Sungkyunkwan vying to become 'truly global'

Chung Kyu-sang, president of Sungkyunkwan University, speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the school’s humanities and social sciences campus in Seoul, March 26. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

The university aims to be convergence research hub

By Chung Hyun-chae

Sungkyunkwan University has set a new goal of joining the ranks of the top 10 universities in Asia, and the top 50 in the world by 2020.

In line with that, Sungkyunkwan President Chung Kyu-sang has come up with a new motto: “Truly, global leading university.”

“I hope our university will truly become a leading global university by providing quality education and bringing innovation to the school,” Chung said in a recent interview with The Korea Times at the school’s Seoul campus.

“Under our 2020 vision project, we are aiming to become one of Asia’s top 10 universities and in the world’s top 50 by tapping excellent manpower, promoting convergence and improving global competitiveness.”

Sungkyunkwan was 148th in the world in the Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking 2014-2015. It also came in 17th in Asia in the QS World University Rankings 2014.

He said the university had seen rapid growth, quantitatively and qualitatively, over the past 10 years.

Students from 26 universities in 16 nations who attended Sungkyunkwan University’s winter international students experience program pose with professors after completing the 23-day course at the school’s campus in Seoul, Jan. 28. / Courtesy of Sungkyunkwan University

Chung said that his school would double its efforts to maintain that growth momentum and realize the new goal.

He presented four strategies to create a smart and innovative education ecosystem, turn the university into an interdisciplinary convergence research hub, promote the global value of Sungkyunkwan and strengthen communication.

The school is trying to promote interdisciplinary research in science and humanities.

It is also pushing for the integrated research of basic science, engineering, information and communication, medicine, biotechnology and biomedical engineering to maximize synergies.

“As a part of our effort to improve the students’ global mindset and competitiveness, we will make sure that over 50 percent of lectures will be given in English, up from the current 41 percent,” Chung said.

The school also launched a winter international student experience (WISE) program in January to attract more foreign students.

Sungkyunkwan is running the nation’s largest international summer semester (ISS) program, which attracted 1,682 foreign students from 69 universities in 27 countries last year.

There were 2,095 foreign students studying at Sungkyunkwan University, not only for the training courses including the ISS and WISE programs, but for regular degree courses and exchange-student programs in 2014. The figure jumped from 1,279 in 2013. (The number of Chinese students stood at 1,239, making them the largest group among foreign students.)

“Although Chinese students have accounted for a large percentage of the total foreign student body so far, we will put greater effort into attracting more foreign students from other countries,” Chung said.

To do so, he plans to forge partnerships with more institutions abroad.

“As the international status of Sungkyunkwan University has risen, we will make more efforts to forge partnerships with more prestigious universities around the world,” Chung said.

Sungkyunkwan University has formed close relationships with 870 universities in 74 countries.

The school’s two specialized departments ― global economics and global business administration ― and the Graduate School of Business are running dual-degree programs with Indiana University’s Kelly School of Business.

Support from Samsung

Behind Sungkyunkwan’s quantum leap is Samsung Group, the nation’s top conglomerate, which took over the school’s foundation in 1996.

The company has invested about 100 billion won ($91.8 million) in the school every year.

“Samsung has been of tremendous help to Sungkyunkwan, both financially and academically, as its support inspired us to develop further,” Chung said.

He stressed that universities should function the way they are supposed to, independent of financial backing.

He believes that one of the best ways to sharpen the competitiveness of the school is to have the best faculty.

“We will increase the number of faculty members from 1,424 to 1,551 by 2016, and at the same time increase the portion of so-called ‘core faculty,’ who are in the top 1 percent of the whole faculty,” he said.

Who is Chung Kyu-sang?

Chung, 62, became president of Sungkyunkwan University in January.

He graduated from the university in 1976 after studying law. He then received his master’s degree and doctorate in law from Sungkyunkwan in 1983 and 1994, respectively.

Chung passed the bar exam in 1983. He started working as a law professor at Sungkyunkwan in 1989.

He served as dean of student affairs at the university from 1999-2003 and dean of the Law School from 2003-2007.

He was vice president of the Humanities and Social Sciences Campus between 2013 and 2014.