SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY (SKKU), SEOUL, KOREA
On Friday, October 26th, Professor Jae Kyo JIN (Department of Classical Chinese Education) who served as the Chair of the Academy of East Asian Studies, received an honorary doctorate degree from Sofia University, Bulgaria's most prestigious university.
The university committee at Sofia University, presided over by President Anastas Gerdzhikov, unanimously decided to confer the honorary doctorate degree on Prof. Jin in recognition of his contribution to the development of Korean Studies at the end of May 2018.
Since Bulgaria started diplomatic relations with Korea in 1990, Sofia University has only given honorary doctorate degrees to Korean politicians and diplomats. This is the first time an honorary doctorate degree has been given to a Korean scholar.
Prof. Jin has been organizing academic conferences regularly since 2012 by linking professors in relevant fields, including the Academy of East Asian Studies, with Korean Studies researchers at Sofia University in order to develop Korean Studies in Bulgaria. In addition, he has helped build short and long term programs and supported Sofia University in acquiring research funding from the Korean government for the development of Korean studies.
In particular, Prof. Jin helped increase the number of students at the Dept. of Korean studies at Sofia University and held a Korean writing contest for Bulgarian high school students in order to spread Korean culture.
As a result, eighteen public schools in Sophia started teaching Korean language for the first time in Europe and currently Korean language classes are also being taught in first grade at elementary schools.
