Native universities should develop into platforms for a second entry into society

 
GU JA-OEK
 
The writer is a vp for innovation at Seokyeong College


 
 
Korea’s regional universities are going through a structural disaster. A declining school-age inhabitants, the focus of scholars in Seoul and the metropolitan space and the accelerating disappearance of rural communities have left many native universities unable to fill their quotas. Authorities efforts to reverse the pattern — together with expanded monetary support, specialization methods, and recruiting international college students — haven’t introduced a significant turnaround.
 
It’s time to ask a unique query: Why should universities exist just for folks of their 20s? Korean society has lengthy regarded universities as areas reserved for these of their late teenagers and early twenties. However the nation has modified. Korea is now a super-aged society. Life expectancy has reached 83.5 years, one of many highest on the earth.
 

Regional universities have lengthy struggled to recruit college students. A scholar walks up an empty staircase at a college in North Gyeongsang Province on March 2, 2023, the primary day of the spring semester. Eight departments on the college acquired zero candidates throughout common admissions that 12 months. [YONHAP]

 
Massive numbers of extremely educated folks retire round age 60 however stay wholesome and wanting to work. But there are few significant pathways for them to re-enter society. That is the place regional universities should redefine themselves as “second social entry platforms” — establishments that help folks transitioning into new careers and lives after retirement. Their proximity to native communities makes them ideally suited hubs for retraining, profession change and certification applications concentrating on middle-aged and older adults.
 
Comparable transitions are already underway overseas, particularly in the USA. Johns Hopkins College gives lifelong studying applications targeted on mental enjoyment. Arizona State College operates Mirabella, a residential campus mannequin that mixes residing and studying for seniors. The College of Massachusetts Amherst runs open diploma applications tailor-made to older adults.
 
Korea now wants formal diploma applications designed particularly for profession transitions. Universities ought to supply new tutorial pathways to retirees or employees in search of a second skilled chapter. The construction of regional universities should shift to a dual-track system: conventional applications for younger college students and new ones for retirees and older learners. These second-act levels might present one to one-and-a-half years of intensive, sensible schooling geared toward creating abilities crucial for reemployment. Such applications would additionally assist mitigate labor shortages in an growing older society.
 
 
Past diploma applications, universities ought to create a variety of adult-friendly programs. These could embody short-term certification tracks, microdegrees and modular applications lasting six to 12 months. The main target must be on sensible schooling — entrepreneurship after retirement, group engagement, digital literacy and different instruments for designing a second profession.
 
Universities also needs to develop into service facilities embedded in native communities. They’ll supply profession teaching and mentoring to retirees and older residents, whereas constructing platforms that join particular person studying histories, pursuits and talents to new job or schooling alternatives. The federal government should help this shift with actual monetary backing, together with tuition subsidies, scholarships, income-based deferred fee programs and stipends that permit retirees to check with out sacrificing their livelihoods.
 
Lastly, an built-in schooling mannequin that promotes generational change must be thought-about. School rooms the place younger adults, middle-aged employees and seniors be taught collectively supply greater than tutorial instruction. Younger folks can share digital abilities and new traits, whereas older adults can go on expertise and long-term views. These interactions can scale back social isolation amongst seniors and supply youthful generations with sensible recommendation and social capital. A college that permits folks of various ages and careers to be taught and develop collectively might be the way forward for regional increased schooling.
 

Then-Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo listens to an evidence of a coaching program throughout a go to to Korea Polytechnics’ Seoul Jeong-su Campus on the morning of Dec. 3, 2024. Korea Polytechnics is a number one vocational coaching establishment that gives schooling not just for younger folks but in addition for middle-aged and older adults. [YONHAP]

 
The function of regional universities should now not be confined to serving solely the younger. They have to develop into areas the place retirees, middle-aged residents and native residents can design new lives. Redefining universities as platforms for a second entry into society is important not just for the survival of native establishments, but in addition for the sustainability of Korean society itself.