Foreign students start own businesses

Wang Shu-bo, right, founder of the startup WE COMMUNITY, poses with five co-founders during an internship fair his company organized on Hanyang University’s Seoul campus, March 3. Twenty-two local companies participated in the one-day event which attracted about 100 Chinese students. Wang from China’s Jilin Province is majoring in tourism at Hanyang University Graduate School. / Courtesy of WE COMMUNITY

Universities encourage pupils to put ideas into practice

By Chung Hyun-chae

Wang Shu-bo, 25, a master’s student studying tourism at the Hanyang University Graduate School, is running his own business, with the support of his school, matching Chinese students and local companies.

“If it had not been for the university’s assistance, I could not have initiated my own business because there are many restrictions for foreigners to set up a startup company here,” Wang told The Korea Times.

Wang is from China’s northeastern Jilin Province. Since its launch in December 2015, Wang’s company, We COMMUNITY, has been helping Chinese students get internships at local companies. The company held a job fair for Chinese students last March.

According to him, the company website has 5,000 members.

He said the company has so far helped about 30 Chinese students work as interns at local companies which need talented Chinese students.

“I’m highly satisfied with Hanyang University thanks to its strong support for foreign students to start their own businesses,” Wang said.

Hanyang has offered financial support for startup clubs of foreign students since 2014.

Wang’s company was created by 16 Chinese students last year. Twenty Chinese students launched six startup clubs this year.

According to a university spokeswoman, Hanyang provides 300,000 won ($271) to 1 million won to each club per year to cover their production costs and marketing expenses.

Hanyang supported one of the six clubs to organize a workshop to tour the Startup Campus, a venue established this year in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, to nurture local and foreign startups.

The university also launched a new program called Red Lion last September to help foreign students, particularly Chinese students, create their own startups while taking related lectures and gaining work experience as interns at venture companies.

The university selected 30 students to take part in the program.

Other local universities have begun various efforts to encourage both local and foreign students to submit business ideas and put them into practice.

Yonsei University launched the Global Enternship Program in 2013 to link foreign students to promising local venture firms.

“Startup companies put more value on talented students than conglomerates do,” said Park So-young, a team leader of the Yonsei University Enterprise Support Foundation.

“For companies trying to make inroads into the global market, hiring foreign manpower is cost effective,” she added.

Yonsei had run special lectures on startups for foreign students from 2013 to 2015 to encourage them to start their own businesses. About 160 foreign students took the lectures.

Sungkyunkwan University, which has more than 1,200 Chinese students on campus, plans to begin a startup project for foreign students in September.

“We already have many startup teams consisting of local students, some of whom have business ideas for targeting the Chinese market for cosmetics, studio wedding photos and tour packages,” said Song Han-seung, an assistant supervisor of the Research and Business Foundation at Sungkyunkwan.

“We are also thinking about putting startup teams of both local and Chinese students together to help them work together to produce more successful results,” Song said.

Universities based in provincial areas are also making similar efforts.

Chonnam National University in Gwangju is considering supporting a Chinese student and a Korea student who graduated from the university to start a marketing business using social networking services.

According to the university, the two already have more than 1 million followers on their Facebook page in which they upload Korean dramas and music programs.

“We plan to provide them with an office on the school campus,” said Im Sung-yeol, a coordinator of the international affairs office at the university.

“I expect our support program to contribute to attracting more foreign students,” he added.