• College of Cultural Science

Department of Humanities & Social Sciences

Introduction

The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences plays a unique and important role at KAIST. Although it has only nineteen faculty members, the department, as an independent educational and research unit within the University, is responsible for instruction and research in all fields excluding science and technology. The significance of a rich education in the humanities and social science to an institution like the KAIST, which is so focused on science and technology, is self-evident. The department's curriculum consists of: requisite courses in Korean writing, English, and physical education; and elective courses in the three areas of "Humanities," "Social Science" and "Literature and Arts."
We strive to provide the best education possible by unceasingly expanding our curriculum, offering varied and in-depth courses, and improving our pedagogical methods to ensure students' active participation and the maximal development of their creativity. In addition, our auxiliary facilities and programs such as the Humanities and Social Science Research Institute's special lectures and reading program for freshmen, the Language Center's various programs, and opportunities for participation in extracurricular sports clubs further help to enrich the education that we provide.
The excellence of the research produced by the department's faculty members has been objectively proven by KAIST being ranked first in an evaluation of the humanities and social sciences education offered by universities nationwide that was conducted by the daily Joong-Ang Ilbo. In the future, we will continue to maintain our distinction in both undergraduate instruction and research and maximize both our faculty members' competence and KAIST's special characteristics by actively making use of the Language Center, the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Institute, sports club activities, interdisciplinary majors, and certificate programs

Mission

With the increasing specialization of labor and unceasing expansion of the sheer amount of knowledge and information available, individuals in contemporary society are becoming narrowly functional in their respective fields. This is true also of academia, which is witnessing what may be termed as "specialty chauvinism." Such phenomena not only give rise to many social problems today, but also serve to restrict the creativity and potential in each major. Stemming from an awareness of these problems, the liberal arts education provided by institutions of higher learning aims at recovering a cultural balance. KAIST is a science and technology university characterized by a large number of entrants in the undergraduate program who have completed their secondary education prematurely. While conducive to the maximum efficiency of a science and technology education, this can also prevent our students from building a comprehensive understanding of fellow human beings and society at large and lead them to be restricted to their majors from an unduly early stage in their academic careers. The department of Humanities and Social Sciences continuously strives to mitigate such limitations in the university's academic affairs by developing and revising the curriculum and qualitatively improving the education that we provide

Major Activities

Education and research in the humanities and social sciences
Management of the academic and campus life advisor system for students without declared majors.
Management of the Language Center for foreign language education
Management and maintenance of sports facilities