At Seoul National University (SNU), various efforts for both Korean and international students are being made to become a top-level global university.

An example of such occurred on November 27 with the newly-established SNU Human Rights Center’s forum for international students. The forum, titled ‘Prejudice among Us?’, discussed issues regarding discrimination or difficulties on campus that international students are experiencing. It proved to be an opportunity for students to freely voice opinions on such issues.

The establishment of the SNU Human Rights Center was initiated by Professor CHUNG Chin-Sung (Professor of Sociology) in July of this year. Professor Chung was inaugurated as the head of the SNU Human Rights Center. She stated that the vision of the SNU Human Rights Center is to create a university where all members care for one another and are equally respected. The Human Rights Center has a keen awareness of the fact that there is an increasing number of international students at SNU. Professor Chung added that it is necessary to take into consideration the concerns and needs of these international students during their time at SNU.

The staff members of the Human Rights Center were present at the forum and showed genuine interest and concern about what the international students had to say. The forum began with welcoming words by the head of the SNU Human Rights Center, Professor Chung. The associate dean of student affairs, KIM Young-Oh, spoke and gave his assurance that SNU would continue finding ways to improve, especially in areas directly impacting international students. Following, there were various brainstorming activities where all participants were asked to write down their experiences regarding discrimination or discomfort on campus. The students shared their experiences and came up with the main issues they were facing at SNU, which they presented in front of everyone.

A female graduate student expressed her feelings of seclusion when all of her lab colleagues always went to eat dinner together without asking if she would like to join them. She said it was most likely because of her non-fluent Korean that her colleagues shirked from inviting her, afraid that she would make the dinner awkward, but she nonetheless felt excluded from the group.

A number of students stated discomfort with some professors who gave lectures in Korean, even when the course was officially listed as an English course. At times, some professors even said they should learn Korean before taking the courses.

Another graduate student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering talked about the inefficiency of having everything standardized in Korean. Science training programs, S-cards (student IDs), and certificates that are only in Korean, would have no value outside of Korea. He stated, “It feels like the SNU administration is pushing everyone to be global when they are not ready.”

Overall there were diverse issues that the international students brought up during the forum. In a wider sense participants expressed concerns about not only the SNU community but of the nation as a whole. All participants in the forum seemed to agree that the first step in solving these issues was to talk about them. Thus, the forum proved to be a positive beginning of what will certainly be a long but fruitful journey. The SNU Human Rights Center promised that all subject matter raised in the forum would be taken into account for improvement. Also, as the follow-up of the forum, the Human Rights Center is planning to conduct surveys for international students to get further information regarding the issue. Recently the SNU Human Rights Center sent all participants via email the outcome of the forum. It includes a review of the forum and presents an outline of the recommendations from the forum, displaying a mix of short-term and long-term problems with recommendations on how to solve them. The staff of the SNU Human Rights Center expressed their commitment to making SNU a healthy environment of mutual respect and care for all individuals of the community.

Written by OH Jung Eun, SNU English Editor, josefinaoh@snu.ac.kr
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com