Until now, exchange student programs in POSTECH have only proceeded under offline conditions—by flying overseas, staying at a foreign university for a semester, and taking classes offered at the visiting school. However, beginning this fall semester, students can now take exchange programs at home, thanks to the newly implemented virtual student exchange program. The virtual student exchange program is a program in which member universities provide mutual online lectures, and students of the member universities take credit-acquirable courses of their interests. Postechians may participate in the virtual student exchange program at schools that are part of the APRU (Association of Pacific Rim Universities), AEARU (Association of East Asian Research Universities), and sister universities such as Arizona State University and the Hong Kong Baptist University.
The two main virtual student exchange programs—APRU VSE (Virtual Student Exchange) and AEARU GLIP (Global Learning Initiatives Program)—have been launched in the 2020 Fall Semester and 2021 Spring Semester respectively, while POSTECH has actively taken part in the programs starting this fall semester. Major universities in the APRU are the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), the University of Sydney, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The National Taiwan University, Nanjing University, and Tsinghua University are some notable schools associated with the AEARU.
POSTECH has participated by opening credit transferrable courses for international students enrolled in the APRU VSE and AERU GLIP. This semester, seven classes from POSTECH were open to virtual exchange students, including Art and Society (ARTS411), Interaction Design Studio (CITE203), and Advanced Numerical Analysis (MATH651). Postechians who applied for the virtual student exchange program were also able to take online courses with academic credit approval beginning this fall.
Yoon Cho-hyun (IME 18), a participant of the APRU VSE, said that his choice to enroll in Advanced Econometrics: Time Series Analysis at Shanghai Jiao Tong University has been an “incredible opportunity.” “I became interested in financial analysis after studying for the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) earlier this year,” explained Yoon. His personal experience of working at a research center securities firm prompted him to enroll in the challenging course which focuses on advanced methods and tools to analyze time series in finance and macroeconomics. “To be honest, the course is quite intimidating as it mainly targets Ph.D. students,” said Yoon. “However, there are opportunities to discuss and share opinions with classmates from various backgrounds,” Yoon added, while also commenting that through enrolling in the course, he was able to develop new perspectives to analyze the market.
The virtual student exchange program is advantageous in that enrolments do not overturn one’s academic affairs at POSTECH, since courses at the virtual exchange university and POSTECH can be taken simultaneously. In addition, students are allowed to participate in the virtual student exchange program multiple times in their college life. During single participation in the virtual student exchange program, students can take up to two courses from several universities. This program allows for Postechians to engage in international experiences in Pohang without physical and fiscal constraints.
Meanwhile, application guidelines for the 2022 Spring Semester virtual student exchange program are to be announced this month.
