On the first page of the Chung-Ang daily news was the annual university ranking, with some rather pleasant news for CAU's students. CAU is now for the first time ever officially inside the top 10 of the university ranking, scoring a total of 228 points and 10th in the overall ranking. The evaluation was done by the Chung-Ang daily news’s Institute for Educational Development.
When taking a look at the evaluation in detail most contents have a very nice ranking, but some parts definitely need to be looked at more closely. For instance, despite the fact that CAU is attempting very hard to get more students into dormitories, the ranking for dormitory accommodation rate was a quite embarrassing 74th with only 10.26% of the students being facilitated with dorms. Even though the new dormitory was built, apparently this is not enough in the standards of highly ranked universities. However not only this, but the professor recruiting rate ranked 47th with 91.40%. Other than these two, looking at educational conditions and financial issues, not including from the student recruit rate and the rate of lecture assessment publication (which were both 1st with 100% like most universities), not a single assessment was inside rank at least10th. The whole assessment of education conditions and financial issues was actually 18th, while all the other contents were 6th, 7th and 8th (faculty training, globalization, reputation and advancement in society). This shows that CAU should definitely be trying to work harder on things related with education conditions and financial issues. The rest of the evaluation scores were amicable, but some rather sensitive aspects such as employment rates failed to reach the 11th mark, remaining at 20th at 61.6%.
Many consider the rank of CAU as quite stable with potential of going much higher in the future, considering the fact that the university in 11th has a score difference of 18 (210) and that the university in front has a difference of only 3 (231). This may seem true at the current pace and environment, however the two campuses of CAU will be combined by the 2012 and this will definitely have a huge impact on the 2012 university assessment since the An-sung campus ranked 35th in this year’s assessment. The An-Sung campus has been judged by many of its students as “thrown away” or “dumped”. A series of postings in the CAU community homepage, CAUIN, in late September show clear evidence of the An-Sung campus’s current state. So the Chung-Ang herald went to see for ourselves and took pictures of the scene as well. However, traces of the An-Sung campus of being “thrown away” were found, but were actually very difficult to find, and the campus itself looked very beautiful overall with nature everywhere. However the photos of the An-sung campus definitely exist and whether the university evaluation falls or not, CAU should be doing something about it.
The university assessment definitely has improved CAU’s image and shows that Doosan is being very influential. However one aspect in particular needs to be pointed out. It’s the fact that student-university communication seems to be rather meager for a university ranking 10th. Just this September, there was a protest held by the Female student council demanding that the school stop impractical restructuring and actively reflect student’s opinions. Also, all the students from the home education department could not hide the shock when they realized that their department was going to be closed with almost no notice. Protests from the home education department has been in progression ever since, but CAU has seemingly turned a deaf ear to the protests and complaints from the home education department and many other students who have noticed the matter. CAU should try to communicate with students more before making huge decisions such as closing a department and should develop a stronger sense of responsibility when carrying out a certain policy.
Our university has become 10th. This is a great achievement and honor, but CAU should keep in mind that actions speak more than words or even evaluations. However high the evaluations are, the most important thing is that the university is favorable to the students. But since this is just the beginning of CAU ranking in the top 10, there is definitely room for a change.