'Sociology Department Funeral' Held at Daegu University, Professors and Students Gather Before Department Closure

Daegu University Department of Sociology Suspends Next Year's Freshman Recruitment
Annual Academic Festival Held in Funeral Ceremony Style
"We Don't Think It Can Quietly Disappear Like This"

Professors and students of the Sociology Department at Daegu University, whose recruitment of new students for the 2025 academic year has been suspended, have attracted attention by holding a ‘Sociology Department Funeral.’ On the 7th, the Daegu University Sociology Department Student Council announced on social networking services (SNS), “With the decision to suspend the department’s recruitment this year, we thought it could not quietly disappear like this, so the 2024 Sociology Festival was planned as a slightly special event to remember the Sociology Department.”

On the afternoon of the 7th, a funeral (academic festival) for the Department of Sociology is being held at Daegu University in Gyeongsan-si, Gyeongbuk. Photo by Yonhap News

The Sociology Department at Daegu University holds an academic festival every November, but this year’s festival was held in the form of a funeral to remember the department being closed. The name of the academic festival is ‘Memorial Party.’ Due to the decline in the school-age population, Daegu University plans to suspend recruitment of new students for six departments in the 2025 academic year, including the Sociology Department, the School of Law (Law Major and Public Safety Law Major), the Department of Forest Resources, the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (Information and Communication Engineering Major), the AI Department, and the Jewelry Design Department. Thus, the Sociology Department, established in 1979, will disappear into history after 45 years.

At the ‘Sociology Department Funeral’ held that day, students dressed in black suits visited the Sociology Department’s funeral hall set up in the Nuri Yard of the College of Social Sciences at Daegu University, signing the guestbook and offering flowers. There were also condolence wreaths sent from the Sociology Departments of Sogang University and Pusan National University at the funeral hall. At the place where the portrait photo was placed, the phrase ‘Daegu University Sociology Department’ was written, and various sociology books were placed around it.

On the afternoon of the 7th, a funeral (academic festival) for the Department of Sociology is being held at Daegu University in Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk. Photo by Yonhap News

During the main academic festival, academic presentations and discussions were held under the title ‘Viewing Modern Society through the Lens of Sociology.’ Among them, student Donghyun Lee from the Sociology Department gave a presentation titled ‘A Sociological Reflection on the Experience of Department Closure - Focusing on Current Students of the Daegu University Sociology Department.’

According to issue statistics published by the Korea Educational Development Institute in October last year, the enrollment rate of freshmen at four-year general universities and junior colleges was maintained close to 100% until 2020 but sharply declined from 2021. It was reported that only 14 freshmen, less than half of the quota of 31, enrolled in the Daegu University Sociology Department this year. From 2013 to 2022, a total of 4,108 departments were merged or newly established in four-year universities, with 763 cases of mergers in the humanities and social sciences fields, the highest number. In the case of sociology departments, Daegu Catholic University stopped recruiting new students from the 2022 academic year, and Gyeongnam University from the 2023 academic year. It was also reported that sociology departments were abolished at Cheongju University and Paichai University, among others.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.