Our university took the 1 place among women’s universities with the overall 56.8 points and won the Special Award at the  “2018 Korea’s Excellent Entrepreneurial College” which was held at the Maekyung Media Center located in Junggu, Seoul, on June 1.

The “2018 Korea’s Excellent Entrepreneurial College” hosted by MBN Maeil Business Newspaper and Korea Business Incubation Association is a competition based on the evaluation of colleges’ entrepreneurial support posted on Higher Education in Korea. In addition to the overall category, the competition included a total of 3 categories, which were entrepreneurial infrastructure, entrepreneurial performance, and entrepreneurial support.

Our university’s Head of Entrepreneurship Engagement Foundation Gyu-dong Kim (right) is posing for a commemorative photo after receiving the Special Award from the Vice President of Maekyung Media Group Hyeon-deok Son.

Our university received good ratings not only for the improved systems and preparation of support organization personnel such as newly established Entrepreneurship Engagement Foundation, new regulations for the Entrepreneurship Engagement Foundation, start-up alternative credit system, and various start-up committees, but also for the construction of start-up infrastructure such as the installation of Sookmyung Business Incubation Center, Start-up Lounge, SK Start-up Cafe, 3D Printing Room, and Public Data Center.

In addition, in the entrepreneurial support category, we received good points for entrepreneurial support for the general public such as Wonderful Childcare Program, Test Market, and opening of start-up lectures such as LEOP and Cash Class through SK Start-up Program, University Entrepreneurship Center project, etc. In the entrepreneurial performance category, the expansion of results through local connections, etc. utilizing the Yongsan Electronics Market were analyzed to have been the main factors of our award.

In the meantime, our university has been highly evaluated for our contribution in the activation entrepreneurship education/culture and received a citation from the Minister of Education by being selected as the 「2016 Korea’s Excellent Entrepreneurial College」. Our school has forged on with the following results: selection as the operating institution of “University Entrepreneurship Center” (대학 기업가센터 in Korean) for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (2014 ~ 18), 「Start-up Academy Employment Course」 for the Ministry of Employment and Labor (2015 ~ 18), 「Campus CEO Project」 by Seoul City (2015 ~ 17), 「SK Start-up Program」 for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups/SK Telecom (2016 ~ 17), and SK Nurturing Social Innovators Project (2018 ~ 20).

In last September, the Entrepreneurship Engagement Foundation which was controlled by the academic board was installed directly under the president in order for a systematic promotion of entrepreneurial support, and by forming the Entrepreneurship Education Committee and Student Entrepreneurship Committee, the school seeks to activate entrepreneurship for the university as a whole such as working towards fostering college-and division-based representative enterprise. Above all, there are plans to reinforce creative and problem-solving competencies through entrepreneurial experience based on systematized entrepreneurial support in order to foster students with the necessary skills for the future society.

The Head of Entrepreneurship Engagement Foundation Gyu-dong Kim said, “There is a social bias that there are less female technology-based entrepreneurs, but our university’s students are engaged in specialized entrepreneurships,” and “We will make further efforts to create more opportunities of employment and advancement into society through entrepreneurships.”

At the award ceremony on this day, the first place winners in the entrepreneurial infrastructure, entrepreneurial performance, and entrepreneurial support categories were GIST, KPU, and GIST/KAIST, respectively, and the honor of the overall Grand Prize went to GIST.