Ewha Womans University

Coordinates: 37°33′42.72″N 126°56′48.60″E / 37.5618667°N 126.9468333°E / 37.5618667; 126.9468333

Ewha Womans University

이화여자대학교
Motto	진(眞)·선(善)·미(美)
Motto in English	Knowledge·Goodness·Beauty
Type	Private
Established	1886
President	Choi, Kyunghee Ph.D.
Academic staff	997
Administrative staff	543
Students	19,503[1]
Undergraduates	16,166
Postgraduates	6,102
Location	Seodaemun, Seoul, South Korea
Campus	Urban 547,788  m²
Colors	Green
Nickname	Idae (이대·梨大)
Website	www.ewha.ac.kr

Main entrance

Ewha campus complex

Street near Ewha

Ewha Womans University (Hangul: 이화여자대학교; hanja: 梨花女子大學校) is a private women's university in central Seoul, South Korea founded in 1886 by the American Methodist Episcopal missionary Mary F. Scranton. It is the world's largest female educational institute.

While the lack of an apostrophe in "Womans University" is unconventional, the use of "Woman's" rather than "Women's" was normal in the past.^[2]

Τhe use of "Womans" carries special meaning. The early founders of the college thought that every woman is to be respected; to promote this idea, they chose the word "woman" to avoid lumping students together under the word "women." ^[3]

History

Ewha Womans University traces its roots back to Mary F. Scranton's Ehwa Haktang (Hangul: 이화학당; hanja: 梨花學堂) mission school for girls, which opened with one student on May 31, 1886 (Lee, 2001).^[4] The name Ewha, which means “Pear Blossoms”, was bestowed by the Emperor Gojong the following year. The campus was covered with them, and historians speculate that a grove of pear trees near Scranton home's inspired the name. The image of the pear blossom is incorporated in the school's logo.

The school began providing college courses in 1910, and professional courses for women in 1925. Immediately following liberation of Korea on August 15, 1945, the college received government permission to become a university. It was the first South Korean university to be officially organized.

Timeline

1886-1910

• 1886: First modern educational institute for Korean women, American missionary Mary F. Scranton began classes for women at her home in Jeong-dong, Seoul.
• 1887: Boguyeogwan offers medical service for women. As Korea’s first hospital exclusively for women, it laid the groundwork for Ewha’s Colleges of Nursing and Medicine, which became the current Ewha Womans University Medical Center.

1910-1925

• 1910: College courses launched in September The college opened at Ewha Haktang with 15 students; its inaugural class graduated in 1914.
• 1925: Founding of Ewha College. The college was elevated to Ewha College, making it the first institute of higher education for Korean women.

1925-1945

• 1935: Campus moves to Sinchon

1946-1961

• 1946: First Korean university to receive government accreditation. Ewha was accredited by the Ministry of Education, becoming the first accredited four-year university in Korea.
• 1951: Temporary wartime campus in Busan. Following the outbreak of the Korean War, Ewha opened an evacuee campus in the southern city of Busan on Sept. 1, 1951, with 30 temporary wooden structures and tents.

1961-2000

• 1977: Korea’s first women’s studies course and established the Korean Women’s Institute to seek development in the discipline.
• 1986: Ewha’s 100th anniversary of its foundation.
• 1995: Top marks in national accreditation, named top-ranked school in Comprehensive University Accreditation System conducted by Korean Council for University Education.
• 1996: Established the world's first engineering college for women

2000-2010

• 2001: Korea’s first International Studies Division opened, offering all courses in English.
• 2006: Ewha Global Partnership program
  • Korea’s first degree program for women from developing countries was established.
• 2007: Ewha-KOICA program started, an MA program for female researchers and public servants from developing countries.
• 2007: Scranton College self-designed major (undergraduate program) started.
• 2008: Construction of ECC, Korea’s largest environmentally friendly underground campus facility.

2010-present

• 2011: Established an Ewha-Solvay collaboration with multinational chemical corporation Solvay, to build the global headquarters of its R&D center at Ewha.
• 2012: Center of women’s global education by launching the Ewha Global Empowerment Program to foster female leaders in public and non-government sectors in developing countries.

• Selected to receive KRW 100 billion over the next 10 years from the Institute for Basic Research.

Collaborations

The university collaborates with around 830 partners in 64 countries including Australian National University, Cornell University, Freie University of Berlin, Ghent University, Harvard University, Indiana University, King’s College London, Nanyang Technological University, Peking University, University of California, Irvine, University of British Columbia, University of Edinburgh, University of Hong Kong, Uppsala University, and Waseda University.

Organization

Colleges

Graduate schools

The Graduate School

• Korean Language & Literature
• Chinese Language & Literature
• English Language & Literature
• French Language & Literature
• German Language & Literature
• Christian Studies
• Philosophy
• History
• Art History
• Political Science & International Relations
• Public Administration
• Economics
• Library & Information Science
• Sociology
• Social Welfare
• Psychology
• Consumer Studies
• Communication
• Women's Studies
• Child Development
• North Korean Studies
• Education
• Early Childhood Education
• Elementary Education
• Educational Technology
• Special Education
• English Education
• Department of Social Studies Education
• Korean Education
• Communication Disorders
• Law
• Business Administration
• International Office Administration
• Music Therapy
• Mathematics
• Statistics
• Physics
• Chemistry & Nano Science
• Life Sciences
• Division of Life & Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Industrial Pharmaceutical Science
• Science Education
• Mathematics Education
• Health Education & Management
• Nursing Science
• Nutritional Science & Food Management
• Division of Eco Science
• Medical Sciences
• Bio Inspired Science
• Brain & Cognitive Sciences
• Computer Science & Engineering
• Electronics Engineering
• Architecture
• Architectural Engineering
• Environmental Science & Engineering
• Atmospheric Science & Engineering
• Food Science & Technology
• Digital Media
• Music
• Fine Arts
• Design
• Clothing & Textiles
• Dance
• Human Movement Studies
• Medicine
• Area Studies
• Bioethics Policy Studies
• East Asians Studies
• Gifted Education
• Environmental and Architectural Engineering for Sustainability
• Climate/Economics Interdisciplinary Program

Professional Graduate School

• International Studies(GSIS)
• Translation & Interpretation
• Business
• Medicine
• Law

Special Graduate School

• Education
• Design
• Social Welfare
• Theology
• Policy Sciences
• Performing Arts
• Clinical Health Sciences
• Clinical Dentistry
• Teaching Foreign Languages

Achievements

• Among the women lawmakers appointed to the 19th National Assembly (2012-2016), 27.6% are Ewha alumnae.
• The only Korean university participating as a partner in the Harvard College in Asia Program (HCAP) and Ewha-Harvard Summer School Program.
• Produced the 6th highest number of successful candidates in National Judicial Exam and the 7th highest number in Civil Service Exam in 2013(ranked 5th in 2012).
• First among all private Korean universities in the number of citations per research paper in the 2012 Chosun-QS Evaluation of Asian Universities.

Awards

• First in the 2013 Leiden Ranking, a qualitative assessment of faculty research in the world’s top 500 universities.
• Fifth among all Korean universities in the Chosun-QS Evaluation of Asian Universities.
• First in the nation in Education, Engineering, English Language & Literature, Environmental Engineering, History, Law, Mathematics, Nutritional Science & Food Management, Physics and Sociology.

Distinguished Honorary Ewha Fellows

• Hillary Rodham Clinton — Former United States Secretary of State.
• Drew Gilpin Faust — President of Harvard University.
• Tarja Halonen — The 11th President of Finland.

Distinguished Fellows of the Ewha Academy for Advanced Studies

• Muhammad Yunus — President of Grameen Bank and the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
• George Smoot — Recipient of Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006.
• Robert Howard Grubbs — American chemist and a Nobel laureate.
• Jane Goodall — British anthropologist.
• Jocelyn Bell Burnell — Professor of Astrophysics at Oxford University.

Notable alumni

*Lee Soon-ja — former First Lady, the wife of South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan.

• Son Myung-soon — former First Lady, the wife of South Korean President Kim Young-sam.
• Kim Yoon-ok — former First Lady, the wife of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
• Lee Myung-hee — Chairwoman of the Shinsegae Group, daughter of Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chul, and Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of Samsung Group's younger sister.
• Lee Yoon-hyung — Samsung Group chief Lee Kun-hee's daughter.
• Hyun Jeong-eun — Chairwoman of the Hyundai Group.
• Shinae Chun — former Director of the Women's Bureau of United States Department of Labor.
• Insoo Kim Berg — Korean-born American psychotherapist.
• Han Myeong-sook — former Prime Minister of South Korea.
• Jeon Yeo-ok — South Korean politician.
• Hong Eun-Ah — youngest Korean FIFA referee.
• Sohn Ji-ae — former Bureau Chief of CNN Seoul.
• Sylvia Park MBE-First Korean female to be awarded a British royal honour.
• Lee Tai-Young — first Korean female lawyer and first female judge.
• Choi In-a — first Korean female Vice President in Samsung Group.
• No Seok-mi — first Korean female Certified Public Accountant.
• Helen Kim — first female Korean Doctor of Philosophy, and also the first Korean female Bachelor of Arts.
• Hah Ran-sa — First Korean woman to acquire a Bachelor's degree at Ohio Wesleyan University in the United States.
• Sohn Byoung-ok — first woman CEO of Prudential Life Korea.
• Jeon Hyo-sook — first female justice in the Constitutional Court of Korea.
• Lee Sung-nam — former executive of the Financial Supervisory Service.
• Lee Ae-ran — in 2009, Lee Ae-ran became the first female North Korean defector to earn a doctorate, which she earned from Ewha Womans University in the subject of food and nutrition. ^[5]
• Kim Joo-ha — first Korean woman journalist to host news as a solo anchor at Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation.
• Yu Jung-geun — first Korean female president of Red Cross.
• Jang Myung-sue — first woman CEO of a daily newspaper Hankook Ilbo.
• Chang Hai-won — first Korean women scientist in the field of Chemistry.
• Esther Park — first Korean female doctor.
• Kwak Min-jeong — South Korean figure skater.
• Lee Yu-bi — South Korean actress, daughter of actress Kyeon Mi-ri.
• Kim Seo-yeon — Miss Korea 2014
• Claudia Kim — South Korean actress.
• Seo Min-jung — South Korean actress.
• Park Hae-mi — South Korean musical actress.
• Kwak Hyun-hwa — South Korean actress.

Affiliated facilities

• Ewha Womans University Museum
• Ewha Womans University Natural History Museum
• Ewha Womans University Medical Center
• Ewha Institute For Leadership Development
• Ewha Advanced IT Education Center
• Ewha School Of Continuing Education
• Ewha Language Center
• Ewha Archives
• Ewha Elementary School
• Ewha Kindergarten
• Ewha Kumnan High School
• Ewha Kumnan Middle School
• Youngran Information Industry High School
• Youngran Girl's Middle School

Gallery

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  Ewha Womans University Campus

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Public transportation

• Ewha Womans University Station
•  Gyeongui–​Jungang  Sinchon Station (Gyeongui Line)

See also

• Education in South Korea
• List of colleges and universities in South Korea
• List of Korea-related topics
• Ewha Womans University Station
• Idae area

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ewha Womans University.

• EWHA by ArchiDiAP
• Official website, in Korean and English
• Official website for international programs, in Korean and English
• Ewha Womans University at DMOZ