The city of Seoul is introducing a new lifelong learning model called the “Subscription University Course,” which breaks away from traditional frameworks. The Seoul Metropolitan Institute for Lifelong Education announced that starting in July, they will pilot a customized program called “Subscription University,” where citizens can directly choose and attend courses they are interested in.
Unlike traditional university-linked programs that mainly focus on vocational training, Subscription University is structured around intellectual curiosity and self-development, featuring subjects such as humanities, culture and arts, and AI/digital. Citizens can subscribe to their desired courses, similar to choosing articles from a newspaper or OTT services, allowing for preference-based personalized learning.
This pilot operation will involve ten major universities in Seoul, including Konkuk University, Kyung Hee University, Korea University, Seoul National University, Sungkyunkwan University, Yonsei University, Ewha Womans University, Chung-Ang University, Korean Bible University, and Hongik University. These universities will offer a total of 15 courses, with faculty directly teaching on each campus. The classes will be small, accommodating 20-50 students, and most will be held between mid-July and November.
Participants will have the opportunity to experience real lectures and the unique atmosphere of university campuses that they may have always wanted to visit. For example, Yonsei University will offer a class with a semiconductor-related professor on digital technology in everyday life, while Hongik University will provide experiential lectures themed around artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso. Kyung Hee University will combine theory and practice in a course on traditional Korean health care.
This program is a part of the “Seoul My College” initiative for enhancing the vocational competencies of middle-aged citizens in Seoul, with the scope of participant universities expanded. Ten new universities are joining the existing 17, thereby broadening the lifelong learning cooperative ecosystem between Seoul City and the universities.
Course registration begins on July 1, through the Seoul Lifelong Learning Portal (within the Seoul Citizen College → Seoul My College menu), and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. All courses are offered free of charge to Seoul citizens or residents.
The Seoul Metropolitan Institute for Lifelong Education plans to expand “Subscription University” in various ways, including citizen-suggested courses and campus experience-linked programs, based on the results of this pilot program.
Han Yong-jin, the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Institute for Lifelong Education, stated, “Subscription University is a new experiment where citizens can choose what they want to learn, and universities support that learning. We will evolve into a city-wide campus-style lifelong learning model.”