Current State of Writing and Communication Education for STEM Students at Leading Universities in the United States and Korea

Advancements in science and technology have made writing and communication skills increasingly essential for undergraduate students in science and engineering. Leading global universities offer various writing courses and programs grounded in Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and Writing in the Disciplines (WID) frameworks, and they are strengthening training programs designed to develop students’ ability to communicate science and technology effectively to both expert and non-expert audiences. Compared to globally top-ranked universities, Korean universities currently provide relatively limited support for education in this area. This study conducts a comparative analysis of the current state of writing and communication education for undergraduate students in science and engineering at four globally top-ranked universities in the United States—Harvard, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and MIT—and seven leading universities in Korea. Specifically, it examines the current status of required writing courses offered by the universities, discipline-based writing and communication courses offered by colleges of science and engineering, and writing centers and related programs supporting undergraduate students in these fields. The paper aims to highlight the need for more proactive institutional support and sustained discussion at the university level to advance writing and communication education for undergraduate students in science and engineering in the age of artificial intelligence.