Online and Offline Education

Toward the purpose of promoting Korean Studies and Korean language education in the world, the Foundation has carried out a number of assistance programs over the past 20 years, supporting the establishment of Korean Studies professorships at leading universities overseas, dispatch of visiting professors, sponsoring academic activities, and providing scholarship aid to students. Recently, demand for various Korea-related courses has increased, but qualified educators are far too inadequate in the overall discipline of Korean Studies. Therefore, “KF Global e-School” has been devised as an innovative alternative to address this situation.

Seven universities in Korea have joined hands with 15 universities in eight other countries to kick off the cyber school. The Korean institutions include Seoul National University, Korea University, Sungkyunkwan University, Ewha Womans University, Sookmyung Women’s University, Chung-Ang University, and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. The foreign partner institutions are Waseda University of Japan; Nanjing University and Beijing Foreign Studies University of China; National Chengchi University and Chinese Culture University of Taiwan; Hanoi National University College of Foreign Languages and the University of Da Nang of Vietnam; Chulalongkorn University of Thailand; University of Hong Kong; University of Gadjah Mada and Padjadjaran University of Indonesia; and the State University Higher School of Economics of Russia.

Along with online lectures, the e-school offers academic exchange activities, such as special class lectures and intensive workshops to overcome the limitations of video lectures and to enhance the quality of learning experience. During the 2011 spring semester, seven video lectures were conducted with the participation of a total of about 200 students in China, Japan, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Based on the result of these demonstration classes, the current fall semester is offering full-fledged courses.

Intensive Instruction in Various Disciplines

The KF e-school program is available for students both in and outside of Korea, but certain courses offered by professors in Korea are particularly intended for overseas students only, taking into account each specific country’s academic schedule and time zone.

The lectures concern an array of fields including economy, culture, society, politics, and foreign relations. Korean Studies courses have so far been typically limited to the humanities subjects such as Korean language, history, and literature, due to a critical shortage of qualified professors in other areas. However, with the launch of KF Global e-School, Korea-related lecture courses are expected to be remarkably diversified and expanded comprise the social sciences, including politics, economy, and international relations, as well as culture and the arts.

Kim Min-jung Korean Studies Department