Keynote speech at the 2020 Hallym University Competency Education Forum by Choong-soo Kim Hallym University President 

I am very pleased to have the opportunity to give a keynote speech at the`2020 Hallym University Competency Education Forum' held in the International Conference Room of Hallym University today, and congratulations on the successful hosting of this forum to the Chairman of the Competency Education and Evaluation Institute, Choi Young-Jae and all the officials. 

In addition, I would like to express my welcome and thanks to Professor Sang-Hoon Bae of Sungkyunkwan University who did not hesitate to travel a long way to present, professors of Kangwon University and Hallym University who participate in presentations and discussions, and various educational experts who participate in this online forum from across the country.
 
The university is also playing a role in lightening society through research and leading the development of local communities through service, but the essential reason for existence (Raison d'être) is to cultivate human resources that society needs above all else. 

What kind of'competence' must be equipped to become a'talented person' in need of society, and through what kind of education can a university cultivate this ability? It is a relatively recent phenomenon that university education has begun to focus on the cultivation of competence rather than the transfer of knowledge. Since the half-life of knowledge is rapidly decreasing in a constantly changing world, it is believed that it is based on the judgment that clinging to the knowledge accumulated in the past is not of high utility in life. 

¹ The advent of the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution served as a catalyst for this change, but the recent Corona Pandemic can be seen as accelerating this change further. What does'capacity' to adapt to such changes in the environment really mean, and what kind of talent should be aimed at in general university education, which is not aimed at nurturing a small number of elites? Then, what kind of curriculum must a university have to cultivate talented people with these skills? I believe that it is up to us who are currently in college to provide answers to these problems.
 
Rather than insisting on a personal and ideological philosophy on education, understanding the impact of rapidly changing social environments and technological developments on human life is a prerequisite for deriving practical coping measures. World Economic Forum (2020) is responsible for the trend is that, while presenting a view to further expanding on behalf of the Fourth advent of the Industrial Revolution is the work in accordance with the emergence of new technologies was a human Needless to say, the machine ^2,the number of jobs disappearing It also presented predictions that there would be much more than the number of jobs created. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that 85 million jobs will be replaced by machines within the next five years, and over the same period, human labor and machines are expected to divide jobs almost equally. ³It is also pointed out that the corona pandemic is exacerbating the polarization problem in the labor market as the low-wage class is more affected. However, the seriousness of the problem is that we do not have the ability to predict what types of jobs will be created in the future. Not knowing what jobs will be created, we are on a mission to produce talented people who can adapt in a changing society. It is clear that you cannot expect a worker armed with yesterday's knowledge to take care of tomorrow's new work. It can be said that the duty of university education to nurture talented people with the ability to work in the unknown jobs that will be created in the future can be compared to having to carry out “Mission: Impossible”.
 
The strategy sought as a way to overcome this challenge is to change the educational goal in the direction of discovering the'capabilities' of students, out of the frame of university education aimed at transferring the knowledge accumulated in the past. It is to develop the ability to live while adapting to unpredictable environmental changes. While the criticism of academia that it had to escape from the'ivory tower' in the past was about the phenomenon of staying in the development of pedantic logic that was far from the real world, the demand for cash change is a mode of transferring knowledge of the past that becomes useless in the future. Is to get out of it. 

Its characteristic is that it promotes educational innovation in the direction of cultivating the ability to ensure the success of the trainee's lifetime. The prerequisite for developing the ability to adapt to the unpredictable future environment is to cultivate talented individuals with flexibility and diversity, and for this, we believe that it is an urgent need to move away from the standardized university administration. 

From this point of view, my keynote speech first, suggests a plan to form a broad consensus on the'new normal' of the educational environment, and second, discusses the practical definition and implementation plan of'capability' education, and third, Hallym University is trying. Competency training is presented as an example, and finally, future challenges are introduced.
 
First, it is necessary to share the recognition that the paradigm of the educational environment has changed significantly beyond comparison at any time in the past. Trends such as'The 4th Industrial Revolution,' '100-year-old life,' and'Corona Pandemic' are causing rapid changes in the technological revolution and social environment. It is no exaggeration to say that the role of the university, which used to convey knowledge from the past, is now dying. It can be said that information and knowledge can be easily obtained from anywhere, and a consensus has been formed that it is now more important to acquire “learning to learn” rather than learning. The era of competence rather than knowledge has already come. I think it is important to create an environment in which educational institutions operate independently above all else in this environmental change. Rapid changes in the technological and social environment resulted in a'New Normal' educational environment, and in the new environment, university education should be operated by reflecting the opinions of stakeholders in various educational demands, rather than uniform regulations focusing on suppliers. 

In other words, it can be said that in the future, the opinions of education consumers, such as the opinions of parents, communities, employers, and students, should be more important than those of education providers such as education authorities, school operators, and professors. 

⁴ On the other hand, in a competency-centered education environment, educational outcomes compare not only academic achievements, but achievements in the whole person's character, and it can be said that interest in the formation process is as much as the importance of the results . In this case, doubts arise about the effectiveness of the standardized curriculum, and the practice of evaluating educational outcomes with a uniform standard is no longer useful. In other words, each person has different competencies, but the same evaluation criteria are no longer applicable.
 
 It is believed that the impact of this change to the'new normal' state on university education will be more severe in Korea. In the short period of the past 30-40 years, excessive demand for college education has been created, and the excess demand for higher education can be seen as allowing the supplier's monopoly status. Attempts to maintain the balance of supply and demand in a policy not based on market principles in the state of excess demand resulted in artificial resource allocation, resulting in regulations and rigid systems. Perhaps the reason why the pace of development of university education in Korea has been slow and eventually the international competitiveness of university education has been lagging is that the opening of education has not been achieved, and there is also an aspect of the supplier' s monopoly status. The transition to competency education can be evaluated as having great significance in that it presented a momentum for transition from such a rigid and uniform system to a diverse and free system.
 
 Second, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines that human'competency' is composed of four elements: knowledge, skills, attitude, and value. 

⁵In addition, examples of educational methods for acquiring these competencies include'autonomous actions','mutual exchanges with disparate social groups,' and'the use of interactive technical means'. It can be said as a way to cultivate the ability to live in a future environment where it is difficult to predict the direction of development. Specifically, the act of establishing an individual's lifelong plan and dealing with rights and interests autonomously, living by meeting and cooperating with disparate people, resolving conflicts of interest, and dialogue, sharing skills, and using information. It is to express an individual's competency comprehensively, such as the ability to communicate in two ways. Of course, this ability can be considered from a personal point of view,
 
The importance of competencies can be assessed differently from a personal and social perspective. For example, while experiencing the recent corona pandemic, debates have been raised around the world that the deepening of social inequality is caused by academic society and meritocracy. From a social point of view rather than an individual, it can be viewed as a debate pointing to the side effects of losing harmony and balance. From a personal point of view, high attention is paid to income, employment, personal health or safety, but from a social point of view, attention is paid to economic productivity, social solidarity, and democratic procedures, and the probability that the two viewpoints do not coincide is always inherent. is. 

In the current social trend, globalization, technology convergence, and reinforcement of interconnection have become inevitable phenomena, and in such an environment, the importance of collaboration cannot but be emphasized. 

Recognizing the possibility of a gap between individual and social gains, understanding the inevitability of coordinating this, and developing the ability to find harmonious solutions can sustain stable social development. It is said that since universities as a place of knowledge transfer cannot educate these skills, the focus should be shifted to competency education that takes individual attitudes and values as important factors. In particular, in recent studies, the phenomenon of lack of collaboration ability of knowledgeable people is observed as a vulnerability, whereas in the corona pandemic, social awareness about the contribution of caring social activities such as nurses and delivery workers is spreading. This is working as an opportunity to emphasize the importance of competency education rather than knowledge. 

⁶ Competency can be said to have a wider temporal limit of its utility compared to knowledge. Needless to say, the current curriculum at universities in Korea is generally composed of subjects and comparative courses, so it can be argued that university education has been paying some attention to various factors of competency, but in reality it is in the knowledge transfer function. It can be said that it has been given a high priority. I don't think we can expect a stable development of society without cultivating individual competencies by educating the importance of empathy in schools.
 
Third, I would like to examine how the university can practice competency education under this awareness of the problem, based on the case of Hallym University. Hallym University put'student-centered education' as the best value in establishing its future vision in 2016. Of course, it was aimed at preparing for the '4th Industrial Revolution' and '100-year-old life', but the necessity of dual majors, the introduction of various convergence majors and school systems, and reform of liberalization of change of affiliation, etc. It became essential. 

In Korea's education system, it was a practice to operate rigid silos based on departments. After choosing a major at the time of admission, I have been living in a fixed framework throughout my university life. 

The fact that Hallym University students can now autonomously select a dual major field in addition to the major at the time of enrollment is a breakthrough change in the educational environment in Korea. As a result, in addition to the merit of expanding the scope of the major academic field, it is evaluated as fulfilling the first condition of'capability education','autonomous action'. In addition, choosing a convergence major means studying or living with a'different group'. It is an opportunity to broaden your insights through discussions with students from different academic backgrounds. This can also be seen as satisfying the second condition of competency training. In short, it can be said that in a rigid structured program, Hallym University students are conducting'competency education'
 
Hallym University operates a representative comparative course called'Campus Life'. Since the fall of 2016, we have been running an intramural sports league for all students, and 1 credit is given as a comparative course to participants over an appropriate amount of time. The goal is to train the spirit of'fair and competitive' and'group and cooperation' through group competitions. In the case of private universities in advanced countries, the founding ideology of the university is revived by operating a unique comparative course, and these characteristics are emerging as a merit of being evaluated as a comparative advantage in national and public universities. In Korea, the history of universities in general is not very prominent because of the unified education system, but Hallym University is making an exceptionally unique effort. Probably, by implementing a census for all students across the country, from the standpoint of comparison and activity, it is judged that there is no case to use it as basic information to cultivate individual capabilities by grasping the characteristics of students. In recent years, it is a voluntary “Honorary Hallymer Campaign” organized by the Student Council, and it can be said that it is a very proud phenomenon that we are creating the Honor Code to have the honor and pride of Hallym University. It is judged that all these comparative activities are actually an attitude to cultivate the'attitude' and'value' necessary for living a right society, and that Hallym Education is already taking steps to satisfy all the elements of the competency defined by the OECD discussed above. Hallym continues to work towards these goals.
 
 
 Education experts participating in this forum,
 
Needless to say, we do not assess that the current efforts of Hallym University's competency education have reached a satisfactory level, and Hallym University's educational innovation will not remain at the current level. We will advance toward advanced education. For example, I believe that the distinction between liberal arts and science in the academic field is gradually fading as the trend of'convergence' of all disciplines expands. I believe that this is even more so because the boundaries of academics have become ambiguous, and in reality life in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution requires having the capability of consilience. Hallym University has opened the'Liberal Arts' major, which is based on understanding the basic principles of humanities and advanced science, as a convergence major field two years ago, 

⁷  In this changing environment, I believe that uniform infusion education and evaluation methods are gradually disappearing. In terms of competency, I think you can quickly recognize that the barriers to be broken down from the existing education system are very high. It is an opportunity to once again reflect on the reason for the existence of university education, and I think it is located at a historical intersection. I believe that the issues we are discussing today should not be technically improved in terms of educational methodology, but should be sublimated into the era of overall educational reform, and such reform initiatives should come from the inside of the university.
 
The post-corona era predicts that the paradigm will be completely different from that before. A century ago, when World War I and the Spanish Flu ended, a return to “normalcy” worldwide was cited as a political slogan. ⁸However, it has not returned to its old state. At that time, on the one hand, universities that were judged to be useless disappeared, and on the other hand, the concept of a research-oriented university was further solidified, and we must learn from the experience that a breakthrough university structure reform followed . We don't have the ability to accurately predict post-coronavirus, but one thing is certain, I don't think we will return to the pre-corona regime. I believe that online education becomes more common and hybrid education is expanded is only a technological change in lecture delivery that is very local. The reorganization of the curriculum from knowledge transfer to capacity building is a reform task that can only be accomplished through the transformation of the current university. We must not commit the mistake of pursuing a uniform formalization by converting the standardization of the knowledge transfer curriculum into the standardization of the competency-building curriculum. Efforts to produce human resources of the same quality should also be avoided by drawing concrete images that go beyond abstraction. 

Everyone must cultivate different competencies, and we must cultivate talented individuals who have an inter-disciplinary background and develop non-linearly. It should be understood that the conditions for changing from the era of teaching to the era of coaching are set. In this situation, I don't think we can achieve the capacity expansion we pursue by applying the linear evaluation criteria used in the singular major paradigm. Creating a diverse, flexible and free educational environment will be the path for competency-building education equipped with the ability to adapt to unexpected changes in the future. It is entirely on our shoulders who will achieve this and when.
 
We wish everyone who attended today's forum good luck in the future.

December 21, 2020 
Hallym University President Choong-soo Kim

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 1) Almost all half-lives in which half of the knowledge does not become useful It is an analysis that it does not exceed 10 years in academic studies, see Samuel Arbesman, The Half-Life of Facts, August 2013
 2) World Economic Forum , The Future of Jobs Report, October 2020
 3) Zahidi Saadia, The Jobs of Tomorrow, Finance & Development, IMF, December 2020
 4) OECD, OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 project background, OECD Learning Compass 2030, OECD 2019
 5) OECD, E2030 Conceptual Framework: Key Competencies for 2030, Education Policy Committee, 04-Nov-2016
 6) Foroohar Rana, Why meritocracy isn't working, FT Books Essay, September 3, 2020
 7) Similar efforts are being made at Singapore National University. NUS launches new interdisciplinary College of Humanities and Sciences, The Straits Times, Singapore, Dec. 8, 2020
 8) Economist, Covid-19 in 2020, The year when everything changed, Dec. 19, 2020

You can view the original article here in Korean.