KAIST has made obvious efforts throughout its history to encourage convergence of multiple fields of science in research. A simple look at the various departments is enough evidence; while most universities offer more solitary, separate degrees for multiple fields, KAIST offers degrees that merge two degrees altogether, such as the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering or the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. KAIST also has a couple of niche departments like the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, and uniquely named departments like the School of Computing. With this pool of very distinctive departments, KAIST offers further avenues for students to diversify their degrees. Undergraduate students are required to take either one of a double major, minor, advanced major, or an individually designed major. The latter two are distinctly relevant to KAIST; an advanced major is basically taking more credits for your selected department, while an individually designed major is taking courses from multiple departments.

It can also be seen from the multiple research laboratories of KAIST that most of their research projects are interdisciplinary in nature. It is not strange to hear about students from one department doing research at a laboratory from a different department, mainly because the scope of research that laboratory is doing is more aligned with the student’s interests. Although this is not a surprising concept in academia, it is not commonplace in many other universities around the world. Just from these aspects alone, KAIST is already carving itself a unique identity for allowing its students to explore as much as they would like. And as a university that has already established its reputation nationally (and internationally), it is a risk they can afford to take. 

In many ways, embracing the concept of convergence is a progressive step towards giving students the flexibility to craft their own professional identities in a rapidly-evolving world. In traditional education systems, students are forced to select from boxed-up options of degree paths that do not entirely reflect the depth and variety of interests or skills they possess. A system of education such as that of KAIST will allow students to customize their college experiences to fit their current interests. After all, some students may end up changing their minds halfway through their college years; such flexibility could give them the chance to realign their paths without necessarily throwing out the years worth of studying they’ve already done.

But this flexibility can only be maximized by students who already know what they want to become. A majority of the students are still in the process of figuring out their paths, and even those who may have a bleak idea may not know exactly where to begin. This is where the structured knowledge that comes with the academic curriculum of universities becomes beneficial. It ensures that students will have a solid foundation of whatever field of study they wish to pursue, which is frankly a perennial advantage that universities still hold that convinces younger people to go to college. With so much available information in the Internet nowadays and the vast accessibility of opportunities to propel your lifestyle, it is becoming more normal for people to not go to college and rely on self-studying using online resources to learn. The problem is with the saturation of information online; for most people, it is very difficult to navigate the sheer breadth of knowledge you can access, let alone identify where to start or where to go next. As a result, people tracking down this path end up knowing many disconnected things that lack depth, just as how you would become a jack of all trades. In a world where the knowledge being taught in universities is already this accessible, the structured knowledge that university curricula offer for students is one of its few remaining appeals. Injecting more flexibility into these curricula could dilute this advantage and further diminish the prospect of going to college.

It can also be argued that while the concept of transdisciplinary studies gives birth to several niche fields of interests that have great questions to be tackled, it is way too early for students as early in their undergraduate years to specialize in a small field. Unfortunately, with an academic curriculum as loose as KAIST’s, students will end up having developed a strong understanding of a very narrow area of study, if not having wallopped around multiple subjects of interest without gaining much depth in any of them. There are merits to being extremely good at something particular and niche, but unpredictable situations could arise — one’s interests may suddenly change, a field may slowly turn obsolete, or a million other things could throw your plan off board. Somewhat developing a base of knowledge that allows you to easily move between fields could be more useful. Ironically, this kind of flexibility is something the “flexibility” of transdisciplinary studies does not offer.

With all of this being said, I still believe that the academic structure which KAIST provides is helpful for students to discover their unique identity as future STEM professionals or lobbyists. However, students also need to be careful from falling too deep into the extremes of either having explored too many things that you can’t grow expertise in any one field, or being extremely good at one field that you can’t scale out of. I personally fall more into the former, having double majored in Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science to explore everything I wanted. I do wish I became very good at something in depth, but I realize that with all factors considered, I wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, college is not just about the things you study but also the things you experience outside academics.