Korea University at forefront of globalization

By Kang Shin-who

Staff reporter

Korea University (KU) has been leading Korean schools when it comes to globalization, in terms of quality and quantity. Testament to its leadership role, a growing number of students and professors from top universities around the world are now studying and teaching at the school.

Around this time every year, its campus bustles with foreign students.

A total of 1,430 students are studying under the KU’s International Summer Campus (ISC) program this year. In fact, the scale of the summer school program is No.1 in Asia.

And with the program gaining international fame, the nationalities of foreign students are becoming more diverse.

The majority of participants in the ICS are from North America and Asian countries, but students from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Oceania are taking up a growing portion.

Korea University President Lee Ki-su says the university will continue to make efforts to invite more renowned professors and excellent students from abroad to upgrade the summer program.

“I realized that many foreign students choosing our school have a variety of goals to achieve through our programs. To help them achieve their goals, I’m going to develop the summer program into the world’s best,” he said.

The foreign student body is composed of regular students, exchange and visiting students, those enrolled in language courses and students attending ISC. To help foreign students and professors adapt to the university, KU established a one-stop service center last March and is running various programs.

Lee himself often goes out of office and tries to meet foreign students and listen to their opinions.

KU has also introduced “pre-college” program for those who are seeking to advance to overseas universities. Among students seeking to study overseas, the program is drawing growing popularity.

Under its globalization drive, the university is seeing an increase in the number not only of incoming students but also outgoing students. About 550 students went abroad to study at one of KU’s partnership universities last spring semester. It has partnerships with over 700 universities in 74 countries.

KU runs nearly 40 percent of its courses in English and new professors of the university are required to conduct classes in English.

English is not the only foreign language that the students have to master. Lee focuses on helping students learn Chinese characters and other foreign languages beyond English. In addition, courses in the humanities, history and philosophy are required for graduation.

The university aims to make the list of world’s top 100 universities by 2015. “I think at least 20 Korean universities should be among the world top 200 universities in the future in line with its economic prowess,” Lee said.

Lee said KU’s globalization drive will focus on three goals: education in sync with global standards; establishment of a global network and becoming a leader in the changing world with a new paradigm.

To provide global standard education, the school’s business school has gained accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS).

KU has been actively building its global network. It is the only Korean institute holding a membership of the Universities 21 (U21) and hosted the U21 Annual General Meeting last year under the theme ``The Role of the University in Influencing Public Policy.” Founded in 1997, the U21 enables its members to participate in a number of international research activities.

KU is also a member of the ``Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU).” APRU was established in 1997 to promote scientific, educational and cultural collaboration among higher education institutes in the Asia Pacific region. The organization includes a number of globally competitive universities including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Peking University and Keio University.

“Our university students and professors can participate in various international activities using the network with world-class universities,” Lee said.

Lee also plans to give foreign students various programs to learn about Korean traditions.

“Korea University has always been at the center of Korean history over the past century. Our university was in the first line to fight for independence of the country under the Japanese rule, committed to democracy and industrialization of the country and now it is assuming a role in developing the country further,” the 65-year-old school head said.

Lee said KU is an ideal place for foreign students to study as they can also learn about Korean culture and history. “If you look into our school’s history and culture you can learn about those of our country at the same time.”

Last year KU started inviting Korean-Americans living in the U.S. to participate in a program to help them learn and experience their homeland. This year, some 90 are scheduled to visit Korea for the program.

Established in May 1905, Korea University has some 27,000 undergraduate students and roughly 10,000 graduate students at 20 colleges with 22 graduate schools. Nearly 900 foreign students are studying at the university for degrees. It has about 3,000 Korean faculty members along with 132 full-time foreign professors.