From January 30, the Korean government relaxed almost all COVID regulations, with people no longer required to wear masks in most places, bar a few exceptions. The change to the regulations brought changes to SeoulTech's campus as well, with SeoulTech's international students being one group now getting a fuller experience of SeoulTech. The campus is an important space for international students, who are studying away from their home country, and it is important to understand how they feel about their life on campus.

According to a survey conducted by The SeoulTech in 2021, during the peak of COVID regulations, international students found campus life to be somewhat limited. However, all of them responded that they were satisfied with campus life overall. Now times are different: more interactions between students are possible and it seems like we are back to our precious "normal" life, free of COVID regulations. Given this, The SeoulTech carried out a new survey to ask international students about their satisfaction with campus life this semester. Twenty one exchange students, ten undergraduates or graduate students, and five language students replied to the survey.

 

One question asked the students whether they are satisfied with campus life in general, with most respondents saying ‘yes’ and 45% saying they are ‘very satisfied.’

When we asked participants if the relaxation of COVID regulations has made campus life better, around two-thirds, 74% of participants who are satisfied with their campus life, said ‘yes.’ In specifying reasons why fewer COVID regulations had increased their satisfaction with campus life, the most common reason for the respondents was that there is now a wider variety of activities taking place on campus. The now-extended frequency of offline classes and the option to wear masks (or not) were also cited as factors.

From the survey, it is clear that the abundant school events that were not available to international students during the pandemic is key for satisfaction with life on campus. Over recent months, SeoulTech has increased the range of school events, with club fairs and school festivals in the most recent two semesters being especially popular. What's more, there are regular events, such as freshmen orientation and Membership Training trips within each of SeoulTech's departments. In addition, ISC (International Students Club) actively managed events for international students, with classic activities such as orientation, campus tour and culture trips being conducted successfully. On top of that, ISC'’s booth at the club fair and school festival, offering cultural activities and Korean translation for international students, went down a treat with all who visited. With Korean classes also now in progress, it seems SeoulTech is providing a more positive environment for international students to enjoy than it could during the pandemic.

Hopefully, this provision will recover to pre-COVID levels or become even better as SeoulTech settle back into now less regulated campus life.



 

Reporter,

Eunkyeul Kim kyeul@g.seoultech.ac.kr

Reporter 김은결

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• e-mail : kyeul@g.seoultech.ac.kr