Photologue @theuostimes7
“Extra-curricular activities” is a noticeable change in *spec competition this year. Contrary to traditional specs such as GPA and TOEIC score, extra-curricular activities are considered differentiated specs in that they can show the applicant’s own interests and are directly related to practical affairs. Like this, extra-curricular activities are in the spotlight as a means for college students to express themselves in addition to their credits.
However, face-to-face activities began to disappear last year with the emergence of COVID-19. With face-to-face activities shrinking, college students turned to non-face-to-face ones. Supporters’ activities and press corps activities of institutions and companies were one of the popular activities even before the COVID-19 era, but they enjoyed greater success as more students sought activities that could be done in non-face-to-face activities. Furthermore, as face-to-face activities decreased, some predicted that the contest would have stagnated, but the number of contests rather increased. Students can even find contests or activities on the theme of the COVID-19 situation. For example, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security received an idea contest regarding the COVID-19 response.
As the situation in which “non-face-to-face” activities are in the spotlight due to COVID-19, and it is used as a central material of activities, it is forming a new trend of university students’ extra-curricular activities. This flow has received generally positive reviews. Unlike the early days of COVID-19, students seem to have solved the problem of face-to-face activities as an alternative to non-face-to-face activities.
*Specs: the abbreviation of the English word specification. It refers to the achievement of the document, including the academic background, credit, TOEIC scores, and so on.