Int'l University Campus Project Launched

The Songdo Global University Campus project, where students can obtain degrees from foreign universities, was launched on Wednesday. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Incheon Metropolitan Government held a ground-breaking ceremony for construction in the Incheon Free Economic Zone on Wednesday.

The ceremony was attended by some 500 officials and guests including Knowledge Economy Minister Lee Youn-ho and the vice presidents of seven foreign universities such as the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

SGUC is Korea's first joint campus of international universities, chiefly for undergraduate programs. Universities expected to open branches at SGUC include North Carolina State University, the University of Missouri, the University of Southern California, Duke University, the University of Houston, Purdue University, George Mason University, and the University of Delaware, which have already signed memoranda of understanding with the IFEZ Authority.

The IFEZ Authority expects that 10 universities will have open branches with 12,000 students at SGUC by 2012 when construction is completed. Each university will likely apply the same standards for recruitment and curricula to its branch at SGUC as at the main campus. Students will be allowed to study at both SGUC and main campuses of foreign universities.

"Students will receive high-level education from foreign universities in Korea at lower costs than study abroad," IFEZ said. The free zone aims to become an education hub in Asia by filling about 30 percent of the quota with students from Southeast Asia and China.