Seoul National University

Seoul National University
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 145.6 million)
President Lee Jang-Moo, Ph.D.
Academic staff 2,064[3] (2008)
Admin. staff 991[3] (2008)
Students 26,605[3] (2008)
Undergraduates 16,006
Postgraduates 10,559
Doctoral students 2,602
Location Gwanak, Seoul, South Korea
Campus Urban, 1.4 km² (350 acres)
16.57 km², including the arboretums and other campuses.
Colors Blue      
Mascot Crane
Affiliations AEARU, APRU, BESETOHA, ARN
Website www.snu.ac.kr
Seoul National University Logotype
Seoul National University
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.

Seoul National University (SNU), colloquially known in Korean as Seoul-dae (서울대), is a national research university in Seoul, Korea, ranked 24th in the world in publications in an analysis of data from the Science Citation Index[4] and 47th in the world and 7th in Asia by the 2009 THE-QS World University Rankings (from 2010 two separate rankings will be produced by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World University Rankings)[5].

Founded in 1946, Seoul National University was the first national university in South Korea, and served as a model for the many national and public universities in the country. 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. 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.[6]

To join the international trend of learning, the university's faculty includes more than 350[7] non-Koreans, which is about 10 per cent of the total. Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen and Fields Medal recipient Hironaka Heisuke are on the faculty roster.[8]

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"[9] system, offering diplomas for virtually every academic field, from aerospace engineering to Western history.[9]

Contents

History

Pre-establishment

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

Establishment

The main gate of Seoul National University, known by its nickname, the Sha (샤) gate. The shape of the gate is formed by the characters ㄱ,ㅅ, ㄷ, the initial letters of its full Korean name (roughly equivalent to 'SNU' in English).

Seoul National University was founded on August 22, 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.[10]

During the Korean War, the university was temporarily merged with other universities in South Korea, located in Busan.

College of Medicine

Seoul National University Hospital and the College of Medicine trace their history to Gwanghyewon, also known as Jejungwon, which has been claimed as the first western medical institution in Korea, founded by royal support in 1885. This assertion has however been disputed by medical historians, as lacking any tangible evidence.It is widely accepted that Gwanhyewon is instead a direct predecessor to Severance Hospital and Yonsei University's College of Medicine. It is suggested that Seoul National University Hospital and the College of Medicine are related, rather, to Daehan Hospital founded in 1907, which was supported by Japanese Resident-General Itō Hirobumi.

Relocation

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 1975 the main campus of the university moved to the newly constructed Gwanak Campus.

2006 was the sixtieth anniversary of the university.

Academics

Undergraduate colleges

Graduate schools

General programs

  • Graduate School of Humanities
  • Graduate School of Social Sciences
  • Graduate School of Natural Sciences
  • Graduate School of Engineering
  • Graduate School of Arts
  • Graduate School of Medicine
  • Interdisciplinary Programs

Professional schools

Admissions

Seoul National University is undisputed as the most prestigious university in Korea. 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. The fraction of SNU applicants among the top 0.1% scorers exceeded 95%. Some students who are not accepted to SNU opt to re-take the College Scholastic Ability Test and try again the next year, since the test is administered annually.

Students are admitted by major instead of into a general freshman pool. The most competitive majors are the College of Medicine for the sciences and the College of Business Administration for humanities.

Reputation

Seoul national university 60th anniversary emblem.png

SNU graduates dominate South Korea's academics, government, politics and business. 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.

International Rankings

The 2009 THE-QS World University Rankings (From 2010 two separate rankings will be produced by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and the QS World University Rankings) lists SNU at No. 47.[11] SNU 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. Seoul National also had the third highest number of students who went on to earn Ph.Ds in American institutions in 2006.[12]

Campus

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.

Location

Gwanaksa dormitory-complex renovation is slated for completion summer 2010

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.

Public transit access

Gwanak Campus

Yeongeon Campus

Facilities

Library

Main article: Seoul National University Library
The passageway through the Central Library building

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.

Museum

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

The new building of the Museum of Art

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.

Dormitory

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.

Newspaper

Editorial building of the students' newspaper

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.

Notable alumni

Academia

Natural Science and Technology

Arts

Literature

Politics

Business

Entertainment

Athletics

Photo gallery

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Website of Roman Law Study Group" (in Korean). College of Law, Seoul National University. http://jus.snu.ac.kr/~romanist/index_l.html. Retrieved July 28, 2007. 
  2. ↑ "Seoul National University Foundation Facts" (in Korean). Seoul National University Foundation. http://snu.or.kr/eng/foundation/foundation_state.php. Retrieved December 28, 2005. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Seoul National University Facts" (in Korean). Seoul National University. http://snu.ac.kr/about/ab0103.jsp. Retrieved August 22, 2008. 
  4. ↑ http://useoul.edu/news/news0101_view.jsp?idx=128753 Retrieved on February 11, 2009
  5. ↑ http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/Rankings2009-Top200.html Retrieved on October 9, 2009
  6. ↑ http://useoul.edu/news/news0101_view.jsp?idx=128888 Retrieved on August 19, 2009
  7. ↑ "Faculty listing as of 1 October 2008". USeoul.edu Website. http://useoul.edu/about/ab0103.jsp. Retrieved 2009-05-14. 
  8. ↑ Choi, Naeun (2008-11-10). "Nobel Prize Winner Paul Crutzen Appointed as SNU Professor". Useoul.edu. http://www.useoul.edu/news/news0101_view.jsp?idx=128770. Retrieved 2009-05-14. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Lee, Jung-hoon, "With its sixtieth anniversary coming, SNU seeks for future plan" (Korean). Shin Dong A (July 2006): 136-161. Retrieved on September 30, 2007
  10. ↑ "History of the College of Pharmacy". SNU College of Pharmacy website. http://www.snupharm.ac.kr/eng/about/about_02.asp. Retrieved July 24, 2005. 
  11. ↑ "The Times Higher World University Rankings". The Times Higher Education Supplement. TSL Education. http://www.thes.co.uk/worldrankings. 
  12. ↑ Graduates of Chinese Universities Take the Lead in Earning American Ph.Ds - Chronicle.com

Further reading

External links

Seoul National University

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