University Entrance Ceremony Held with Avatars Attending... SKT-Sunchonhyang University 'Metaverse Campus'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Seulgina] Seo Inha, a freshman of the class of 2021 at Soonchunhyang University, turned on her smartphone instead of visiting the school on the morning of the entrance ceremony on the 2nd. After customizing her own avatar with the 'JumpVR' application and even wearing the university's 'gwajam' (department jacket), she entered the opened entrance ceremony room, where the Soonchunhyang University main stadium, realized in three-dimensional virtual reality, unfolded. This is a unique 'Metaverse Entrance Ceremony' newly emerged in the COVID-19 era.

SK Telecom announced on the morning of the 2nd that it held the 2021 Soonchunhyang University freshman entrance ceremony in a metaverse space using its JumpVR platform. The metaverse is a three-dimensional virtual world where the boundary between reality and virtuality disappears, and this is the first time in Korea that a university entrance ceremony was held in a metaverse space.

The entrance ceremony was planned to provide a unique opportunity for new university students to gather and communicate amid the reduction of entrance ceremonies and orientations due to COVID-19. Freshmen attended the entrance ceremony in the three-dimensional virtual space, leading with their unique avatars, and exchanged greetings with professors, peers, and seniors.

For this entrance ceremony, SK Telecom implemented the Soonchunhyang University main stadium as a metaverse map closely resembling reality. They added a large electronic display board to introduce major programs and prepared a stage where avatars could introduce themselves. Also, to allow all 2,500 freshmen to attend the ceremony, about 150 social world rooms were opened based on 57 departments, with about 25 people per room communicating according to their department. A Soonchunhyang University customized avatar costume, the 'gwajam,' was also prepared.

Soonchunhyang University also made every effort to create an atmosphere for the entrance ceremony by pre-distributing a ‘Welcome Box’ including VR headsets, freshman guide leaflets, USB drives, a letter from the president, and quarantine kits so that freshmen could attend the metaverse entrance ceremony in the best environment.

SK Telecom and Soonchunhyang University evaluated that the metaverse entrance ceremony, introduced for the first time in Korea, has great significance in presenting another exemplary case of ICT utilization in the untact era.

This entrance ceremony is expected to be the starting point of the so-called ‘Metaverse Campus’ era, where universities conduct major academic schedules in virtual reality. Soonchunhyang University plans to use the metaverse space as a core platform for major academic schedules, lectures, and communication in the future, not just as a one-time event.

Kim Seungwoo, president of Soonchunhyang University, said, “We planned the ‘Metaverse Entrance Ceremony’ to ensure that freshmen do not miss precious memories of university life in the untact era and to provide new experiences tailored to the digital native MZ generation students’ perspectives,” adding, “We will continue to do our best to build an on-offline converged Passion Campus Platform (PCP) to enhance students’ campus life and learning capabilities.”

SK Telecom also plans to expand collaboration with various universities starting from this. Yang Maengseok, head of SK Telecom’s MR business, said, “We plan to support meetings and communications that transcend reality and virtuality in various fields through mixed reality experiences.” By broadening the metaverse experiences of university students, represented by the MZ generation, an increase and activation of users for mixed reality (MR) services overall is also expected.