2024 University Academic Innovation and Best Practices Forum

- KCUE aspires to be an academic hub for higher education.

- Best practices in university academic affairs programs and operations to be identified and disseminated throughout 2025.

□ The Korean Council for University Education (KCUE), chaired by Park Sang-Gue, President of Chung-Ang University, held the 2024 University Academic Innovation and Best Practices Forum on December 18 at the Sapphire Hall of the Peace & Park Convention Center. The forum was livestreamed on KCUE’s official YouTube channel @kcue-adagatv.

□ KCUE and the Ministry of Education are providing a range of support to create a foundation and favorable conditions to ensure that the government's policy of promoting the academic autonomy of universities is fully incorporated into university based on their own circumstances through the University Autonomy Capacity Building Project.

□ This forum featured a keynote lecture on best practices in university academic innovation (principal investigator: Prof. Ko Jang Wan, Sungkyunkwan University College of Education) and case studies of five universities selected for excellence in academic fields. The aim was to strengthen support for the capacity building of universities in academic affairs as the foundation of university management.

□ Professor Ko, in his keynote speech entitled "University Academic Innovation: Cases and Prospects," highlighted the efforts and results of academic innovation by analyzing successful cases. He also called for substantial changes in the roles of universities, KCUE and the government.

□ Another highlight of the forum was the presentation of empirical case studies on academic innovation, taking into account the characteristics and orientations of individual universities in order to gain concrete insights on how to improve their academic management practices, as well as presentations that focused on efforts and action plans to effectively translate these efforts into practice.

□ The presenters of the best practices agreed that although the innovation cases of individual universities are not readily applicable to all universities, there is a need for a forum for exchange among universities to make these best practices scalable. They also suggested that in order to prepare for the next-generation of technological innovation, flexibility in academic management in response to changes in the higher education landscape is essential, and therefore inter-university cooperation in academic affairs is necessary.

□ KCUE Chairman Park Sang-Gue noted that KCUE will strive to establish a field-oriented autonomy system that supports universities' dynamic innovation and response to the expansion of universities' academic autonomy.

□ The KCUE office of Educational Affairs Support Team will continue to provide support to help universities build an autonomous academic affairs management system that ensures flexibility in responding to social demands through coordination and consultation at the working level.