A professor at one of South Korea's four science and technology institutes recently told this reporter of concerns over the country's 2028 college admissions overhaul. "We proposed to education authorities that the institutes, at the very least, be allowed to count Mathematics II in their admissions criteria, but it was not accepted," the professor said. Science and engineering schools must teach the foundations of engineering based on calculus, the argument goes, and if more students enroll without having studied the necessary math, running major courses properly becomes difficult.
The problem is not confined to the institutes. Ahead of the 2028 admissions overhaul, science and engineering professors at major universities share the same worry. Calculus and geometry, currently elective subjects in the math section of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), will be revised starting with the 2028 admissions cycle. The new CSAT will test only algebra, Calculus I, and probability and statistics. Calculus does not disappear entirely, but Calculus II — covering the limits of sequences and the differentiation and integration of various functions — and geometry — covering quadratic curves, spatial figures and vectors — will be dropped from the test's scope. Even students hoping to pursue science and engineering have relatively little incentive to take subjects that do not appear on the CSAT.
For this reason, admissions officials and science and engineering professors at some top universities have recently proposed to education authorities a way to reasonably reflect the advanced high school subjects needed for major study in college admissions. The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) is also said to have recently recommended to education authorities that the science and technology institutes, at least, reflect advanced mathematics in their admissions. In April, MSIT issued a call for a research project titled "Diagnosing the Basic Academic Skills Crisis of Science and Engineering Talent in the AI Era and Devising Measures to Strengthen Capabilities," and is examining the relationship between completing high school math and science subjects and the basic academic skills and achievement of incoming university students. The aim is to review the need to complete advanced subjects in the high school curriculum and to propose measures for universities to make up for gaps in basic academic skills.
But the admissions system is finalized years in advance to reduce confusion for students and schools, making it hard to change the framework in a short time. Education authorities also worry that if advanced mathematics carries greater weight in admissions, students' study burden and demand for private tutoring could increase, leaving them little choice but to be cautious about expanding how much individual universities count it.
The education authorities' concern over overheated private education is understandable, of course. And because admissions policy is decided years in advance, improving the system now will not be easy. But for a country aiming to become one of the world's top three AI powers, time is not on our side either. The government's goal of joining the top three requires people who can design new AI models, algorithms and semiconductors — the source technologies themselves. And the foundation of nurturing such talent is mathematics: calculus, linear algebra, and probability and statistics. Beyond AI, the shortage of talent in the technology markets to be seized next, such as quantum and space, is also severe. In this situation, a policy that promises to swiftly cultivate tens of thousands of advanced talents by re-teaching in college the math they learned less of in high school does not add up. That is why the two ministries must sit down together, without delay, to find a way to shore up the current system.
