BTS university courses: Stanford to Berkeley, classes inspired by the band

ARMY, you might want to add a university lecture to your BTS bucket list. Stanford has officially entered its Namjoon era, and we're not talking about another fan theory or a viral social media post.

The university is offering a three-unit freshman seminar inspired by BTS leader RM's favourite way to spend his downtime. Called PSYC 65N: Namjooning, and Other Well-Being Inspiration from BTS, the course is very real, very Stanford and, quite wonderfully, comes with an unusual prerequisite: students should have "a healthy respect for BTS".

We'll take that as a pretty good start.

Running during Stanford's autumn 2026 quarter, from September 22 to December 4, the course explores everything from nature walks and museum visits to sleep, anxiety and mental well-being. In other words, RM's idea of a good day out has officially made it onto a university syllabus.

And Stanford isn't alone. From Berkeley's student-led BTS class to Korean language lessons featuring the members, universities around the world have found plenty to study in the septet. Here's a look at the courses that actually exist, and, importantly, who can sign up.

First up, the course that has ARMY doing a double take.

The syllabus begins with what it calls the four pillars of Namjooning: nature, biking, art and literature. But don't expect six weeks of students simply looking at pretty paintings and going on leisurely walks. There's some serious science involved.

Students explore sleep, anxiety, creative block, self-love and self-awareness, alongside discussions about medication, substances, diet, exercise and supplements. Psychotherapy and coaching also make the syllabus.

Even the familiar advice to get enough sleep gets the full academic treatment. How much sleep is enough? Does the quality matter as much as the quantity? What happens when you don't get enough? Apparently, even your bedtime is up for discussion.

The class mixes fiction with peer-reviewed research, and students can expect everything from art appreciation to YouTube clips. There's also a final project inspired by RM's 2022 solo album, Indigo. That's one way to make a university assignment feel considerably more exciting.

Students can take the course for a letter grade or on a credit/no-credit basis.

There's another BTS connection, too. The announcement comes months after the group played three sold-out concerts at Stanford Stadium on May 16, 17 and 19, 2026. RM is also co-curating RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, on view until February 7, 2027.

Can you join? Here's the catch. The seminar is restricted to Stanford first-year students. Applications closed on August 26, and the university has not confirmed if it will return.

Before you start searching for a university application form, let's get the vocabulary right.

Namjooning is a fan-created term inspired by RM's real name, Kim Namjoon. It describes his habit of spending free time doing the things that make him happy: visiting museums, reading, cycling, wandering through parks and generally enjoying life's quieter moments.

The term caught on in 2019, when fans began following his off-duty outings during BTS's break. RM embraced it, too, replying "i'm namjooning" to a fan on Weverse in August that year.

He later told Rolling Stone that he was grateful the term had caught on, although it also came with a sense of responsibility.

Since then, Namjooning has become something of a lifestyle philosophy among fans. It's about putting down your phone, taking a walk, visiting an exhibition or simply spending time with a good book.

And now? You can apparently study it at Stanford.

Not a Stanford freshman? Don't despair. The university had another K-pop offering that doesn't require you to be enrolled in its undergraduate programme.

K-Pop and the Global Stage (MUS 200) ran online through Stanford Continuing Studies from July 13 to August 17, 2026.

The course explored how K-pop grew from a carefully managed South Korean music industry into a global cultural phenomenon.

Students examined idol production, fan communities and South Korea's cultural influence, with KPop Demon Hunters among the case studies.

Unlike the Namjooning seminar, this one was open to adults, with no application required. It cost $365, had a limit of 55 students and did not carry academic credit.

Can you join? The 2026 session has ended, but it's worth keeping an eye on Stanford Continuing Studies if the course returns.

Stanford may be having its Namjoon moment, but the University of California, Berkeley was already giving BTS the classroom treatment back in 2019.

Its student-run course, Next Generation Leaders: BTS, was launched in spring 2019 as a two-unit DeCal. Short for Democratic Education at Cal, the programme allows students to create and teach their own university courses.

The idea came from students Soo Rodriguez and Anahita Farshi, who noticed that Berkeley had DeCal courses dedicated to Drake and Kanye West, but none for BTS. Naturally, they decided to fix that.

The class explored the group's history, music, artistry and philanthropy, as well as the storytelling behind the Bangtan Universe. Students also discussed globalisation and media portrayals of the group, with lectures, screenings and weekly reflections.

And ARMY clearly turned up. The first offering filled within days, with later reporting putting average enrolment at around 30 students.

Can you join? Only if you're a Berkeley student. DeCal courses depend on student facilitators, so availability changes each semester. A 2026 offering has not been confirmed.

If you've ever watched Run BTS! and wished you could understand every single word without reaching for subtitles, this one's for you.

In 2020, universities began offering Korean language classes using Learn! KOREAN with BTS, a teaching programme developed by Big Hit Edu, the Korea Foundation and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

The material uses clips from Run BTS! and the members' live broadcasts to help students learn Korean. So, instead of relying entirely on conventional textbook exercises, learners get to hear the language in familiar BTS settings.

The first wave of university offerings in autumn 2020 included Middlebury College in the US, École Normale Supérieure and EDHEC Business School in France, Ain Shams University in Egypt, and two Vietnamese universities.

The University of Sheffield in the UK followed in February 2021 with an online class attended by around 40 students, co-taught by staff from Sheffield and HUFS.

Not every university needs a course devoted entirely to BTS to give the group some classroom time.

At the University of British Columbia, ASIA 327: Korean Popular Music in Context surveys South Korean pop music from the early 1990s to today. Its sample syllabus lists a reading on BTS’s partnership with UNICEF and its role in South Korea’s soft power and public diplomacy.

Broader courses are worth a look too. George Mason University’s KORE 320: Korean Popular Culture in a Global World ran an online, three-credit section on K-pop fandom culture in summer 2026, though its listing doesn’t say whether BTS is covered.

So if your university doesn’t have a dedicated BTS class, its Korean studies or popular music department might still have something worth checking out.

And just when you thought studying BTS couldn't get any more serious, there's an entire international academic conference dedicated to the group.

The BTS Global Interdisciplinary Conference, organised by the International Society for BTS Studies, began at Kingston University London in 2020.

Its fifth edition took place on July 2 and 3, 2026, at Jeonbuk National University in South Korea, bringing together 50 presenters from 10 countries.

The discussions span the group's music, cultural influence and fandom, including the role of ARMY in shaping the global BTS phenomenon.

If attending an academic conference isn't quite your thing, there's also the #BTSSyllabus. Created by Candace Epps-Robertson of UNC Chapel Hill and Jin Ha Lee of the University of Washington, the crowd-sourced reading list brings together official BTS content, academic research and fan scholarship.

It's a rather handy place to start if you want to explore the group beyond the music videos and streaming parties.

You might not be able to enrol in Stanford's Namjooning seminar unless you're a first-year student there, but there's no admission requirement for taking a leaf out of RM's book.

Visit a museum. Pick up that novel you've been meaning to read. Go for a bike ride. Spend an afternoon doing absolutely nothing productive.

And if anyone asks what you're doing, you can now tell them you're practising a well-being philosophy that has made it all the way to Stanford.

That's a pretty good excuse to go Namjooning.