On August 22, Mark Spearing, the vice president of Britain's Southampton University, visited SNU President OH Yeon Cheon and signed an agreement on research and student exchange programs.

Southampton University is ranked 81st (51st in the case of its engineering department) in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) University Rankings 2010, and ranks overall in the 20s in Britain. Thanks to this new agreement between the two universities. SNU can now send 2 exchange students to Southampton every year.

President OH and Spearing also discussed the subject of rising tuition fees, a social issue recently controversial in both Korea and Britain. They talked about the movement toward Korea's tuition fee reduction and Britain's tuition fee increases. Spearing pointed out that in Britain the tuition fee increase was too sudden so a student support system could not be prepared. He said that if the benefits to students concurrently increase when tuition fees go up, it will not be such a problem.

He added that, in the case of the World Class University (WCU) Program, students will be naturally attracted even when tuition fees are very high, as long as the program provides high-level education and various student support systems.

The Office of International Affairs (OIA) of SNU will continue to establish student exchange programs with colleges in English-speaking countries ranked among the top 200 in the world, which SNU students prefer to attend as exchange students.

Written by PARK Ziho, SNU English Editor, snuitsm2@snu.ac.kr  ?
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com