Seoul National University of Technology
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Seoul National University of Technology ("SNUT") is one of Korea's newer universities. The university originated from a Vocational Supplementary School established in 1910 by Emperor Gojong’s Royal Decree. Later the school was re-organized as Gyeongseong Public Industrial School, Gyeonggi Technical College, and Gyeonggi Open Industrial University before it was finally reborn as Seoul National University of Technology in April 1993. The ground breaking ceremony took place on 14 April 2007 for a new building that will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding institution in 2010.
Today SNUT is a large university housing four colleges, 32 departments, six graduate schools and a student enrolment of 14,000 people in a spacious campus of 500,000 square meters (124 acres). The campus, formerly occupied by the engineering departments of Seoul National University, is in Nowon-gu in the northern part of Seoul. It is close to Gongneung Station on subway line 7. Free shuttle buses connect to the campus during term time.
The main gate and two large buildings were built during the Japanese occupation; despite some opposition these have preserved status. It is said that the only similar buildings are at Tokyo University.
[edit] Colleges & Schools
The four colleges in SNUT are:
- College of Engineering,
- College of Art and Design,
- College of Natural and Life Sciences,
- College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
There are also three professional graduate schools and three special graduate schools within the university. Aside from these, there are a number of specialist research institutes.
[edit] Scholarships
About half of the student body benefit from a generous scholarship program which offers high quality education at a comparatively low cost. The school’s current tuition only amounts to 40% of an average private university’s costs and 80% of tuition fees charged by other national universities. SNUT also has a number of funded international cooperation programs, and a joint degree program with Northumbria University in the United Kingdom. The current university president is Jin-Sik Yoon.
To cater for the needs of all the undergraduate and postgraduate students, SNUT runs a number of subsidiary facilities. Perhaps the most used facility is the school library which is a modern building, spread out across three levels, with a floor space of over 7,000 m2 (54,000 sq. ft), 300,000 texts, a LAN CD ROM Networking System and over 1,500 seats.
Aside from the library there is also an Information and Computer Center; a Press and Broadcasting Center; a General Laboratory Building; a Business Incubation Center; an Educational Equipment Management & Technical Support Center; and an International Office/ Centre for International Exchange. Finally, there is a Language Education Institute staffed by fifteen native-speaking instructors.
[edit] Language Education Imstitute
SNUT language center is staffed by up to fifteen native speaking Visiting Assistant Professors who provide a range of classes in practical English. These include both credit and non-credit courses. Credit courses are those which contribute to the student’s overall degree whilst non-credit classes are private lessons in areas such as TOEIC prep. All these courses are available both in the daytime and in the evenings. The daytime students tend to be more youthful and energetic, and of a higher level than the evening students, though abilities can vary.
All SNUT students have to study and pass two credit courses in English in their freshman year. This is why freshman English conversation classes make up the bulk of Credit Courses in the Language Centre. They are usually low level, and require a great deal of confidence building work. Sophomore students, second year university students, also take conversation classes but their choice is voluntary.
The remaining lessons, open to all students, are composed of Elective Classes, where teachers choose or tailor the content to meet both their personal interests and the needs of students, e.g. drama, art, culture etc. Finally there are also a number of Conversation and Writing Classes run in conjunction with the English Department. These classes are limited to English Department students and are generally high level.
