Kongju Nationl University
President Kim Jae-hyun |
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Kongju National University (KNU) is gearing up to be an education Mecca for overseas Koreans. Kim Jae-hyun, president of the university, plans to develop the state-administered university as a core educational institute for 80 million ethnic Korean people in the world.
``About 7.5 million Korean people are living overseas. The number of people is huge. It is time to network all ethnic Koreans in and out of Korea and our university wants to take education part to boost manpower of Korea,'' Kim said in an interview with The Korea Times.
The university president believes that globalization of the school will be accomplished by inviting ethnic Koreans from all over the world. ``We don't need to focus on drawing only foreigners, many Koreans who have long lived overseas could help us to internationalize our school,'' Kim said.
With this ambitious plan, KNU has set up the Korean Education and Culture Center, which provides Korean language programs and field trips to traditional and remarkable spots for overseas Koreans as well as research on Korean adoptees and an education system for after the unification of the two Koreas. The center is also running many other programs for immigrant people here.
``Our university, which started as a college of education, is a very good place for the education of ethnic Koreans as Gonju City was the capital of the Baekje Kingdom and located near Seoul. Also Gongu is well known as a city of happiness,'' Kim said. ``Still, we don't have many experts in studies dealing with ethnic Koreans, we also need to develop the studies more systemically and efficiently.''
Founded in 1948, the university consists of some 18,000 undergraduate and 3,000 graduate students. As the university merged with the engineering college in Cheonan in 2005, its engineering department has been moved to the city and now 11 buildings and dormitories, which can accommodate some 260 students, are available for its program to invite ethnic Koreans from around the world.
The university plans to enroll more ethnic Koreans and invite overseas Korean children hoping to experience studying with their ``home'' country friends at elementary and secondary schools from June next year at the earliest. Apart from this, the university has made a bid this year to take over ethnic Korean education programs, which have been run by the Education Ministry.
``Many young generation Koreans abroad want to make friends with people here, so I will introduce a program to match our school students with them.'' Also, the university will start a program from next semester, that tells success stories of Koreans overseas by inviting people who have succeeded in foreign countries. ``There are many Koreans who play pivotal roles in the field of economics, politics and culture. Their lectures will be live education and inspire our students to challenge the world,'' Kim said.
In addition, the head of the university is considering offering Korean language programs for foreigners who are working at Korean companies. ``Some say we have more than 13 million people including Koreans and their foreign spouses and relatives. I think it makes sense as language is very important to bind different people together, Kim said. ``I believe we can broadly include foreigners who don't share Korean blood but can speak the Korean language into our people. In this sense, it is regrettable that many Koreans, especially in Sakhalin have forgotten how to speak Korean.''
Hence, the president of the 60-year-old university will introduce more programs that give opportunities to more ethnic Koreans from underdeveloped countries to visit their home country and create a Web site that can link all ethnic Koreans around the world. ``The government has more concern for our people in the world because they are important human resources for the development of our country,'' Kim said.
kswho@koreatimes.co.kr
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