Sejong University (SJU; Korean: 세종대학교; Hanja: 世宗大學校; RR: Sejong Daehakgyo) is a private university located in Seoul, South Korea known for its standing in hospitality and tourism management, dancing, animation and rhythmic gymnastics. Founded as the Kyung Sung Humanities Institute, it was renamed in 1978 to its present name in honor of Sejong the Great, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty and overseer of the creation of the Korean alphabet Hangul. Sejong University has nine colleges: College of Liberal Arts, College of Social Sciences, College of Business Administration, College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, College of Natural Sciences, College of Life Sciences, College of Electronics and Information Engineering, College of Engineering, and College of Arts and Physical Education, and has a Faculty of General Education and seven graduate schools.The history of Sejong University began in May 1940 when the Kyung Sung Humanities Institute was founded by Dr. Youngha Choo and Dr. Okja Choi. In 1947 the institute grew into the Seoul Women Teachers' Institute, with Dr. Choo as its first Director; the following year it was reorganized and became a junior college. In 1954 the school became Soodo Women Teachers' College. The college became a four-year institution in 1961 and in 1962 moved to its present campus in Kunja-dong. In 1966 the Graduate School was established. In 1973, the Soodo Museum (now Sejong University Museum), established to house the founders' collection of Korean antiquities, opened its doors to the public. In 1979 Soodo Women Teachers' College changed its name to Sejong College and admitted male undergraduates for the first time.In October 1987 Sejong College grew into Sejong University, consisting of five colleges with an enrollment of 6,000 students. In 1996, Dr. Choo Myung-Gun became Chairman of the Board of Trustees. That year saw the establishment of two new graduate schools (the Graduate School of Information and Communication and the Graduate School of Education) and four new engineering departments (Electronic Engineering, Architectural Engineering, Civil Engineering, and the evening division of Computer Engineering), as well as a Ph.D. program in Hotel Management and master's programs in Public Administration, Applied Statistics, and Computer Engineering. Total enrollment rose to over 7,000 by the fall semester of 1997 and since then enrollment has increased by about 1,000 new students each year. In 1998 the College of Tourism and the department of Biological Engineering were founded. Construction began on five new buildings, including the Library, the Chapel, and the engineering laboratories.In 1999 three new graduate schools were added: Software Engineering, Science and Technology, and Performance Art Administration. The Materials Engineering department was established. As a result of a cooperative agreement with Lockheed Martin Aerospace, the Sejong-Lockheed Martin Aerospace Research Center was founded to promote the development of the Korean aerospace industry, and similar agreements to cooperate in the development of science and technology were made with Hanaro Communication, Hansol PCS, Onse Communication, and Prime Company. In 2000 the Graduate Schools of Film Art and Techno Design were founded; the Graduate School of Business Administration became the Graduate School of Global Business Administration; the College of Tourism became the College of Hotels and Tourism. The new Library opened, housing more than 400,000 volumes; it is the first WTO library in Korea.In 2001 a collaborative relationship was established with the Korea Science and Culture Foundation. Two new programs taught in English opened: an M.A program in Asian Studies, and a Global M.B.A. program operated jointly by Sejong University and Syracuse University in the United States. In January 2002 a University Development Advisory Board, composed of the CEOs of 30 major Korean firms, was founded to strengthen the university's ties to industry. In 2002 the education Reform Deliberation Commission officially awarded Sejong University for successfully restructuring and renovating university. In 2004 the Ministry of Education & Human Resources Development recognized Sejong University for excellence in promoting originality, innovation, and academic achievement. In 2007 the Graduate School of Business received certification from the Association of Advanced Collegiate Schools of Business.The university has announced a plan to build a research complex consisting of the Green Energy Research Institute (GERI) and the Plant Engineering Research Institute (PERI) in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do. In 2002, the Ministry of Science and Technology named the University's Astrophysical Research Center for the Structure & Evolution of the Cosmos (ARCSEC) as the Best New Research Institute and awarded a research grant of 9 billion won over a 9-year period. In 2007, the October issue of Molecular Cell published the groundbreaking article by Dr. Soo-Jong Um and his research team entitled, “Active Regulator of SIRT1 Cooperates with SIRT1 and Facilitates Suppression of p53 Activity.” The article describes a nuclear protein and active regulator SIRT1 (AROS). AROS is the first direct SIRT1 regulator to be identified to be modulating p53-mediated growth regulation.In 2009, Dr. Jaewoo Lee of the Department of Astronomy and Space Science and his team published a paper in Nature entitled, “Enrichment by supernovae in globular clusters with multiple populations”, explaining the process of the formation of globular clusters. He also became the first South Korean scientist to win the right to use NASA's Hubble Telescope in 2010. In 2009, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology selected the University's Biotechnology Engineering Department as one of the select recipients of funding of 1.2 billion won over a 5-year period to undertake a research project to develop a groundbreaking technology. If successful, the new technology will allow dedifferentiating (reversing cell development) completely differentiated cells to turn them into stem cells, which will enable patients to use their own cells to repair, for example, their damaged liver.In May 2010, Sejong University was named a Resource Development Specialization University by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy under the government's initiative to develop a pool of specialists in overseas resource development.[8] The University will receive a funding of 10 billion won from the government to develop and train resource specialists. The Department of Energy and Mineral Resource Engineering has been added to further consolidate its leading position in resource development research in the country. The Department offers three majors: Climate Change Policy, Climate Change Science, and Climate Change Engineering. In September 2010, Graphene Research Institute of Sejong University was selected as one of the Priority Research Centers funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea under the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and will receive a funding of 4.9 billion won over 9 years. In October 2010, Sejong University signed an MOU with Syngenta AG, a leading global Swiss agribusiness company, to develop new innovative breeds and research talents. In December 2010, Dr. Sung-Eun Kim of the Department of Astronomy and Space Science was named as one of the Female Scientists of the Year by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea. She received the recognition for her continued contribution to science, which includes 60-odd papers on the Large Magellanic Cloud.Sejong University's wooded 118,262 m2 campus is located at 98 Gunja-dong, Gwangjin-gu, in eastern Seoul north of the Han river, the capital of South Korea. Located directly across from the Seoul Children's Grand Park, the campus consists of 23 buildings, including the Sejong Private Elementary School building and the Student Center. The campus is a showcase of buildings built in Korean traditional styles.
Watch the videos to learn about the student life-cycle and the teaching environment at the University.
