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- Something to look forward in SKKU
- “Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) has seen a huge rise at the university’s worldwide ranking and in parallel to it, rise in the number of international students” says Professor Navrati Saxena (SKKU Associate Professor & International Graduate Student Advisor at College of Information and Communication Engineering). Professor Saxena who has also successfully helped organize the ‘Diwali Event’ in SKKU also pointed out that,“efforts towards international students should be made in a comprehensive way and not just in their studies.” With around 3,000 degree seeking international students from 65 countries studying in Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) and around 600 exchange students coming and going each semester, meeting an international student in SKKU’s two campuses is common place. There isn’t a day when you do not come across an international student on your way to somewhere. Mandarin, Arabic, Urdu, German, Portuguese or other languages are so frequently spoken it feels like just using English and Korean is wanting. An international campus atmosphere is beneficial to student studying there because it gives you an experience that in normal cases you would have to come across when you are studying abroad. For SKKU the influx of international student has been very apparent and welcomed. However, this is not all good news. The needs and wants of the various students from the many nations are a challenge for the university, especially for the Office of International Affairs (OIA), its’ primary department tasked to meet those needs. “We try to meet the needs of our international students, with most or all predicaments they encounter, such as helping with academic problems in their courses, visa problems and also the occasional call to a student‘s landlord to negotiate the rent”, says the OIA officers in the Natural Science Campus. “Providing more for our international students even in comparison to what a Korean student may get from the university is obvious and necessary because of their basic status, being foreigners studying in Korea.” Over the past few years policies have evolved to systematically meet those needs. While there is still more to go, it has come to a point where the complaints from the students are heard less with every passing year in terms of academic activities, without fully addressing the entire picture. That is why for the last few years, but especially this year, OIA has been very supportive of international student driven activities with a particular emphasis in extracurricular activities. Events for international students from this year are more frequent and often more visible than before. The goal, the OIA admits, is to make the students more comfortable in living here at SKKU. “The studying part of the SKKU experience is a constant challenge. One we are more comfortable to address because the many outlets of support that are already in place, like the individual administration offices and supporting offices” says another OIA officials. “However, unlike our Korean students the extracurricular-aspect of college life has its limitation for students from different cultures.” Rachel the Malay student representative talks about her Malay peers difficulty in adjusting, “Korean students like to drink and often make friends through drinking situations because it's a good way to break the ice. However, this is not allowed in the Muslim faith. So it does bring out awkward situations.” This sentiment is shared also with other muslim students, “Because it is our duty as muslims to have to prey 5 times a day and fast during ramadan my Korean peers find it strange,” says Kami, one of the student representative for the Pakistani students here at SKKU. “However, the Korean students around me have become more adjusted to our religious practices that sometimes when I’m concentrating at my work and forget about my prayer, they will be the ones who tell me that its time.” With this apparent divide, the task is to come up with a way to present a mutual understanding of each other, for both international students and Korean students, and by doing so enhance a more amicable atmosphere for international students. It is the belief of the OIA that international student events will nurture, if not expediate, this process of mutual understanding. The efforts made by the OIA on this were very apparent from this year, as people were able to see Indian students having a cricket tournament, vietnamese students having soccer matches, Pakistani students listening to a lecture from the first Pakistani women alpinist, and Indian students celebrating ‘Diwali festival’, to name a few. The reverse experience is also provided in the campus where international students get to experience Choseok by making songpyun, watch the Seokjeon Daeje (National Rite to Confucius) at the Old Sungkyunkwan, go to student festivals and visit culture sites and events in and out of the campus. In addition to the cultural events, activities led and run by student bodies of nationalities in SKKU were also more prevalent this year. One new addition is the “Meet the Seniors” event that enables freshmen to get the chance to meet their seniors from their country and learn first hand on what studying in SKKU is like. This year was the first time for this event where 4 major nationalities (Chinese, Pakistani, Vietnamese, Indian) in SKKU gathered around 200 freshmen and seniors to such event, held separately for each country. It is expected that more nationalities will join in for next year. Another instance is the “International Food Stall” where the combined effort of the individual nationalities came together to present a little bit of their own culture for the Korean students. Again the main nationalities in SKKU prepared food for the all the students at the Autumn Student Festival and the SKKU President Chung Kyu Sang who visited the stall during the festival. “Creating an international environment is not just about having the students learn and study in a foreign language, but having them feel at home; that is, to create an inducive environment for them to perform their best” says the OIA. “If we are successful in creating such an environment, this in turn will guarantee international students coming to SKKU.” These new activities for international students in SKKU are a culmination of years’ experience and effort to understand international students, and will hopefully create the desired atmosphere that not only will be beneficial for the university but for the international students as well.
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- 작성일 2015-12-01
- 조회수 2762
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- SKKU is No. 1 among Korean private comprehensive universities - THE Rankings 2015
- - Sungkyunkwan Univ. (SKKU) ranked No.1 among Korean private comprehensive universities at THE World University Rankings 2015 - 24 Korean universities rank within 800 including Konkook Univ, Kyunghee Univ, Univ of Seoul , Sejong Univ, Univ. of Ulsan, Chungnam National Univ and more. The UK based university evaluation organization ‘Times Higher Educations (THE)’ announced their ‘World Rankings for 2015 ~2016’. And in this ranking 24 Korean universities put their names among the 800 world universities listed. According to the announcement made on OCT. 1, Seoul National University (SNU), ranked the highest among Korean universities at 85th, and with POSTECH (116th), KAIST (148th) and Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) (153rd) rounded up the top 4 which ranked all in the top 200. Following these universities were Korea Univ. (251st), Gwanju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) • Yonsei Univ. (301st), Hanyang Univ.(351st), Kyunghee Univ.• Univ. of Ulsan • Ewha woman Univ. (401st), Chunang Univ. • Pusan Univ.(501st), Konkook Univ • Kyunpook National Univ • Sejong Univ • Ajou Univ • Yeungnam Univ • Inha Univ • Chonbok National Univ • Chonnam National Univ (601st) and more were ranked within 800. “On the most credible university rankings in the world, Korea put in 24 universities. This is ties it with Taiwan at 3rd place after China and Japan.” THE editor Phil Baty explained. He added “Korea has invested 63 billion won for developing education in 2012, This is 4.4% of Korea’s GDP. Korea must strive more to compete with its asian rivals in support of university development.” In asia National University of Singapore took first place (world ranking 26th) followed by Peking Univ.(China) (42nd), Tokyo Univ.(Japan) (43rd). In the world ranking California Institute of Technology (CALTECH) was NO. 1, with Oxford, Stanford, Cambridge, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Imperial College London, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Univ. of Chicago rounding up the top 10 which consisted of schools from the US and Europe. “The 800 universities from 70 countries that are listed in the rankings represent the top 4% of all higher education institutes in the world. Many countries will look at the many world class universities and desire to compete with those universities. Now no one on the upper tier can be complacent. They must all continuously strive to keep their place.” says Mr. Baty. * Website of THE World Universities Rankings: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings * Rankings of 2015/2016: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2016/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25
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- 작성일 2015-11-05
- 조회수 2726
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- SKKU Presidents delegation’s visits to prestigious European universities, reaps substantive results
- From Oct. 3 to 9, Sungkungkwan University (SKKU) president’s delegation including President Chung Kyu Sang, Vice president of International Affairs Prof. Lee Suke Kyu, and Director of International Affairs Park Byung Joo visited the European universities of AACHEN University in German, University of Copenhagen in Denmark, Leiden University in Netherlands and Trinity college Dublin in Ireland. The discussion was made to reinforce mutual cooperation and the establishment of networks for education and research, along with agreements on students exchange and others, concluding their visit. The visited universities represent the top-tier institutes in QS World University Rankings and leads Europe's way in future science and technology. Major achievements is as follows: - In visiting AACHEN University, discussions towards cooperation on mutual research as the major Korean & German research institutes in Textronix were made with other areas of joint interest including, ICT, establishing virtual space and area’s of architecture. In this visit Executive Vice President of Natural Science Campus Prof. Yoo Ji-beom also accompanied. - University of Copenhagen decided to start mutual students exchange from spring semester 2016 and mutual students exchange agreement was signed. - Leiden University agreed to hold ‘SKKU-Leiden Form’ regularly, while discussions on exchange between the various research centers of the universities were also made. - Trinity College Dublin decided to reinforce mutual exchange agreement including students exchange and agreed on sending a delegation of faculty to visit SKKU around April 2016. < University of AACHEN > < University of Copenhagen > < Laiden University > < Trinity University >
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- 작성일 2015-11-02
- 조회수 2532
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- SKKU Autumn Classical Music Concert
- The 47th student council holds the SKKU Autumn Classical Music Concert, as below, as a cultural event where students, faculties, alumni and nearby residents can enjoy festivities together. So we would like to invite all those who would like to participate in the event. 1. Title: The 20th 'Understanding as mush as you know' Classical Music Concert 2. Date/Time: 27 Oct. 2015(Tue) 19:00 3. Venue: Auditorium in Natural Sciences Campus 4. Main Program a. Giacomo Puccini 'And the stars were shining'(Opera Tosca) b. Giuseppe Verdi 'Beautiful daughter of love'(Opera Rigoletto) c. Agustin Lara 'Granada' d. Charles Gounod 'The Jewel Song'(Opera Faust) e. Georges Bizet 'Toreador Song'(Opera Carmen) f. CHO, Dunam 'Mountain Village' g. Isang Yun 'Traditional Attire' 5. Ensemble: Sejong Woodwind Chamber Ensemble etc ※ Please enter on time in consideration of the proceedings of the event and limitations to seats. 2015(Tue) 19:00
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- 작성일 2015-11-02
- 조회수 2423
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- 2015 Fall Semester ‘Graduate School Program Fair’
- Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) graduate program holds 9 NO.1 titles among currrently running government funded programs like NO.1. in ‘Global Ph.D. Fellowship’, NO.1. in ‘foundation research’ and others. However, due to the less known admissions information and scholarships policies, students swarmed the individual offices of each major to obtain information during the admissions period. So for this purpose, SKKU held the ‘Graduate School Program Fair’ on Oct. 6st (Humanities Social Sciences Campus) and 1th (Natural Science Campus). In the event 1) you can receive department general information like stats. on sign-ups, registration and enrollment for 2016 admissions. Students can get 2) scholarship info. and confirmation on their accessability to scholarships provided. Also a wide range of topics can be asked at the event such as 3) research scholarship 4) program info. 5) career info. and everyone is invited to come and join. On Oct. 6, Humanities and Social Sciences Campus will be having its fair at the 600 Anniversary Building 5th floor from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm. On Oct. 1 the Natural Science Campus's Samsung Library will hold the event on the 1st floor from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm, with ‘open lab’ being offered from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm. In addition, the university will be running a lab tour called ‘Graduate School program week' where those who wish to enter our school can freely visit the individual labs for 3 days from Oct. 1 to 6. Time table a. Humanities Social Sciences Campus - Date: 2015. Oct. 6 (Thursday) - Venue: 600 Anniversary Building 5th floor from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm - Special features: On-site Scholarship for Master & Ph.D. combined program b. Natural Science Campus - Date: 2015. Oct. 1 (Tuesday) - Venue: Samsung Library 1st floor from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm - Special features: 1) On-site Scholarship for Master & Ph.D. combined program 2) Open Lab from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
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- 작성일 2015-10-13
- 조회수 2370
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- Undergraduate of Library and Information Science and Data Science, The 4th UNIST big data analasys awarded
- The two students of department of library and information science and department of data science took award the grand excellence prize and the excellence prize in "UNIST big data analysis"(8/20~8/21, UNIST(in Ulsan))
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- 작성일 2015-09-23
- 조회수 2426
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- Writing contest for high school student(since 1950's period)
- Department of Korean Language and Literature in college of liberal arts are progressing 'writing contest for high school' This contest was conducted since 1950's period. Students of high school can take this contest. The contest has two sector. One sector is poem, The other is essay. Applicant may choose one sector for contest. After contest, several applicant were chosen to winner of this contest. The winner accepted prize and fixed souvenir. The contest of this year will be started in october.
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- 작성일 2015-09-23
- 조회수 2352
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- Celebration! 2015 SKKU Teaching Award selected
- Two professors are selected in 2015 SKKU Teaching Award! SKKU Teaching Award professors are chosen by evulating level of contribution, innovation for education, and passions for teaching. * 2015 SKKU Teaching Award winner in college of liberal arts Yong Tae, Kim, Ph.D, Department of Korean Literature in Classical Chinese Marie Caisso, Ph.D, Department of French Language and Literature
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- 작성일 2015-09-23
- 조회수 2154
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- 2015 Graduate Scool Fair Opening
- Sung Kyun Kwan University(SKKU) will open a 2015 Graduate School Fair.(10.6(Tue) 13:30, Chobyungdu hall in 600th anniversary hall) Graudate School Fair is the event for students interested in entering graduate school. This event will provide informations about entrance examination, scholarship program.
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- 작성일 2015-09-23
- 조회수 2116