[Digital Animation Students’ Comments on the Study Field – SFC’s First Meeting]
Dear SFC Committee,
The following paragraphs summarize the major student issues regarding the current study program(Animation Major) as of 19.03.2025.
1. Internships, the fraction of students qualifying for internships is insubstantial. There are no placement programs where there are guaranteed spots for the best performers in the class.
2. We need mentorship programs, the program should fulfill the following criteria:
A. Guide students to specialize, there is the unfortunately common case where even in the 4th year students are unsure of their specialization.- B. Consult students, there should be weekly check-ins with the relevant mentors where the student discusses strategy for the student's career and receives feedback on the work completed during the week.
C. Help students understand the positions available, there is little to no exposure to professionals in the local industry. There should be frequent visits from experts from the industry. Most students do not have an understanding of what the current market demands are and what are the current trends. - 3. Licensing of programs, crucial software like Zbrush, Substance Painter, and Adobe Suite are not available to us. While the university is spending a lot of resources on expensive Nuke licenses, which are secondary to students' learning outside of film, most students are struggling to acquire licenses for essential software, such as Zbrush. Dongseo hasn’t given us student emails or hasn't issued student identity cards - these are the two criteria that we need to fulfill to obtain student licenses from the vendors directly, which is currently impossible for us.
- 4. Scholarship programs and financial relief programs are not offered to bachelor’s students, there should be a system established for Merit-based and/or Need-based scholarships. A number of anonymous students are resorting to extreme measures because they don’t have the financial resources to finish the program, this affects them mentally and physically hindering their performance. The minimum should include tuition fee waiver and/or dormitory fee waiver spots, ideally fully funded sports where the students receive a designated amount from the university. Scholarships should have a number of seats already allocated and students should simply qualify for it. Education should be accessible to everyone, not just to the ones who can afford it.
- 5. Even though the current curriculum cannot be changed except for the course order, we propose for the future year students the following program structure change: classes such as figure drawing, visual effects, and compositing should be classified as an elective and students who have decided on their specialty should be able to choose from these workshop classes A. Environment Modeling Workshop B. Character Modeling Workshop. C. Animation Workshop. These should be designed to work in parallel to theexisting Environment and Character courses. In the current state of the program, the student is suffocated by classes that do not contribute to the relevant skill set in a meaningful way. These classes essentially steal time away from the student that should have been spent on intensive training in their specialty. The low amount of hours per specialty is one of the significant contributing factors to the low quality of graduate portfolios.
- 6. Dividing the classes as illustrated in point 5 would also solve the issue of the class size. Currently, professors are overworked, and their attention is stretched thin across 30 students per semester.
We hope our words helped to shed some light on the matter and contributed to a better understanding of the fundamental problems with the program that are causing low placement rates of graduates.
We hope you take our words in good faith, and look forward to bettering our program for us, and for many future generations.
Yours Sincerely, MRU Students
