Seoul National University | |
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서울대학교 | |
Latin: Universitas Nationalis Seulensis[1] | |
Motto | Veritas lux mea (Latin, literal translation: "The truth is my light". non-literal: "The truth enlightens me".) 진리는 나의 빛 |
Established | 1946 |
Type | National |
Endowment | KRW 134.2 billion[2] (USD 120.6 million) |
President | Oh Yeon-cheon, Ph.D. |
Academic staff | 2,064[3] (2008) |
Admin. staff | 991[3] (2008) |
Students | 26,941[3] (2010) |
Undergraduates | 16,325 |
Postgraduates | 10,616 |
Doctoral students | 2,904 |
Location | Gwanak, Seoul, South Korea |
Campus | Urban, 1.4 km2 (350 acres) 16.57 km2 (4,094 acres), including the arboretums and other campuses. |
Colors | Blue |
Mascot | Crane |
Affiliations | AEARU, APRU, BESETOHA, ARN |
Website | www.snu.ac.kr |
Seoul National University | |
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Hangul | 서울대학교 |
Hanja | 서울大學校 |
Revised Romanization | Seoul Daehakgyo |
McCune–Reischauer | Sŏul Taehakkyo |
Note: The word 首尔大学 (traditional: 首爾大學) is frequently used in many Chinese contexts, as in Chinese Wikipedia. This is, however, not a traditional hanja name, because the Chinese characters used in the word do not represent the Korean sound of the word, but rather the Chinese. Thus it is merely a Chinese transliteration, rendered as Shǒuěr Dàxué in pinyin. Other names such as 汉城国立大学 have been used historically.
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Seoul National University (SNU), colloquially known in Korean as Seoul-dae (서울대), is a national research university in Seoul, Korea, ranked 20th in the world in publications in an analysis of data from the Science Citation Index,[4] 7th in Asia and 42nd in the world by the 2011 QS World University Rankings.[5] and 13th in Asia and 124th in the world by the 2011 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.[6] In 2009, the Ecole des Mines de Paris - MINES Paris Tech reported that SNU is ranked 5th in the world in terms of the number of alumni currently holding CEO positions in Fortune 500 enterprises.[7] Among its prominent alumni are Ban Ki-moon (current Secretary-General of the United Nations), and LG and Samsung Electronics CEOs.
Founded in 1946, Seoul National University was the first national university in South Korea, and has served as a model for the many national and public universities in the country. Throughout its history, Seoul National University has been regarded as the most prestigious of all post-secondary educational institutions in the country by the general public and consistently recruits top-notch high school students.[8] Seoul National University has been recognized for its leading role in Korean academia, and entry into the university is viewed as a ticket to success. According to data compiled by the Korean Educational Development Institute, Seoul National University spends more on its students per capita than any other university in the country enrolling at least ten-thousand undergraduates, more than one-and-one-half times its peer institutions.[9]
To join the international trend of learning, the university's international headcount is 200 or four percent of the total.[10] Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen and Fields Medal recipient Hironaka Heisuke are on the faculty roster.[11].
Today Seoul National University comprises sixteen colleges and six professional schools, with a student body of about thirty-thousand. It has two campuses in Seoul: the main campus in Gwanak, and the medical campus (named Yeongeon Campus after its neighbourhood) in Jongno. SNU is notable for its "fleet-style"[12] system, offering diplomas for virtually every academic field, from aerospace engineering to Western history.[12] The University is slated to expand its academia-industry collaboration, bio-medical research and development, and education-related infrastructure by an additional 58 percent in size and by 33 percent in headcount by 2014.[13]
Designed to ensure that its student body actively collaborate with leading international institutions, the university maintains an undergraduate exchange program with the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Stanford University, and Yale University.[14] In addition, Seoul National holds a memorandum of understanding with over 700 academic institutions in forty countries,[15] including the country's first ever academic exchange program with the University of Pennsylvania.[16] As part of its comprehensive strategic alliance, the Graduate School of Business offers dual master's degrees with Duke University, ESSEC, and the Peking University, and upholds MBA-, MS-, and PhD-candidate exchange programs with universities in ten countries on four continents.[17]
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Although the University was founded in 1946, some of its colleges, and its former main campus (the current medical campus) can trace their lineage to Kyongsong University, formerly Keijō Imperial University, established as one of Japan's 9 imperial universities.
The schools merged were
Seoul National University was founded on August 27, 1946 by merging ten institutions of higher education around the Seoul area, pursuant to "The Law Concerning the Foundation of Seoul National University." The schools merged were: Kyŏngsŏng University, Kyŏngsŏng Colleges of Law, Industrial Engineering, Mining, Medicine, Economics, Dentistry, the Normal School, the Women's Normal School, and Suwon Agricultural College. The first president was Harry B. Ansted. [1] For over a year and a half, there was a large protest movement by students and professors against the law of the US military government in Korea merging colleges. Finally, 320 professors were fired and more than 4950 students left the school.
The university's second president was Lee Chunho (이춘호; 李春昊), who served beginning in October, 1947.
The College of Law was founded by merging the law department of Kyŏngsŏng University with Kyŏngsŏng Law College. The university absorbed Seoul College of Pharmacy in September, 1950, as the College of Pharmacy. This had previously been a private institution.[18]
During the Korean War, the university was temporarily merged with other universities in South Korea, located in Busan.
Originally, the main campus (which embraced the College of Humanities and Sciences and College of Law) was located on Daehangno (University Street) in Jongno. Most parts of the university relocated to a new campus in Gwanak in the period between 1975 and 1979. Part of the former main campus in Jongno is still used by the College of Medicine, the College of Dentistry and the College of Nursing and is now called Yeongeon Campus.
In February 1975 the main campus of the university moved to the newly constructed Gwanak Campus.
Admissions to Seoul National University are extremely competitive. From 1981 to 1987, when an applicant could apply only to one university at a time, more than 80% of the top 0.5% scorers in the annual government-administered scholastic achievement test applied to SNU, many of them unsuccessfully.
Students are admitted by major instead of into a general freshman pool.
SNU graduates dominate South Korea's academics, government, politics and business. Between 2003 and 2009, more students who graduated from science high schools and received presidential scholarships matriculated at Seoul National University than at eight other leading universities combined.[19] The concentration of SNU graduates in legal, official, and political circles is particularly high. Two-thirds of South Korean judges are SNU graduates, although the country's judicial appointment system is based solely on open competitive examinations. In government, slightly more than half of South Korea's elite career foreign service corps, recruited on the basis of a competitive higher diplomatic service exam, are from SNU. Similarly, among the high-ranking government officials who were recruited by an equally competitive higher civil service exam, SNU graduates take up more than 40 percent. On the political side, four out of seven presidential candidates in 2002 were SNU graduates. The school is also often criticized by some South Koreans for being elitist and bureaucratic.
The 2010 QS World University Rankings lists the university 54th in arts and humanities, 38th each in life sciences and medicine, natural sciences, and technology, 42nd in social sciences, and 50th institutionally in the world.[20] The Times Higher Education World University Rankings listed the university at a peak among the top 109 world universities for the 2010-2011 rankings.[21] The Shanghai Ranking Consultancy's Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) ranks the university 52nd-75th in engineering,[22] 76th-100th in science,[23] and 101st-150th institutionally in the world.[24] ARWU places more emphasis on publications in the area of natural sciences as well as on the number of alumni who have become Nobel Prize winners. The 2010 Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan ranked the university 67th in "performance ranking of scientific papers for world universities", up from 85th the prior year.[25] Seoul National also had the third highest number of students who went on to earn Ph.Ds in American institutions in 2006.[26]
In February 2010 Seoul National initiated a memorandum with the city of Siheung to establish a global campus. Signed with the city's mayor and governor of Gyeonggi for administrative assistance, the University acquired 826 thousand square-meters (204 acres) of property to secure influence in the west-coast economic zone, abut the Songdo International Business District, access Pyeongtaek harbor, gain better location to the international airport, seaport and other wide-area transportation catchments, and achieve shared growth with the city's industrial research parks.[27]
The land acquisition will increase the university's size by 58 percent over its current 1.4 million square-meters (350 acres) to 2.2 million square-meters (550 acres) and headcount by an expected 10,000 people or 33 percent of its current figure.[13] Along with lecture halls and additional liberal arts and graduate courses, the initiative will add a medical complex including a research hospital and training center, research center for dentistry and clinical pharmacology, dormitories, apartments, an international middle and high school, and other facilities. Planning to open the international campus in 2014, the University intends to share the initiative with other regional national institutions.[28]
Seoul National University is made up of two Seoul-based and one Suwon-based campuses: the Gwanak Campus is situated in the neighborhood of Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu; and the Yeongeon Campus is north of the Han River in Yeongeon-dong, Jongno-gu; and the Gwanggyo Campus is east of the Suwon-si in Iui-dong, Yeongtong-gu. The main campus in Gwanak-gu was established in 1975 by the SNU Comprehensive Plan. At present, there are about 200 buildings, over half of which have been constructed since 1990. The school’s medical, dental and nursing schools, as well as the main branch of Seoul National University Hospital, are located on the former site of Kyungsung University’s medical department at the Yeongeon Campus. In 2003, the Colleges of Agricultural and Life Sciences and Veterinary Medicine were relocated from Suwon to Gwanak. In 2009, The Graduate School of Convergence Science Technology(GSCST) consists of three department(Nano-convergence,Digital-information-convergence,intellectual-convergence) were established in Gwanggyo campus.
Gwanak Campus, the main campus, is located in the southern part of Seoul. It is served by its own subway station on Line 2. Yeongeon Campus, the medical campus, is located on Daehangno(University Street), northeast Seoul. The defunct Suwon Campus, the agricultural campus, also known as the Sangnok Campus (Evergreen Campus), used to be located in Suwon, about 40 km south of Seoul. The agricultural campus moved to Gwanak in Autumn 2004, but some research facilities still remain in Suwon.
Seoul National University Library is located behind the university administrative building in the 62nd block of the Gwanak Campus. In 2009, the library’s total collection of books, including all the annexes, was approximately 4 million volumes. The present chief librarian, Dr. Kim Jong-seo, professor of religious studies in the College of Humanities, took office in 2009.
Furthermore, the Central Library has constructed a digital library, which in addition to the regular library collection provides access to university publications, ancient texts, and theses. Included here are countless images of pamphlets, lecture slides, and insects. The digital library also offers access to video of university exhibitions, scientific events, symposia, and seminars.
The library was first opened in 1946 as the Seoul National University Central Library, inheriting its facilities and books from Kyungsung University. In 1949, the name of the library was changed to the Seoul National University Library Annex. When the main branch of the library was relocated to the Gwanak Campus in January 1975, it was renamed the Seoul National University Library, and then renamed again in 1992 the Seoul National University Central Library.
In 1966, provisions were made to systematize the library's collections. As the measures came into effect, the original library was organized into 12 separate annexes for each of the university’s colleges: engineering, education, physics, art, law, theology, pharmacology, music, medicine, dentistry, administration, and agricultural sciences. Two years later, in 1968, libraries for newspapers and the liberal arts were added to bring the total number of annexes to 14. However as the main branch was moved to the Gwanak Campus, the education, physics, legal, theological, administrative, newspaper, liberal arts, and pharmacological libraries were combined in a single building. The following year the art and music libraries were also added to the main branch, while the dentistry and medical libraries were amalgamated into one. With the integration of the engineering library into the main branch in 1979, only the agricultural and medical libraries remained as separate annexes. A new law library was established in 1983 with funds from alumni, and in 1992 the Kyujanggak Royal Library was subdivided from the main library as an independent organization and is now known as the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean Studies.
With the transfer of the College of Agricultural Sciences from the Suwon to Gwanak Campus, the Agricultural Library was also moved in 2005. As of 2006 there were seven remaining library annexes for management, the social sciences, agriculture, law, medicine, dentistry, and international studies.
Acquisitions from foreign libraries, universities, associations, governments, and private donors have played an important role in the library's formation, holdings, and expansion. Over the years the library has received contributions from seven university libraries (Columbia, Harvard, Hong Kong, Leiden, Michigan, Stockholm, Toronto), three universities (Ohio State, Princeton, and UCLA), three major libraries (Fung Ping Shan Library, Library of Congress, New York Public Library), four institutions (German Research Association, Pro Helvetia Switzerland, Smithsonian Institution, and World Bank), two government agencies (US Information Service and US Operation Mission), the government of Australia, and from myriad private Korean and non-Korean donors.
Seoul National University Museum is located at the Gwanak Campus. It originally opened alongside the university in 1946 under the name, "The Seoul National University Museum Annex." The original 2-story Dongsung-dong building, which was erected in 1941, had served as the Kyungsung Imperial University Museum until it was transferred intact to SNU. When the museum was moved to the sixth floor of the Central Library, in 1975, it was renamed the Seoul National University Museum. The museum was then moved to newly constructed facilities, next to the Dongwon Building, in 1993, which it has occupied to this day. Dr. Park Nak-gyu is the present director.
Museum of Art, Seoul National University (SNUMoA) was established in 1995, with contributions from the Samsung Cultural Foundation, after a proposal from Dr. Lee Jong-sang, a professor of Oriental Art. The building designed by the Dutch architect, Rem Koolhaas, with construction entrusted to the Samsung Group. This 4450m2 structure sits three stories above and below ground. Its major distinguishing feature is the forward area which almost appears to be floating in the air. Construction was undertaken from 2003 to 2005, just off the Gwanak Campus’ main gate while the opening took place on the June 8, 2006. Dr. Jung Hung-min assumed the directorship of the gallery in 2006.
The dormitory of Seoul National University, named Gwanaksa, where the undergraduate and graduate students, and family dormitory are located. It founded at August, 1975, with 5 Gwanaksa buildings and 1 welfare building, which housed 970 male students and the female dormitory, was founded at February, 1983. By June, 2007, there were 1 administration building, 2 welfare buildings, 12 undergraduate dormitory buildings, 6 graduate students’ dormitory buildings, and housed 3,680 students. Unlike other schools, there is no curfew hour. Now the old Gwanaksa building is in the course of re-construction, the construction started in February, 2008, and planned to be ended in 2011. When the construction is completed, the old Gwanaksa building will be holding 3500 students, which was 2200 before (now the Gwanaksa is divided into old building and new building). The Yeongeonsa located in Yeongeon campus, which is medical school of Seoul National University. The Yeongeonsa can house 533 undergraduate students, and 17 household of family dormitory.
The first edition of the paper was launched while seeking refuge from the ravages of the Korean War, on February 4, 1952. In 1953 it was moved to Dongsung-dong in Seoul, where from 1958 even editions for high school were published. Financial difficulties in 1960 led the paper to cease printing for a time. It was relocated to the Gwanak Campus in 1975 where it has been in continuous publication until the present day. At the time of its first launch the paper was sold for 500 won a copy, sometimes twice a week. Now, however, it is distributed for free every Monday. The school paper is not available during schools breaks or exams.
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