Pukyong National University

PKNU to Establish the College for Lifelong Learning
- With 200 freshmen in 5 departments 

Pukyong National University is to establish a college for “lifelong learning” for the first time in the southeastern region.

Beginning this year, the College for Lifelong Learning is one of the government projects, which is established in existing universities, to provide supports for high school graduates who are in the middle of their work to be able to study in the university whenever they want to.

PKNU was the only university in the southeastern region that was named to the support project for the College for Lifelong Learning, hosted by the Ministry of Education and the National Institute for Lifelong Education.
In line with that, this year, PKNU is to be funded with about 3 billion won from the government to establish the college, and to run it from March 2017.   

The graduate from vocational high school or meister school, who has been working over three years after the graduation and is older than 29, is eligible to enter the college.

Five departments, including the Department of Continuing Education Counseling in the field of humanities and the Department of Automobile Practical Engineering, the Department of Marine Products Refrigeration Engineering, the Department of Machinery & Shipbuilding Convergence Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Electronic Software Engineering in the field of engineering, will open. Each department admits 40 students, making a total of 200 students, and they will graduate with a Bachelor in Arts or a Bachelor in Engineering after 4 years. The tuition will be set at the level of other departments in PKNU, and other systems that can ease the burden of tuition, such as per-credit tuition, monthly tuition and scholarship priority, and that can provide adult-friendly educational environment, such as night class, weekend class and online lecture, are planned to be adopted.  

Also, the Academic Credit Bank System in five fields, material dynamics, hydromechanics, educational sociology, lifelong education and introduction to education, and other non-degree programs are expected to be offered for the college. 

“We will do all we can do to make the College for Lifelong Learning in PKNU a leading example that promotes ‘early work and later learning’ to vitalize the university-centered continuing education,” said a participant.
A total of six universities, Pukyong National University as well as Daegu University, Myongji University, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Inha University and Jeju National University, were selected for the government support business. 

In the assessment and selection process, PKNU was praised for creating appropriate departments at the college regarding the characteristics of the university and the strengths of the regional industry and examining the suitability of the departments in advance by investigating demands from the region’s vocational high school and meister school. <Pukyong Today>