In 2013, a 17-year-old boy named Amu Babey, living in India, was accepted into MIT. He achieved a high score of 97 in a public course offered online by MIT. The professor in charge highly valued his talent and potential, and wrote a recommendation letter for his admission to MIT. The secret behind this boy from a small town in India getting accepted into MIT, a place he had never visited, lies in the accessibility of online education. Anyone can take courses from world-renowned scholars online for free, without any limit on enrollment. Currently, there are over 400 universities in the United States offering MOOC courses, and the number of registered courses is expected to reach 2,400 in the second half of this year. Professors and students can ask questions and engage in discussions online. They are also required to submit assignments and take exams, and they can earn degrees as well. MOOCs, which started in the United States, are spreading globally. For example, Coursera, which began its service in 2012, has surpassed 10,000 students and was created in collaboration with Harvard and MIT.

In the case of Ed, the number has exceeded 3 million. The European MOOC has expanded to Spanish and Portuguese-speaking South America. In Japan, Jake was launched in 2013, and in China, Peking University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology are leading the development of MOOCs in Asia. We need to teach better, especially because we have the best environment, but most MOOCs are conducted in English, which creates a language barrier, preventing us from fully experiencing the power of MOOCs. In 2012, The New York Times named MOOCs the most revolutionary event in education, and there are predictions that half of universities will disappear within the next 15 years due to the development of MOOCs. Is this an educational revolution or just a passing trend? Amid this controversy, K-MOOC is launched. Last spring, the government selected ten universities for the K-MOOC initiative.

A total of 48 universities applied, and one of the four-year universities was selected, with a competition ratio of 4.8 to 1. The reason universities are diving into MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) lies in their sense of crisis. In 2013, there were 631,000 high school graduates, but by 2018, that number had decreased to 549,000. From that point on, even if all high school graduates pursued higher education, universities could not fill their quotas. By 2030, that number is expected to decrease further, putting about half of the current universities at risk of closure. Given this situation, the government is tightening the reins on structural reforms. Recently, in university evaluations, 32 general universities and 34 vocational universities received grades of D or lower, which means they will face restrictions in university support projects and scholarship loans. With the stigma of being labeled as underperforming universities, they are effectively on a path to being phased out. Our university is currently focusing on lifelong education and vocational training.

We are being asked to transition into an institution. If we do not change both internally and externally during the era of MOOCs, universities will inevitably find it difficult to establish their place amidst the uncertainty of the future. This is Hwang from EBS News.

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Republic of Korea's station EBS, News