In the 21st century, the development of information and technology has allowed people to conduct businesses through fingertips. As a result, every business must put effort into both creating a website and into managing that site by uploading recent information and answering the questions of visitors. It is the website where people first go to look when they are curious about something in the 21st century. Amidst this change, Ewha also has created a website both in English and in Korean in order to communicate better. However, the English version of the Ewha site still has some shortcomings.

 

             The official English website of Ewha is not updated with the latest news. Although four months have passed and much happened, the website’s latest news is still from January. Moreover, there is no special section for notices of conferences or other events that foreigners might be interested in. Most of the necessary information for foreign students at Ewha is probably e-mailed to them personally by the Office of Global Affairs. But for those seeking for information on their own, especially for those outside of Ewha, there is no way to learn about events at Ewha that they might want to participate in. Other English websites beside the main page, for example those linked to organizations like theEwhaMuseumor Ewha Women’s Studies are also loaded with outdated information.         

 

             The Office of Public Relations (OPR) is in charge of managing Ewha’s websites, including the English versions. The OPR receives translated articles from individual departments and also posts articles by itself directly onto the web. But despite this division of labor, the updating process does not seem to be effective.

 

Ewha launched its Global 2010 project with the goal of becoming one of the top 100 universities in the world. The project includes increasing the number of classes taught in English and the number of foreign professors, developing the Paju Education & Research Complex, forming more global networks, and so on. Many of these goals have been realized since the announcement of the project. Also, the school’s effort to launch the English version of Ewha Portal Information System in 2007 is a good example of how Ewha has improved its global competitiveness. Through the English portal system, the foreign students and staff at Ewha need to ask for help much less often than before. However, many foreign people at Ewha still rely heavily on others for obtaining information since there is not enough English information posted publicly.

 

The English websites, our first gateway to global society, have obviously fallen behind the rapid pace of Ewha’s globalization. Now we really need to consider more than just how to take care of our foreign guests at Ewha. We also must discover how to provide up-to-date information to all the potential Ewhains on the globe.

 

 

 

 

저작권자 © Ewha Voice 무단전재 및 재배포 금지