Dankook University announced Wednesday that it has received an S rating — the highest possible — for the third consecutive year in the 2026 University Innovation Support Project performance evaluation, administered by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea.
"Earning the S rating three years in a row carries great significance in that Dankook's student-centered approach to educational innovation has been continuously recognized for both its direction and results," said President Ahn Soon-cheol. "We will further raise the quality and competitiveness of our education so that students can develop the capabilities to lead tomorrow's society, while proactively responding to a changing educational environment."
The University Innovation Support Project is designed to help universities improve educational quality and cultivate future talent through autonomous reform. A total of 141 universities nationwide participate, including 64 in the Greater Seoul metropolitan area. Dankook earned its high marks by pursuing four initiatives: restructuring its borderless education framework, redesigning a sustainable student-growth system, driving educational innovation through a hyper-connected platform, and reorganizing its future-oriented educational ecosystem.
Starting with the 2025 academic year, the university began selecting more than 33 percent of its incoming students through a free-major selection system, and expanded the pool of students admitted under "Type 1," which allows them to freely choose their major. Notably, the Cheonan Campus — located outside the Greater Seoul metropolitan area — voluntarily adopted a wide-area recruitment model, significantly broadening students' freedom to choose their field of study.
Through the Toegye-Yulgok Innovation College, the dedicated organization overseeing the free-major selection system, the university has provided structured support for students' major exploration and career planning. As a result, 97.2 percent of students admitted through the system were placed in their first-choice major.
Dankook supports each student's growth through DanCare, a comprehensive platform covering everything from major exploration to overall campus life. The system is linked with AX-EL (AI Transformation for Engaging Learning), an AI-based educational support framework, and YOUNG웅스토리+, a student competency management system.
Building on its in-house AX-EL platform, the university developed 58 content modules to help students explore potential majors. It also operates an "AI learning community" in which students independently use AI tools to study and solve problems — a program that has drawn 2,758 participants. The university has also invested heavily in expanding its educational infrastructure.
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