▲ A student who struggles with professional exam closely related in employment

 ‘This Year’s Output’, an article posted on Dankookie (the Internet community site for students of Dankook Universty (Dankookians)) listed the results of the recent professional exams. The post named those Dankookians that passed the civil service examination, the technical directive exam, the bar exam, the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam, the patent attorney exam and the appraiser exam. However, rather than celebrating the success of the test takers, the post had fellow students remarking that the university’s support and promotion for test taking and the test takers is minimal despite the good results the student enjoyed. The rate of successful employment by Dankookians is not normally made public and undergraduate students are unaware of this data. Essentially the school is not promoting the rate of employment of Dankook University (DKU) graduates.

 The Dankook Herald (DKH) investigated why DKU did not promote rate of employment of our professional exam test takers. Online cafés for employment post the employment rates for most universities. Normally DKU’s ranking is low and as a result, it doesn’t garner much attention. However, this year’s employment rate was comparable to other universities, so the DKH wondered if DKU planned to promote this fact, and if so, how were they prepared to do it. For example, Soongsil University (SSU) used their pass rate data of tax accountants, certified labor consultants and customs agents to promote their programs and their university. As result, SSU earned a solid reputation in those fields.

  With this in mind, the DKH was also hoping to report about how DKU helps Dankookians prepare for these exams. In the Dankookie, students claimed that the school did not provide a lot of support for those studying the CPA exam. In fact, the university provides a CPA major, however, those students who took and passed the CPA exam were actually from other majors at the university and not accounting.

  When the DKH went to learn more, they had to interview several departments to get to the bottom of the problems. This is because there is no specific authority concerned with promoting the employment rate of our graduates at DKU.

  Thinking this was a promotion and advertising issue, the DKH first approached the university’s promotional team for answers. However, the DKH could not get a satisfactory answer from the promotional department as they said they were not in charge of promoting output. They said, “Our primary focus is on freshmen and test-takers who are preparing to enter DKU so we do not use the employment rate when advertising to them.” They added, “The department of Employment and Career is in charge of the employment rate, intelligence collection and supporting the employment of the students, so talk to them to get a more complete answer.”

  The DKH then attempted to interview to the Employment and Career Centre. The DKH asked if they promote the employment rate of our students, but the answer was the same. They said, “We have nothing to do with promoting employment rates.” They did say however, that sometimes they will promote the rates when external agencies suggest they advertise using the employment rate, when the promotion department needs employment rate data, or when they require data for promotional material to send to an external agency. In other words, the department of promotion plans and examines school’s overall promotion and the department of employment only takes charge of employment matters. This means that there are no departments that take full charge of promoting our student rate of employment.

  At the insistence of the Employment Department, the DKH then approached the Human Resource Development Center (HRDC). The HRDC is attached to DKU and is charged with supervising and helping students prepare for professional exams. The Employment Department of DKU promotes the classes the college offers to assist students in preparing for these examinations. For instance, DKU created special classes for seniors to assist them in preparing for exams such as the CPA. The HRDC mentioned these examination classes were originally the responsibility of HRDC, and DKU was able to manage them centrally, but recently the responsibility was shifted to each individual applicable college.

  The DKH wanted to know how DKU handled promotion of the successful student examination rate. Kim Yi-dong who works in HRDC said, “Our students don’t pass the examinations at a greater rate than other universities.” He also pointed out that Dankookians were not actually applying for the professional exams. According to Kim, many students are afraid of taking the examination and that the ratio of successful applicants for examination is very low as compare to other universities. For example, while DKU may have one student that passed the civil service exam, another that passed the bar exam, and another that passed the technique examination, other universities were releasing success rates of five or six students per subject on average. DKU has released the rate of success in the civil service exams for the last 10 years. Therefore, promoting this kind of success rate in relation to other colleges, would not improve our public image.

  Mr. Kim said, “Our hope is first that many students find the courage to study for these examinations.” Dankookians are filled with fear, so they don’t apply for the examination study classes, so the participation rate is very low as compared to other universities. DKU needs to promote the examination classes better to students, so that more take the classes and the exams.

  Despite these challenges, the rate of success in 2016 was much greater than previous years. Mr. Kim said, “We need an examination boom where many students make an attempt at studying and passing. I believe this year’s results will affect the confidence of many students to apply for these exams.”

  Students still have questions about the support offered for the examination classes. Some Dankookians claim that DKU should provide more support to students, because they think they get less as compared to other universities. However, the opinion of HRDC was different. DKU supports 40% of students taking an exam preparation class at DKU. They get a 50% tuition scholarship and free housing. Also, DKU manages five different classes, including the civil service examination, the technique examination, bar examination, CPA examination, and the teacher certification examination. Before 2016, these classes were under control of HRDC, but from 2016 onwards, these classes will be administered by professors. Other major students can participate in the classes after taking a knowledge test and passing an interview with the professor in charge.

  DKU provides many benefits to students, so that they can pass professional examinations. However, many students need to develop a keen interest and find the courage to study and write these examinations. After few years, if Dankookians get a much higher ratio of successful applicants, DKU will promote their results and ultimately raise the profile of the college.