Kyonggi University has implemented a credit exchange system. A credit exchange system is a system that allows students to directly choose their own school and apply for courses they want among the universities belonging to the academic exchange association. It is a necessary and useful system for students who want to take lectures outside of campus and interact with students in other schools. However, there are still many students who do not make good use of this system. For them, the Pharos conducted interviews with Kim Yoon-ah, from the Department of Accounting, and anonymous student of Kyonggi University who have had experience using the credit exchange system.

Pharos: How do students sign up for classes?

Yoon-ah: First of all, you should choose which schools you want to exchange credits with, which subjects you want to take and then print out your lecture syllabus for that subject. After that, two days before the deadline for applying for the exchange of credits, you must submit the application form for the exchange of credits, your transcript, the class syllabus, and the consent form for collecting and using personal information to Kyonggi University. The enrollment period is different depending on the schedule of each university, so make sure to ask the academic support team of the exchange school.

Anonymous: Before the semester starts, there should be an application form for the exchange of credits on the school’s web page. You need to fill that out and submit the form. To fill out the application form, checking whether there is the same course in the exchange school or not is required. Then take the following steps: “Fill out the application

form → receive recommendations from the head of each major → submit them.”

Pharos: What made you use the credit exchange system?

Yoon-ah: I’ve used the system twice. The reason why I started using this system is because the lecture that I wanted to take disappeared due to changes of the curriculum. Also, I decided to use it because my major is extremely popular, so I hoped that there would be no problem in taking the courses I wanted to listen to.

Anonymous: I used the credit exchange system because my classmate and I needed to take a certain course. When the academic curriculum changed, the courses that I wanted to

take disappeared. The courses were about practical affairs, so I was desperate to listen to the courses, but I couldn’t. At that time, my classmate asked me to use the credit exchange system to take the same kind of course. The suggestion sounded great, so I applied.

Pharos: Can students take any lectures they want regardless of their majors or departments?

Yoon-ah: You can apply only if the exchange school has a subject corresponding to the subject in Kyonggi University, and the course at Kyonggi University must have the same number of credits as the exchange school’s course.

Anonymous: You are able to listen to courses at the schools located in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon city. Moreover, if you have already taken the same class, you cannot take the course again using the credit exchange system. Better be cautious about this.

Pharos: Are there any qualifications needed to make use of the credit exchange system?

Yoon-ah: Only sophomores and above can take exchange courses, and only when the student’s average grade is over 3.0.

Anonymous: To use the credit exchange system, two qualifications

are required. The first is that you must be at least a sophomore with no detention. The second is that your overall grade average must be over 3.0.

Pharos: Please tell us what you gained and the difficulties you experienced while using the credit exchange system.

Yoon-ah: I asked the other academic support teams about exchange credit courses and found that 10% of the places in the lecture are reserved for exchange students. It varies from school to school, but I think it’s good because you can apply for classes that you can’t take at your own school without any burden. In addition, when I was taking a class at an other university, the professor in charge of the subject gave me a lot of advice on account of the fact that I was an exchange student. However, because we follow the method of grading in the other school when exchanging credits, there was a difficulty in the competition for grades when I took those courses because the percentage of A’s was only 25%.

Anonymous: When I took the classes at other schools, it was uncomfortable because everything was unfamiliar to me. Nevertheless, I listened to the lecture with enthusiasm. I learned very much through the classes. The other advantage was that it took only 15 minutes to arrive at the exchange school from my home. It was really good for me because Kyonggi University takes 2 hours to get to. Yet there were some difficulties using the system. Every school had a different application time table, so I kept checking the school’s web pages for notices. Literally, I checked every day. Additionally, to fill out the form requires the syllabus of the class, but I could not find it on either my school’s or the exchange school’s web page. I did not have a friend in that school, so I asked for help through Facebook.

It is a very integral matter for students to consider which courses they listen to. The reason why students check courses, arrange time tables and make plans for applying for courses is because it is so important

to take the right courses. Sadly, even their own major classes are often unavailable due to the excessive number of students. Also, when students want to take a course again, they sometimes cannot take it due to disappearance of the course and go through difficulty. In these situations, if you know the credit exchange policy, you will have a wider range of choices and will be able to make safer plans. How about applying for a course using the credit exchange system? You will benefit from the academic exchange policy along with other university students if you take advantages of this opportunity?

                                      Management Editor•CHOI SOYEON•clara3003@naver.com

                                                71st Reporter•PARK SINUI•dean0305@naver.com