A Study on Character Education and Happiness Education

This study tried to reveal the limitations of university character education and to discuss the necessity and specific direction of happiness education in order for students to attain good life. Recently, character has been emphasized as a future social competency. This is because our future societies are going to require healthy personalities among our current crop of youth as they take up their roles within them. Nevertheless, character education in university is still surrounded by a lot confusion when it comes to its practical implementation. Character education in university was insufficient in meeting the needs and motivations of university students, and in particular, it was not helpful for the mental health of young people in our society. This study paid attention to these points and argued that happiness education encompassing self-other-world is necessary through surveys and literature studies for students. I tried to explain precisely why such happiness education is needed among university students. In particular, I stressed the need for self-understanding time in order to foster the inner health of university students. In addition, this study tried to reveal the importance of exploring the meaning of existential life in happiness education and emphasized values, literay imagination and counseling dialogues as a mediums for happiness education. Since this study is a proposal to examine the necessity and direction of happiness education in universities, concrete and follow-up practical studies are needed to verify its practical effectiveness.