SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY (SKKU), SEOUL, KOREA


May-July, 2016 Vol. 2
Worldwide
  • SKKU Ranked Top 12th University in Asia, No.1 Korea Private University for 2 Consecutive Years
  • 5th Sungkyun International Solar Forum with 30 World-class Academics from 12 Countries
  • SKKU Strengthen National Management Capacity of Latin American Countries
  • SKKU-Harvard University Held a Workshop about Confucianism Culture and Digital Humanities
Discovery
  • Top University in Engineering, Employment Rate Over 95% and 1st in Scholarship
  • Nurturing Creative Convergence Talent to Reach Top 10 Rank in Asia
  • Successful Launch of Korea Space Telescope Developed by SKKU
  • 1st University in the Industrial-educational Cooperation Field
Top Schools
  • AI Generation Liberal Arts Freshmen, Come and Play with SW!
  • Listen to the Music Composed by 'AI Composer'
  • Fall in Love with Korean Language - Korean Writing Contest Held in Ho Chi Minh and Beijing
Leading Alumni in a Global Society
  • Noticeable Articles Recently Published in Journals
Leading Alumni in a Global Society
  • Student Volunteers Draw a Mural at Regional Children's Center
  • SKKU Undergraduate Student's 'Cell Survival' Study Published in World-class Academic Journal
Nurturing Creative Convergence Talent to Reach Top 10 Rank in AsiaSKKU’s “New Challenge Project” from the Leader of Convergence Education

Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) is carrying out its "New Challenge Project" which is based on convergence education, global alliances, academic-industrial cooperation, and management innovation in order to lead global issues and create positive changes in society. The name "New Challenge Project" suggests the specific plans of action for SKKU's Vision 2020, the purpose of which is entering into the top 10 ranked universities in Asia and the top 50 ranked universities in the world. A main attribute of the plan is multilateral convergence education that includes software (SW) lectures, convergence between majors, reinforcement of academic-industrial cooperation, and promotion of engagement between foreign universities. SKKU has leading innovative software education for training SW professionals and convergence specialists with global competitiveness to keep pace with the rapid growth of SW education nowadays. Following Sungkyunkwan University's selection as the SW Core University in 2015 all freshmen are taking basic SW courses.

Furthermore, SKKU established the Sungkyunkwan Software Education iNstitute (SSEN) to teach SW to non-software and computer engineering majors. Through SSEN, SKKU will change academic SW programs, which up till now have been developer-oriented, to general education.

Sungkyunkwan University is planning to create SW college by combining the Department of Software and the Department of Computer Engineering. SKKU will conduct a special entrance process for 60 students with SW talents and offer them 4 years of full scholarships from 2018.

"The primary goal of SW education is cultivating thinking skills, not simply training developers. Students can learn logic, and acquire analytical and thinking skills in the process of analyzing problems by utilizing computer principles and making algorithms", said Prof. Jae Hyoun Kim of SKKU's Department of Computer Engineering.

Another convergence education program Sungkyunkwan University has is the "C-School Project" by SKKU's University Education Innovation Center. Students from every year team up as one group to solve problems based on integrated thinking beyond flat, major-oriented studying. The curriculum contains activities such as visiting new growing companies with global prospects, and the global camp with the leading universities in the fields of SW and Informatics.

"The convergence education of the C-School is a creative way of educating that breaks the walls between majors and helps students achieve their dreams through genuine convergence. We will offer the program to students from all of the departments in the school", said Sang Hoon Bae, Chief of the University Education Innovation Center.

SKKU is establishing an academic-industrial foundation by expanding and reorganizing the research institutes in the school and building an academic-industrial cooperation system based on strong research abilities. In addition, the Sungkyun Advanced Institute of Nano Technology and Sungkyun Interfaculty Collaboration Center were recently established for convergence education between departments and promoting research. For this purpose, many research and education teams such as Future Nano Science Education and ICT Convergence Facility Administrative Education are receiving funding that reaches nearly 6,840,000 USD. Also, the Faculty of Engineering is running a business team for nurturing specialists that have a deep understanding and practical abilities in materials.

To strengthen academic-industrial engagement, SKKU has recruited former executives who worked at companies as professors exclusively appointed for industry-university cooperation. The assessment of professors was also changed from quantitative evaluation to a differentiated assessment method such as technology transfer and job creation. As a result, Sungkyunkwan University has attained 329.4 billion won in research funding which has increased significantly since 2010 when it was at 219.9 billion won.

SKKU's international SCI thesis performance has also doubled from 2,782 in the year 2010 to 4,865 in 2015. The university was ranked number one in Korea in terms of SCI publications with an average of 0.8 per professor. The amount of paper citations per international thesis was 8.53 and there were 317 paper citations in the top 1% of theses which means that they were not only quantitatively high but also showed high qualitative results.

To foster talented students who possess professionalism and practicality, the Sungkyunkwan Graduate School is also reinforcing industry-university links. SKKU recently opened a Grand ICT Research Center in Pangyo Techno Valley where 80,000 venture entrepreneurs are gathered. The Grand ICT Research Center will be running consortiums in various research areas such as intelligent ICT convergence and convergence SW development with the university as well as enterprises by operating the Pangyo SW Graduate school of Convergence. Through this, Sungkyunkwan University is creating a hub to handle the development of new technologies, transfer of technology, and creation of patents which are all directly connected to business ventures.

With this effort, SKKU has earned high acclaim as an 'outstanding' institution, which is the highest ranking among the 85 universities in the Leaders in INdustry-university Cooperation (LINC) evaluation last year. The income generated by technological transfer was 2.5 billion won in 2010 which increased up to 3.7 billion won last year.

Sungkyunkwan University is also reinforcing the links between overseas universities to foster global creative leaders in the era of internationalization. The university has expanded the joint research between the EU's prestigious universities and America's best public universities while at the same time developing a network with Australia's research-centered universities. This year, SKKU is holding a joint forum with the University of Minnesota in the fields of Nanotechnology and Physics, the SKKU-PKU Forum with Beijing University, and another forum with Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Sungkyunkwan University has signed exchange agreements with 921 universities in 76 countries, providing multiple double degree systems and exchange scholarship programs.

There are currently 1,400 students studying overseas and 2,400 foreign students studying at SKKU. Also, more than 100 students each year are receiving dual degrees from prestigious overseas universities such as MIT, Indiana University, Fudan University, Beijing University, and Birmingham University.

Sungkyunkwan University students are enjoying the opportunity to live all over the world and develop their global mindsets and language skills through international programs.

SKKU's 7+1 Supreme Studies Program provides the students with the chance to study in leading UK and US universities such as Kings College London, Indiana University, the University of Minnesota, Perdue University, and Edinburgh University. Students can take advantage of using the 7+1 Regional Expert Program and gain regional expertise by studying in countries that are not widely known in the second and third world such as Eastern Europe, Central and South America, and Africa.

SKKU also has active academic exchange and research cooperation with overseas universities. A university staff member said, "We are currently running exchanges in the engineering academic field with the world's most prestigious schools such as MIT and Beijing University. We are also conducting research by inviting technology centers such as the world's best chemical company, BASF's, Asia and Pacific R&D Center and the fourth ranked petrochemical company in the world, SABIC's, Electrical, Electronic, and Lighting Technology Center."

The results of Sungkyunkwan University's innovation and effort can be checked in several objective indexes. The number of students per full-time professor and the percentage of full-time professors are each 21.3 and 101.14%, which is the highest among the main private universities in Korea.

Furthermore, the university has achieved a 231.2% total educational restitution rate which exceeded the nation's average of 116.6%. SKKU had ranked 1st in employment rate among the 4-year universities of Korea with a rate of 68.3% in 2015.

As for the global assessments of Sungkyunkwan University, it has ranked 16th in Asia and 148th in world according to the Times Higher Education's (THE) university rankings and 17th in Asia and 118th in the world according to Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) university rankings. SKKU has also been selected as "the most noticed university around the world since 2009" along with MIT, Stanford University, Munich University, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich according to QS in 2014.


HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES CAMPUS : 25-2, SUNGKYUNKWAN-RO, JONGNO-GU, SEOUL, KOREA TEL +82-2-760-1151

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