Our university visited Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, to expand our exchange and collaborative relationship with the most prestigious universities.

Our university’s Director of Office of External Affairs, Lee Hyung-jin, and the team from the Office of International Affairs visited Jakarta from November 22 to 25 and held exchange conferences and school briefings with the local sister schools. The relevant universities are schools already in sisterhood relationships with our university. Through this visit, the schools’ representatives discussed on promotional activities such as attracting international students and in-depth collaborative programs such as opening of joint degree program.

The Institut Kesenian Jakarta, which our team visited on the 23rd, is the most prestigious art school in Indonesia much like the Korea National University of Arts in Korea. Our university talked with the officials of the Institut Kesenian Jakarta, including Vice Chairman Suzen HR. Tobing, about potential exhibition exchange among students, workshop, and exchange of professors. In particular, the officials of the Institut Kesenian Jakarta proposed a wall painting activity in old urban districts in Jakarta.  In addition, targeting 100 students of the school, a briefing was held on our school introduction and methods on applying for exchange student and international student programs.

In the afternoon, our team visited the most historic school in Jakarta, the Universitas Nasional (UNAS). UNAS is also one of the few schools that opened a department of Korean language in Indonesia. Our university talked with UNAS concerning the undergraduate course for admission to master’s course through “3＋1 program” and exchange/collaborative programs for the Korean language department.

On the 24th, our school visited the Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI), which is about 3 to 4 hours from Jakarta. UPI, which entered an MOU with our school for the first time this year, is the best college of education in Indonesia. Due to the nature of educational universities, the school has many female students, and the Korean language department was opened not long ago. However, being the main hub for fostering future Korean linguistic teachers, the school is expected to have a significant impact across the country in the future. Our university proposed the connected curriculum of master’s course through the “3＋1 program” with UPI as well and had the opportunity to introduce exchange student and scholarship benefits to 140 students in the Korean language education department.

Meanwhile, besides concluding exchanges MOUs with the local universities, our university’s visiting team held a meeting with alumni of the Indonesian branch to discuss about the founding ceremony of Sookmyung Women’s University Alumni Association in Asia that is planned for the first-half of the next year and shared the news of overseas alumni.

The Head of Office of External Affairs, Lee Hyung-jin, said, “By expanding our exchanges with prestigious schools in Indonesia, we hope to reinforce our school’s global network and competencies so as to become the bridgehead of Korean studies research in this region.”