Sungshin Women's University pushes flexible education to meet changing social needs

Sungshin Women's University's approach to integrating AI into its curriculum focuses on breaking down existing departmental silos rather than simply adding new ones. President Yi Seong-keun argues that creating new departments for every emerging field merely replaces old academic boundaries with new ones, hindering the flexible intelligence needed for problem-solving in a rapidly changing world.

This strategy is being implemented through initiatives like an interdisciplinary linked-major system, which allows the university to introduce fields such as mobility and battery engineering without establishing separate departments. Additionally, the university has lowered barriers to changing majors and expanded cross-departmental credit recognition, giving students more control over their academic paths.

The university is also shifting towards a more research-driven learning model, moving away from traditional lecture-centered education. This, combined with a major-free admissions system for its College of Creativity and Convergence, aims to cultivate students' ability to explore diverse disciplines before specializing, fostering the kind of adaptable thinking the institution believes is essential for the AI era.