Among the academic scholarships at Chung-Ang University, the most well-known is the Grade Improvement Scholarship. By focusing on the aspect of “growth” rather than simply the applicant’s score itself, students can receive a relatively large scholarship. Therefore, students with a wider range can get the benefit. The goal of this scholarship is to get many students motivated and to gain confidence in their future studies. However, it was discovered that this scholarship is not currently being implemented according to its existing goals and objectives. Let's look at the problems of the Grade Improvement Scholarship system and how to improve it with CAH.
1. What is a Grade Improvement Scholarship?
a. Competitors and Selection Criteria
The Grade Improvement Scholarship is one of the scholarship programs implemented to create a healthy atmosphere for students to study and motivate them for academic achievement. The implementation notice is posted on the school portal at the beginning of each semester, and applications for the 2022-1 semester were available from April 11th to 29th. Undergraduate students of the semester who are not already on a full-ride scholarship and pay some tuition can apply for this scholarship. After applying for the scholarship, students need to do a mentoring session with the desired professor and submit a confirmation letter. During the non-face-to-face semesters in 2020 and 2021, due to COVID-19, this process was temporarily omitted but it was revived in the first semester of 2022. The evaluation method for selecting scholarship students is classified into four groups [1]according to the GPA obtained the previous semester. Of course, the number of people selected is determined according to the ratio of applicants for each evaluation group. All evaluation groups are divided into relative and absolute evaluation groups to compete. Selections are made in the order of the largest difference between the GPA of the current semester and the GPA of the previous semester.
b. Distribution of Scholarship
One of the reasons students are excited about the Grade Improvement Scholarship is the amount of the scholarship. If students are selected, a payment of around 1 million won is directly deposited into the student's account. In the case of student loan borrowers, this goes directly to paying off their loan. Assuming that a student pays 3.95 million won for tuition (the average tuition for a semester on campus in 2022), let's compare it with the general academic excellence scholarship. Based on the scholarship students for the first semester of the 2022 academic year, if a student becomes the top undergraduate student of their whole major, they will receive a total of 30% of the tuition fee as a scholarship. If they become a top student of their grade, they will receive a total of 17% of the tuition. The scholarship is about 1.2 million won for the top undergraduate students of the whole major and about 670,000 won for top undergraduate students in their grade. Comparing the difficulty level, students in the lower grades will receive a scholarship equivalent to the top of the academic year or higher, and many students are inevitably interested in the Grade Improvement Scholarship. This scholarship is preferred by many students because it comes from improving their own grades.
2. Problems with Current System
a. Futility of Academic Planning
However, there are several shortcomings in the operation of the current Grade Improvement Scholarship system. The problem is that the contents of the study plan submitted when applying for scholarships are not subject to actual evaluation. To apply for the Grade Improvement Scholarship, students must submit a 1,000-word plan on how to improve their grades on the portal. If you check the implementation notice, there is no mention that the plan is directly subjected to evaluation. However, writing in detail about the study plan for one semester is an important step in drawing up a blueprint of what kind of changes and efforts the student will go through, step by step, to receive this scholarship. Nevertheless, this aspect is not included in the evaluation when scholarships are awarded, so it is often seen that students do not take this seriously. If you search for the keyword “Grade Improvement Scholarship” in Everytime[2], you can find articles that are concerned about what to write about the study plan for the scholarship. There are people who ask questions in Everytime because they are not familiar with the system, or it is their first time applying for the Grade Improvement Scholarship. In a question related to the study plan for the Grade Improvement Scholarship written on April 21st, an anonymous reply said, “I received this scholarship after roughly writing this one sentence: I will do my best.” The answerer implicitly implied that the plan is not subject to evaluation. If the goal is to see students take initiative and develop a plan to improve their grades, wouldn't it be necessary to evaluate this? It is true that the scholarship itself is focused on improving grades. Although it was initially announced that the selection method was to select the students with the largest difference in grades, it is also important for students to have a sincere appearance and to achieve planned results in the step-by-step development of their studies.
b. One-Time Perfunctory Mentoring
Mentoring with the professor in charge once in the corresponding semester is a condition to get the Grade Improvement Scholarship. This mentoring session can be seen as the purpose of receiving confirmation of having the mentoring itself, not about the content. However, it is difficult to achieve much through only one mentoring session during the semester. At the beginning of the semester, when a student submits a study plan to receive the Grade Improvement Scholarship, students then must choose the guidance professor. Then, the professor checks once whether the student is performing well and gives feedback. While this may be sufficient for some students, those who struggle with their subject need ongoing management. Management might be checking if the student's academic plan does not match the speed of following their class, or if the student is interested in a specific subject and needs career counseling with the professor. Limiting the number of mentoring sessions to just one has the aspect of limiting the development potential of students because mentoring is not only a learning attitude but also a time that can guide the learning direction of the subject and relate to the student's career path.
c. One-Shot Effect
In reality, the number of times the Grade Improvement Scholarship can be received is practically limited, so the long-term effect on academics is insignificant in the case of this one-off scholarship. It is a concern that academic tensions may naturally decrease after a student achieves an improvement in their GPA through a step-by-step effort. In fact, in an interview with a student at the School of Business Administration, who was selected for a Grade Improvement Scholarship in the first semester of the 2021 academic year, they said, “I was able to feel rewarded through the Grade Improvement Scholarship, but it seems to have stalled after I greatly improved my grades. It was difficult to establish and maintain a steady study plan for the following semester, and it seems that one scholarship did not actually improve the learning attitude in the long term.” Of course, generally, most academic scholarships do not manage or check learning after payment, but this needs to change. The school should provide various means so that students do not stagnate in their studies. One way to do this is to hold a related open workshop or open seminar with awardees so that they can continue to devote themselves to their studies after their GPA has risen. While conducting regular seminars, students can create a program to exchange opinions on what activities they are doing after receiving a scholarship or conduct a voluntary participatory workshop on how to plan a career under the guidance of a professor. In addition, if some of the scholarship recipients are selected as “Grade Improvement” mentors and run a mentoring program that educates and leads new students who try to establish and implement an academic plan, the mentor and mentee will positively influence each other and re-establish academic tension. Students will be able to elevate it and ignite a passion for their studies.
It cannot be denied that the Grade Improvement Scholarship is special in that it is an opportunity for students with a wider academic range to receive scholarships. However, it is true that there are some points to be improved in the process. The school must go through the process of correcting and helping students to make sure that they come up with an academic plan that they can actually put into practice. In addition, sufficient and professional feedback from the guidance professor is needed on how the development process achieved the academic improvement. Although it would be best for students to consistently set up and manage their own academic plans, the school needs to change through system improvement. The core purpose of the scholarship is to provide a structure and basic framework so that students can continue their studies constructively in the future, rather than simply providing money as a means of encouragement.