Being the number one university on the Korean peninsula is not enough for SNU. The school's internationalization programs and world-class computer network provide students from all over the world with an education on a global level.


SNU Soars Ever Higher On 60th Anniversary
-School gives internationalization programs, makes ubiquitous campus

Being the number one university on the Korean peninsula is not enough for Seoul National University (SNU). On the occasion of its 60th anniversary, the university's motto is �Soaring Ever Higher.� The school's internationalization programs and world-class computer network provide students from all over the world with an education on a global level.

-Internationalization

Seoul National University is focusing on an international student body. It is doing everything in its power to ensure that its students can increase their global competitiveness each year. Nam Ick-hyun, associate dean of Planning and Development and professor at the college of Business Administration states, �We launched a global MBA program last August and all the courses are taught in English definitely. All the discussion, the courses, the tests are all done in English only.� The Dean went on to state that the school also offers graduate level courses in the School of International Affairs in English exclusively.

The focus on globalization and internationalization at SNU does not stop there, however. The school is emphasizing a two part plan for globalization of its student body � inbound and outbound globalization. Professor Nam spoke about this by saying, �We are planning some more globalization projects. In that program we are trying to invite the students from all over the world for summer programs and we are also focusing on educating our domestic students to go abroad.�

There are currently 56 faculty members from other countries working at Seoul National University, 20 of those, the largest fraction, being from the United States. There are also currently 1,285 foreign students in all programs at SNU. Of those, 728 are currently studying for Bachelor's degrees, 371 are in a Master's degree program, and 186 are working towards their Doctorate.

-Global ranking

Seoul National University was ranked 63rd in the world in 2005, although Nam Ick-hyun remarked, �I'm afraid Seoul National University is under evaluated by that number.� He went on to say that among other rankings such as the Science Citation Index (SCI), which measures a university's contribution to the scientific community by the amount of scientific papers they submit, SNU was ranked 30th in the world with 3,116 papers submitted in 2004.
For comparison, the #1 ranked university on the SCI index was Harvard University in the United States, with 9,421 papers submitted.
Finally, the Associate Dean remarked that, �Early this year we got some outside audits by some outstanding scholars abroad from some professional organizations and we got ranked from 10 to 20 in natural science and engineering schools.� So in more specific areas Seoul National University ranks quite highly in global standards.
The university is already the best in Korea. When asked why the University has such a high reputation, Professor Nam remarked, �I think the most important factor is the reputation which SNU has accumulated up to now.�

-Networks facilitate ubiquitous campus

Seoul National University recently finished participating in the state-sponsored BK21 project in which it, among other things, spent about 40 billion won ($40 million) in developing the IT systems on the campus. Eun-woo Park, CIO of the Office of Information Systems and Technology, director of the SNU Computer Center, and director of the Korean Education Network, spoke at length about the capabilities of the IT infrastructure at SNU.
The computer network at SNU is a full-service network that is focused on meeting the needs of the students. The on-campus intranet is composed of a gigabit fiber-optic cable network. 80% of the buildings on campus and many of the outside areas have wireless LAN capability. A mobile-campus project encourages the use of PDAs and mobile phones to access an online library wirelessly. Students are even able to check out free NESPOT Ids from a pool provided by the university, so that they can use internet connectivity at their home free of charge.
Professor Park also noted that a faster and more exclusive intranet connects 3 buildings � the University Computing Center (UCC), the library, and the College of Engineering. This 10Gbps network allows instant transmission of large amounts of data between these three areas, facilitating student and faculty research.
The Univrsity Computing Center also houses a super computer which was put into operation in June, 2005. The cost was about 3 billion won ($3 million) and its real peak performance caps at 5 Teraflops, Dr. Park noted.
The computing services offered to students include a full range of internet services. Each student receives a web mail account, can access and install bulletin boards, online administrative services, start up their own blog, and participate in online campus-wide communities. Currently there are 69,034 IDs issued for these various services, so it is evident that students widely use them. The UCC also offers students the ability to rent notebook computers and licensed software on a temporary basis.
Finally, the computer center facilitates the internationalization of its campus by offering these services in eight different languages.

-Research-oriented campus

The extremely comprehensive computing facilities at SNU contribute much to its students' productivity, especially in research areas. The university is also well-funded in terms of research grants from a number of sources. The amount of government money given to SNU for research projects in 2004 exceeded 230 billion won ($230 million), which funded 2,535 separate research projects in that year. Private contributions to research totalled approximately 27 billion won ($27 million) and funded 793 projects. Contributions from overseas sources contributed 445 million won ($445,000) in order to fund 17 different projects. Finally, SNU itself funded 392 internal research projects at a cost of 9.7 billion won ($9.7 million).
Several long-standing government-funded research institutes exist on the SNU campus. The Statistical Research Center for Complex Systems, the Nano Systems Institute, the Center for e-Business Technology, and the Korean Wind Energy Development Organization are a few examples which have a history of five years or longer and receive over 3 billion won ($3 million) of government funding.
Seoul National University was founded in 1946 by the Korean government. It has steadily grown from humble beginnings to the current 192,366 square meter campus. This year at SNU there are 20,422 undergraduates studying in 16 colleges and 84 different departments. In the graduate school there are 10,637 students enrolled in 98 departments. In addition to this there are 5 professional schools associated with the university.
In order to teach such a large student body there are1,720 faculty members employed at the university. In addition, another 1,405 staff keep the university running in all its departments. In order to make all this work, the annual budget for the University amounts to 821 billion won ($821 million).

Korea IT Times
November 7th, 2006