- categorization International
- writing date 2024.10.02
- author Communication Team
- hits 25
Korea University Declares Campus Globalization Vision
“Transformation KU: Truly Global Campus”
▲ Korea University President Kim Dong-one announces the university's global campus vision at the declaration ceremony.
Korea University (President Kim Dong-one) held a Global Campus Declaration Ceremony September 10 in the Chey Jong-hyun Hall of the SK Future Hall to announce its vision for creating a foreigner-friendly campus.
At the start of the event, President Kim Dong-one declared, “Through today’s ceremony, Korea University embarks on a bold leap toward new changes. I look forward to building a brighter future for KU together with all of you.”
Korea University’s vision goes beyond increasing agreements with overseas universities and foreign student enrollment. The university plans to implement bilingual systems across all administrative services, ensuring that international students and faculty can easily access research, educational, and administrative information.
Since taking office, President Kim Dong-one has formed an Internationalization Committee, holding weekly or bi-weekly meetings with international members of the university to gather feedback and to prioritize tasks aimed at enhancing the university’s global environment.
▲ Following the global campus declaration ceremony, President Kim Dong-one greets international students during a pizza party.
Korea University, which was the first Korean university to introduce an English portal system (KUPID) in 2007, will now expand its English-based administrative services following this declaration. Not only will the portal system be bilingual, but all online notices and announcements will also be presented in both Korean and English. Additionally, offline signs and information boards across the campus will be updated to ensure foreign visitors can easily understand them.
To support this initiative, Korea University held four sessions in July to train staff in AI-powered translation tools like ChatGPT and DeepL. Moreover, starting from the spring semester of 2025, the university plans to pilot a system that provides live multilingual subtitles for Korean lectures, to be displayed on-screen in real time.
The university has also developed policies to promote diversity and inclusion. One such measure involves collaborating with the Student Council and the Club Union to create and distribute an English guidebook introducing various KU student clubs, which foreign students have often found difficult to join. Other initiatives include the introduction of halal food in the 1,000-Won Breakfast program and the expansion of Muslim prayer rooms on campus.
Furthermore, the university is working on expanding the scope of its alumni network. In partnership with the KU Alumni Association, Korea University plans to actively encourage foreign graduates to join and maintain close ties with its alumni networks. A Korea University representative commented, “Expanding our foreign alumni base is expected to create great synergy with the already active overseas alumni chapters.”
▲ KU student representative Mahuwi Emerson Faustine, from Tanzania, delivers a speech at the global campus declaration ceremony.
To enhance the quality of education, Korea University will significantly increase its recruitment of top foreign faculty. The university currently employs 83 full-time foreign faculty members and aims to increase that number to 146 by 2030, making up about 10% of the entire faculty. The university plans to hire professors in advanced and high-demand fields through various funding methods. Foreign faculty members will be offered numerous benefits, including housing support, airfare, and relocation expenses. In addition, to help new foreign faculty adjust to life at the university and in Korea, they will be assigned international faculty assistants (IFAs).
Following the declaration ceremony, the university held its regular Pizza Party with the President, an event held each semester to welcome international students.
Mahuwi Emerson Faustine, a student in the College of Engineering from Tanzania, represented the student body at the ceremony, saying, “I’m excited about the upcoming changes to the campus environment and hope it becomes a space where all students can participate in various ways.”