The Education Ministry has authorized five new online universities, which are expected to open next year, officials said Wednesday.

Konyang University in South Chungcheong Province has been approved by the ministry to provide undergraduate online courses, which will be available next March. For graduate courses, four universities, Daegu, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Sejong and Hanyang, were given permission to open special purpose online graduate schools.

The Konyang online university will provide six courses including psychological counseling, multi-culture and Korean language, finance and real estate to about 900 freshmen. Four other online graduate schools will provide their traditional special majors online. HUFS is expected to offer courses on Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and Hanyang University education technology.

The authorization of the five online universities came after seven months of written and on-site evaluation, followed by evaluation review meetings of a committee for online university evaluation organized by the Education Ministry, officials said.

“The ministry will review performance of online universities thoroughly and increase support for excellent online universities,” said Huh Jae-yong, director of E-learning division at the ministry. 


By Lee Woo-young
(wylee@heraldcorp.com)