The Departments of Political Science and International Relations will merge to become a single department beginning next year. Whereas previously each department oversaw its own major, the resulting department will work as a larger administrative department for both majors. Following the merger, student capacity will increase by 20 students from the original total of 74 that entered each department last winter. Consequently, current first-year students will now be able to enter the merged poli sci-IR department.

The merger was approved at the main meeting of the University Council on April 29 - with a unanimous vote. The merger was positively reviewed by Lim Hyun-Chin, dean of the College of Social Sciences, who commented,"A merger is necessary at a time like this when proposals for the fusing of departments are being made for the purpose of improving education and research all around the world." The merger will allow increased recruiting of professors and students as well as facilitating simpler management operations.

The Department of Political Science was established in 1946, and that of international relations a decade afterwards. Proposals for the merger of the two were discussed on several occasions since their establishment - the last time being in 1990. The international relations faculty had opposed the scheme then. The merger was made possible this year by a sudden change in their stance.

The University administration, in order to avoid possible disadvantages students could suffer due to the merger, will be careful to honor the students' positions in each of the existing majors. The Office of Academic Affairs explained,"Students planning on double majoring in political science or international relations can choose either major within the new poli sci-IR system." For current students majoring in political science or international relations, they clearly announced that"students will be able to choose either their original major or the merged one according to their wishes upon graduation."

Nevertheless, additional discussion seems necessary as the period for choosing majors is not yet agreed upon. While the common commission suggested the division of majors to take place as students enter their sophomore year, the international relations department stands firm the division"should take place during the second semester of the sophomore year", as many students go abroad on exchange programs largely indebted to the characteristics of the IR department.

First-year students at the College of Social Sciences enter the university as 'undergraduate social sciences studies' majors and are assigned their majors at the end of the year through the"freshmen major-entry process" administrated by the College. This system was introduced in 2002 and there are nine majors students can choose from: political science, international relations, economics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, geography, social welfare, and communications. Majors are then assigned to students according to their stated preferences and cumulative GPAs.

Applications for the political science department this year reached a record high of 54 students while competition for the international relations department trailed closely behind with 43 students applying. Each department has an official class size limit of 27. Thirty students -110% of the class size - were accepted to each department in addition to several other supernumerary and department-transfer students. It remains to be seen how the poli sci-IR merge will affect students' preferences for these two popular fields of study.

May 25, 2010
Written by Bo Young LEE, SNU English Editor