As artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the landscape across industries, Dongseo University has declared the launch of Korea's first AI-era creative convergence arts college, integrating film, design and media content. Moving away from department-centered education, the university puts forward a new education model in which students design their own majors and career paths, and is expected to set a new milestone in Korea's arts education.
Dongseo University announced Wednesday that it will hold the "STELLAR ARTS INSTITUTE Symposium and Launch Ceremony" at the Centum Campus Convention Hall on Thursday. The event, held ahead of the official launch in March next year, is an occasion to formally present the vision and direction of education innovation of the Stellar Arts Institute to internal and external audiences.
The Stellar Arts Institute is a college formed by integrating the existing College of Design, College of Media Content, and Im Kwon-taek College of Film and Performing Arts. The university explained, "To respond to an industrial environment where creativity, technology and storytelling converge in the AI era, we have boldly broken down the existing department-centered system and built a convergence-type education system."
The core is student-centered education design. The university will introduce a major-free system in which students do not fix their major at the admission stage but can choose their major according to their aptitude and career path during their studies. The idea is to lower barriers between majors so students can flexibly respond to the fast-changing content and cultural industries.
Another pillar of the education innovation is cooperation with the Minerva Project, a world-renowned innovative education institution. Dongseo University signed a strategic partnership with the Minerva Project last year, and plans to apply project-based learning, an active online education platform, and global campus-linked education to the arts field.
The academic structure will also change significantly. In addition to the existing 14 majors including design, film, broadcasting, games, webtoons and musicals, the university will establish three future-oriented convergence majors—transmedia systems, sustainable systems design, and brand communication systems—creating a system of 17 majors in total.
In particular, the university plans to strengthen curricula that converge content production, design, brand strategy and storytelling based on AI and digital technology, cultivating creative talent demanded in the industry.
The curriculum has a four-stage structure that ranges from a stage of building foundational thinking capabilities to creative common competencies, convergence major competencies, and a specialization process. It focuses on cultivating talent equipped with problem-solving abilities and creative thinking beyond the simple acquisition of functions and techniques.
Dongseo University ranked 11th in Korea in the art and design field in the recently announced QS World University Rankings. It was the only university outside the Seoul metropolitan area to make the rankings, and it was also selected for the government's Glocal University 30 project, receiving large-scale financial support over the next five years.
The university views the Stellar Arts Institute not as a simple academic reorganization but as the starting point of a paradigm shift in future arts education. Amid rapid changes in the content industry and the arts creation environment driven by AI technology development, the university aims to present a new model for cultivating talent equipped with creativity and technology convergence capabilities.
Chang Je-kuk, president of Dongseo University, said, "The Stellar Arts Institute will grow beyond a simple arts college into an arts education platform representing Asia in the AI transformation (AX) era," adding, "We will make it a hub for cultivating creative talent that solves the problems of the region and industry."
