Ewha president Lee Bae-yong announced the beginning of the Global Ewha 2010 Project (GE Project) on February 8. This is a project to become one of the world’s top 100 universities by the year 2010. Lee said, “We will make strong reforms in every department of the school to make Ewha a global hub for women’s education and equip Ewha with world class study and research programs to connect the East and the West.”

The project includes efforts in five categories: establishing an Office of Global Affairs, constructing a solid education, research, and administrative infrastructure, building an “Ewha Global Triangle” by building branch campuses around the world, opening a new interdisciplinary college called Scranton College, and expanding Korean language education programs for foreign students.

The Office of Global Affairs, which was established on February 1 to replace the International Education Institute, will act as the general headquarters of all international business for Ewha. At the same time, the school established the Ewha Academy, which will consist of internationally renowned scholars including Professor Jin Duk-kyu and build a solid basis for a world class research center which will pursue cooperative research with universities around the world. Furthermore, a ‘Global Center’ will be built by 2010 to provide international administrative services for foreign students and professors including help with on-campus procedures, visas, and residence information. As a part of the plan, an Education and Research Complex at Paju, which will be completed in 2010, will act as a central base for raising global-minded leaders. The Complex will include facilities for undergraduate students to learn foreign languages, an industrial-educational cooperative research center, and a dormitory for foreign professors.

A network of branch campuses, the Ewha Global Triangle will also be established by 2010 in universities in the U.S., Europe, and China to act as a support center for Ewha students who are overseas and to support a global standard of education and research. Professors will be sent to the branch campuses to carry out various academic, scholarship, and internship programs, and to support exchange students. Starting with Peking University and universities of the eastern U.S. in the latter half of 2008, the Ewha Global Triangle will eventually include campuses in Japan, the U.K., the western U.S., and India.

Scranton College will open in the first semester of this year. A total of 30 freshmen will be admitted to the “Scranton department,” an interdisciplinary honors program, and they will be joined by 70 sophomores, selected based on their grades, beginning next year. The International Studies Department, established in 2001, will also be integrated into Scranton College, which is named after Ewha’s founder Mary F. Scranton. All classes in Scranton College will be conducted in English, and the college hopes to recruit a faculty of distinguished scholars including Nobel Prize laureates. Students of Scranton College will not only study a traditional major but also receive a broad education in various other studies from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Ewha additionally plans to add more courses in English for the general student body. From 2007, new Ewha students will be required to take four classes in English to graduate. Ewha plans to hire about 50 more foreign professors by 2009 to assure that all departments have more than one native speaking foreign professor.

For its initiative in promoting Korean language education and nurture Korean language teachers, Ewha plans to establish an institution called World Instructor Networks for Korean Language, which will be the headquarters of a worldwide network of Korean language teachers. Additionally, Ewha will also provide various Korean language education programs for foreign students.

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