Seoul National University (SNU)

Seoul National University (SNU) is a national research university located in Seoul, South Korea.

Founded in 1946, Seoul National University is considered to be the most prestigious university in the country. The university has three campuses: the main campus in Gwanak and two additional campuses in Daehangno and Pyeongchang. The university comprises sixteen colleges, one graduate school and nine professional schools. The student body consists of nearly 17,000 undergraduate and 11,000 graduate students. According to data compiled by KEDI, the university spends more on its students per capita than any other university in the country that enrolls at least 10,000 students.

Seoul National University holds a memorandum of understanding with over 700 academic institutions in 40 countries, the World Bank and a general academic exchange program with the University of Pennsylvania. Moreover, the university is part of Washington University in St. Louis’s McDonnell International Scholars Academy. The Graduate School of Business offers dual master's degrees with Duke University, ESSEC Business School, Hitotsubashi University and Yale School of Management and MBA-, MS- and PhD-candidate exchange programs with universities in ten countries on four continents. Following a government mandate to globalize Korean universities, the university's international faculty head count peaked at 242 or 4% of the total in 2010, but subsequently declined.

Seoul National University, or its undergraduate liberal arts college in particular, finds its roots in the remaining properties from the abolished Keijō Imperial University, one of the Imperial Universities founded by the Japanese Empire. In the 1940s, with US Military Ordinance No.102 of United States Army Military Government in Korea, Keijo Imperial University was abolished. Later the Government of Republic of Korea merged the remaining properties with nine colleges and professional schools, and the consolidated institution was renamed as Seoul National University in accordance with the Act of the National University Seoul enacted in the National Assembly.

Academics

Admissions

Admissions to Seoul National University are extremely competitive. From 1981 to 1987, when an applicant could apply only to one university at a time, more than 80% of the top 0.5% scorers in the annual government-administered scholastic achievement test applied to SNU and many of them were unsuccessful.

Academic structure

Sixteen colleges of the university offer 83 undergraduate degree programs. For master and doctoral programs there is one graduate school with 99 programs from five fields of studies. The interdisciplinary programs are the ones invented and operated by more than two departments. In addition to that, there are nine professional graduate schools.

Colleges

• Humanities
• Social Sciences
• Business Administration
• Education
• Fine Arts
• Liberal Studies
• Human Ecology
• Music
• Engineering
• Natural Sciences
• Agriculture & Life Sciences
• Medicine
• Nursing
• Pharmacy
• Veterinary Medicine

Campus

Seoul National University occupies two Seoul-based, one Pyeong Chang-based campuses: the Gwanak Campus is situated in Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu; and the Yongon Campus is north of the Han River in Daehangno, Jongno District; and the new Pyeong Chang campus in Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do.

Location

Gwanak Campus, the main campus, is located in the southern part of Seoul. It is served by its own subway station on Line 2. Yeongeon Campus, the medical campus, is on Daehangno (University Street), northeast Seoul. The defunct Suwon Campus, the agricultural campus, also known as the Sangnok Campus (Evergreen Campus), used to be located in Suwon, about 40 km south of Seoul. The agricultural campus moved to Gwanak in Autumn 2004, but some research facilities still remain in Suwon.

Facilities

Library

Seoul National University Library is located behind the university administrative building in the 62nd block of the Gwanak Campus. In 2009, the library’s collection of books, including all the annexes, was 4 million volumes. The chief librarian, Dr. Kim Jong-seo, professor of religious studies in the College of Humanities, took office in 2009.

The Central Library has constructed a digital library, which in addition to the regular library collection provides access to university publications, ancient texts, and theses. Included here are images of pamphlets, lecture slides, and insects. The digital library offers access to video of university exhibitions, scientific events, symposia, and seminars.

The library was opened in 1946 as the Seoul National University Central Library, inheriting its facilities and books from Kyungsung University. In 1949, the name of the library was changed to the Seoul National University Library Annex. When the main branch of the library was relocated to the Gwanak Campus in January 1975, it was renamed the Seoul National University Library, and then renamed again in 1992 the Seoul National University Central Library.

In 1966, provisions were made to systematize the library's collections. The original library was organized into 12 annexes for each of the university’s colleges: engineering, education, physics, art, law, theology, pharmacology, music, medicine, dentistry, administration, and agricultural sciences. Two years later, in 1968, libraries for newspapers and the liberal arts were added to bring the number of annexes to 14. However, as the main branch was moved to the Gwanak Campus, the education, physics, legal, theological, administrative, newspaper, liberal arts, and pharmacological libraries were combined in a single building.

Museum

Seoul National University Museum is located at the Gwanak Campus. It opened alongside the university in 1946 under the name "The Seoul National University Museum Annex." The original two-story Dongsung-dong building, which was erected in 1941, had served as the Kyungsung Imperial University Museum until it was transferred intact to SNU. When the museum was moved to the sixth floor of the Central Library, in 1975, it was renamed the Seoul National University Museum. The museum was then moved to newly constructed facilities, next to the Dongwon Building, in 1993, which it has occupied to this day. Dr. Park Nak-gyu is its director.

Dormitory

More than 1,300 dorm rooms stand newly renovated at Gwanaksa since September 2010.

The dormitory of Seoul National University is named Gwanaksa (관악사). Dormitories for undergraduate and graduate students as well as families are located here. It was founded August 1975, with five Gwanaksa buildings, which housed 970 male students. The female dormitory was founded in February 1983. By June 2007, there were one administration building, two welfare buildings, 12 undergraduate dormitory buildings, six graduate students’ dormitory buildings, which in total housed 3,680 students. Unlike other university dormitories in South Korea, there is no curfew hour.

The Yeongeonsa located in Yeongeon campus, which is the medical school of Seoul National University. The Yeongeonsa can house 533 undergraduate students and 17 family households.

International rankings

In 2015, Thomson-Reuters ranked Seoul National University as the 31st most innovative institution in the world. QS World University Rankings (2016) considers it 35th in the world and 10th in Asia, whilst it was 4th in the independent regional QS Asian University Rankings (2013). SNU was 9th in Asia and 85th in the world by the 2016 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In 2014-2015, its World Reputation Rankings were considered it to be 26th globally. Moreover, ARWU (2015) regarded SNU to be among 101st-150th worldwide and the best in the country. CWUR 2016 ranks Seoul National University as 24th best in the world.

The institute was ranked 20th in publications by a 2008 analysis of data from the Science Citation Index, and the following year ranked 8th in the world in clinical trials. In 2011, the Mines ParisTech : Professional Ranking World Universities reported that Seoul National University is ranked 10th in the world in terms of the number of alumni holding CEO positions in Fortune 500 enterprises. Seoul National University also had the third highest number of students who went on to earn PhDs in American institutions in 2006.