ABEEK stands for Accreditation Board for Engineering Education of Korea, which is the certification of qualification for engineers. After the Konkuk University admission in 2016, engineering students in the College of Engineering, Division of Integrated Software and Sanghuh College of Life Sciences must satisfy ABEEK’s requirements in order to graduate. There are three compulsory requirements that are different from ordinary graduation. First, they have to take the courses necessary for certification. Second, they should earn 12 credits in engineering design. Third, they have to register courses according to the ABEEK order. It means that students can register for some courses only if they take lectures which are needed to understand that courses.

According to an interview with Kang Hye-jin, a senior researcher in the Institute of Engineering Education in KU, ABEEK is designed to make

the engineering curriculum reflect the demands of the industry. Engineering is the study that is highly connected to industry. Therefore, ABEEK gets feedback from the industries once every six years in order to make the curriculum appropriate for practical affairs. For example, if the industry claims that the employees lack communication ability, the authorities of ABEEK change the curriculum in order to reinforce team project activities. The authorities also set an examination to evaluate the students’ learning achievements. They utilize the outcome of the exam to manage the educational standard.

In KU, students who muti major in the departments related to engineering can decide whether they will follow ABEEK’s curriculum or not. The senior researcher said the reason that the authorities do not compel them to complete the curriculum is that because they must satisfy graduation requirements of both majors, their

credits are not enough to attend those lectures. Moreover, the transfer students who enrolled in KU in 2017 have an option to finish ABEEK’s curriculum. However, as the policy changes, the 2018’s transfer students must finish it in order to graduate.

Engineering students who complete ABEEK’s course can be acknowledged for their graduation internationally. There are many foreign exchange students in KU. If they return to their country, they will have to register their degree. In that situation, ABEEK will enable their graduation to get the credit. There are also many Korean students who consider getting a job abroad. As ABEEK degree is acknowledged all over the world, they can easily get the credit for ready engineers. In Korea, companies also prefer university graduates who finish an ABEEK course because the course is optimized for practical affairs at the industry.

By Hwang Byeong-ki