Ajou University

Ajou University, established in 1973 under the motto of "Asia's best university for the 21st century", is a leading research university with 10 colleges in Korea. Located in Suwon, about 30km south of Seoul, Ajou has 14,000 students (9,000 undergraduate, 3,500 graduate, and 1,500 in other courses).

The strength in Ajou's academic programs and research lies in Engineering, IT, BT, NT, Medical Science, Business and International Studies. Ajou is widely recognized for its innovative international programs and strong support for international students and has collaborative partnership with over 200 universities in 58 countries. There is a wide range of international programs at Ajou including student and faculty exchanges, international summer school, Korean language program, etc. International students are taking courses offered in English by various majors. Today Ajou is welcoming about 750 international students a year.

Ajou University set out a new vision of becoming a world-class university in commemoration of its 30th anniversary in 2003.In keeping with Ajou's commitment to become a truly global university, the Office of International Affairs (OIA) was established to promote, assist and coordinate international activities throughout Ajou University.

Our future will be an Age of Connectivity. Connectivity differs from convergence in that connectivity promotes influence and cooperation while simultaneously encouraging individuality. Ajou students must be armed with the confidence that they can gain knowledge whenever they need it in different points in their lives, rather than with the confidence that they are already equipped with a wide range of knowledge. In other words, universities must produce 'good learners,' not those who are ‘learned. Enjoying the process of learning is not merely a wise old saying. "Learning and studying is indeed a pleasure" must become the greatest value in our education today.

The OIA coordinates various international programs and provides service to international scholars and students. The OIA is responsible not only for making sure that Ajou provides a first-class education and meaningful experiences to our international students, but it also maintains exchange partnerships with universities worldwide and continues to develop new cooperative programs.

In order to achieve the new vision, it plans to implement eight specific missions: improving education quality and conditions, providing support for faculty research activities; improving working conditions of staff members; expanding support for students' activities and cultural events hosted by the university; promoting the efficient management of each college, medical center, affiliated institution; upgrading admission requirements and recruiting students with higher academic performance by improving the university's performance in external evaluations; conforming to regulations and establishing order; establishing a channel with which members can efficiently suggest their opinions to the university.

To this end, Ajou University formulated its innovation strategies which include enhancing decentralization and autonomy, and introducing new evaluation criteria. Firstly, in an effort to enhance the decentralization and autonomy, the university will empower each college, graduate school, research institute and supporting institution to handle its own administrative process ranging from the establishment of strategies and management of human and financial resources to the implementation of evaluations. Secondly, it will fully adopt the new evaluation criteria as a means to facilitate and assess the implementation of decentralization and autonomy.

In conclusion, Ajou University will continue to exert all efforts to create new growth engines while being fully engaged in the main tasks of a university, research and education. In this way, it will nurture talented individuals who can play a leading role in the world and make a contribution to the community, country, and peace and welfare of the humanity in the end.