"The school-age population is decreasing." Directly...At the provincial college, it's a "student funeral."

[Anchor]
A funeral was held out of nowhere in the middle of a university campus in North Gyeongsang Province.It was opened by students who opposed the decision to virtually eliminate

The Department of Sociology.

Critics say that it neglects basic studies, but some point out that it is an inevitable choice amid a decrease in the school-age population and the disappearance of local areas.

Reporter Kim Geun-woo covered it.

[Reporter]
Young students with chrysanthemum flowers in their hands head to the memorial space in a row.

The name of the deceased in the portrait is Daegu University's Department of Sociology.

It is a 'academic funeral' organized on the news that new students will not be recruited from next year.

They couldn't stop the obstruction, but they came up with the idea to convey criticism.

[Yoo Hye-rim / Sociology student at Daegu University] I was embarrassed and disappointed to hear that my major was disappearing. I'm in a student council now, and I don't know how to communicate it to students....]

Daegu University has decided to stop recruiting new students from six departments, including the social studies department, from next year.

This is because it is a so-called "limit department" that is difficult to recruit new students in a situation where the university constitution needs to be improved, such as reducing the number of students and reorganizing the school system.

However, members of the department criticize that basic studies, the core of university education, should not disappear like this.

Major departments such as the Department of Korean Language and Literature have already disappeared, and in fact, they are turning into vocational training centers.

[Park Jung-ho / Professor of Sociology at Daegu University] It can be seen as a marketization or commercialization of university education. So if the educational achievements of basic studies are not immediately revealed and proven in the market, they will be able to alienate such studies or push them out of the university....]

Despite this criticism, some point out that it is an inevitable choice as the local crisis is serious.

[Kang Shin-jae / Director of Daegu University] I feel sorry for him. Basic studies such as sociology may be essential to our students, but in any case, universities have no choice but to change according to their choices and demands.]

To reduce the damage, the university plans to keep the class until the students who remain in the department with suspension of recruitment graduate.

While most local universities across the country are experiencing similar difficulties due to the severe decline in the school-age population and concentration in the Seoul metropolitan area, the appearance of college students who tactfully sublimated the heartbreaking reality is adding bitterness.

I'm Kim Geunwoo from YTN.