In total, 6 project groups from our university have been selected for "2014 Capital Area University Specialization Project (CK-II)" supervised by the Ministry of Education and implemented by the National Research Foundation of Korea. Our university expects to receive 4 billion Won yearly and up to 20 billion Won for the next 5 years from the government. Amidst the fierce competition of 330 project groups from 54 universities, our university received the best result in terms of project group selection rate, number of selected project groups and amount of project funding. Our achievement is more deserving because competition was very fierce in Seoul. Only Sungkyunkwan University and Hanyang University receive the amount of project funding same as that of Kookmin University.
A need to reform universities following a sudden drop in the number of students and develop various number of competitive universities based on comparative advantage was raised. Therefore, the Capital University Area University Specialization Project was established to help the creative economy of universities and develop creative workforce through the specialization of universities. This is a large-scale project that supports 54 billion Won yearly (40.5 billion Won for university control area and 13.5 billion Won for government support area) from 2014 to 2018.
In order to prepare for the 2014 Capital Area University Specialization Project, our university supported 7 project groups (3 of university’s autonomous type and 4 of government support type). All 7 project groups passed the first stage of screening processes. After the presentation of core project contents, 6 project groups passed the in-depth second stage of screening processes. 6 project groups include ‘Automobile-Software-Design’ Convergence Global Workforce Development Project Group (Group leader: Seung-Jin Heo, professor of Department of Automotive Engineering), Human Technology Creative Workforce Development Project Group – Convergence of Mechanical Engineering and Human Movement Science (Group leader: Kun-Sang Lee, professor of Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering), East Asia Localization & Future Exploration Youth Development Project Group (Group leader: Won-Deog Lee, professor of School of International & Area Studies), Creative Health Care Convergence Workforce Development Project Group (Group leader: Moon-Jeong Chang, professor of Department of Food and Nutrition), Eco Art Project Group (Group leader: Hoon-Tae Kim, professor of School of Music) and Active Aging Sport Care Project Group (Group leader: Jun-Hee Hong, professor of Department of Physical Education). The Eco Community Art Project was selected in the Capital area as one of three good example projects in arts and physical education areas.
Our university organized the project implementation committee and launched implementation systems such as project planning T/F, specialization area selection committee, self-evaluation planning committee, self-evaluation research committee and operation committee for each project group. Also, our university formulated specialization plans by overhauling long-term development plans (Challenge1010). As in the LINC project, our university exerted utmost efforts to prepare for this project such as the selection of 7 specialization project groups through lengthy opinion gathering and discussion for selection and concentration.
President Ji-Soo Yoo, the chairman of project implementation committee, said "In order to meet recent changes and demands, our university overhauled the core values for students, education goal and long-term development plans and newly established specialization plans. Through selection and concentration, we plan to implement the project efficiently by considering elements such as competitiveness outside the university, demand of nation/society/times and opinions of university members and seeking to strengthen the undergraduate education. We will put the best effort to develop 3~4 top-level convergence areas in the nation and 1~2 top-level convergence areas in the world within 10 years. Therefore, we ask for constant encouragement and support from all university members."
After being selected for the LINC project recently, our university has also been selected for the Support Project for University Contributing to the Normalization of High School Education project and the CK-II project. Through the three core values of change, chance and challenge, we showed remarkable growth in various recent evaluations.