At a young age it is truly important to explore and experience the wider world to broaden one’s mindset. One way to do so at Ewha is through the exchange student programs; although the competition for such is getting fiercer every year. In order to send more Ewha students to study abroad, the Office of Global Affairs (OGA) has broadened its overseas satellite campus program.
“As much as we try to recruit foreign students to Ewha, we put a lot of effort into sending our students abroad. I had many students come up to me and tell me how much they have changed after their year abroad. It would be marvelous if we could send everyone, however it is true that not all students receive the privilege of studying abroad and we feel deeply unfortunate about it. Thus, we started this program to really let more students explore and experience the broader world in extravagant cities around the world,” said Suh Young-ju, a staff member at the OGA.
The overseas satellite campus program is part of Ewha’s Global 2010 project that allows students of Ewha to study abroad at contracting partner schools for a period of less than three weeks up to an entire semester.
Currently, Ewha has built overseas satellite campuses in the US (including New York, California, Washington D.C., and Hawaii), Germany, the UK, France, China, Benelux, and has recently added Tokyo to the list by signing contracts with Waseda University, Keio University, Aoyama Gakuin University and Ochanomizu University to establish satellite campuses.
As part of the overseas satellite campus program, Waseda University agreed to enroll Ewha students in Waseda’s renowned International Liberal Studies course in order to foster global leaders who are both fluent in English and Japanese.
Students are selected each semester to enroll in the satellite campus universities. Usually the announcements are released on the school Web site (www.ewha.ac.kr) in May and November and the deadlines for submitting the application are usually in early June for fall semester and in early December for spring semester.
After the students submit their applications, students take a written test and go through an interview with professors. The process of selection is the same as the exchange student program.
Compared to the exchange student program, the satellite campus program is “advantageous for students since students do not have to sign up for a leave.” Students are registered at Ewha and their semester abroad is acknowledged by Ewha.
“Many students could not sign up for the visiting student programs since they had to sign up for a leave. However, since students are still registered at Ewha during the satellite campus program, I hope we are opening more doors for the students,” said Suh.
Concerning the tuition fees, students have to pay both the Ewha tuition fee and the tuition fee for the school they will attend. However, Ewha is offering students with a scholarship that amounts to 80 percent of the tuition fee at Ewha. More so, Ewha made a number of agreements with contracting universities for these schools to give students a certain amount of discount in their tuition fee.
Currently, students get a 10 percent tuition discount for the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Thus, students pay 4,774 USD (5,200, 000 won) per semester as their tuition fee. Also, University of Hawaii at Manoa offers a 50 percent discount of (4,228 USD or 4,600,000 won), 15 percent for Hawaii Pacific University (5,915 USD or 6,400,000 won), 60 percent for America University (6,563 USD or 7,100,000 won), and 20 percent discount for University of London SOAS (4,584 GBP or 9,100,000 won).
“It certainly is not easy to receive a discount in the tuition fee from contracting schools. However, as far as I know, the schools are offering discounts to Ewha students only. This is due to our positive reputation abroad and the reputation built by the former exchange students,” said Suh.
Since this program only began this spring, the OGA is making various efforts to improve the program.
“Currently, professors are only dispatched to New York where the greatest number of Ewha students are sent. We are planning on expanding the number of dispatched professors. However, that has to go hand in hand with the number of students sent abroad,” said Suh.
Also, students have been engaged in internships while studying abroad. However in order to allow students with more internship opportunities, the OGA is planning on establishing networks with both governmental and non-governmental organizations and several other corporations.