty members. Thus team teaching could be a good way of meeting such
needs.
• GCE pays for mentoring to student mentors, but we suggest that GCE should offer
a mentorship course, in which all students enrolled in the course learn mentoring
and act as a mentor. This will make the peer mentoring system more sustainable.
• Since student mentors themselves learn something from mentoring, the program
needs to include more time for mentor discussion sessions.