Sungshin Women's University () is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

women's university A women's college is an institution of higher education where enrollment is all-female. In the United States, almost all women's colleges are private undergraduate institutions, with many offering coeducational graduate programs. In other countrie ...

located in

Seongbuk-gu Seongbuk District () is one of the 25 districts of Seoul, South Korea. The district is located in the mid-north part of the city. The current mayor is Lee Seung-ro, who has been mayor since July 2018. Seongbuk District was established under Pres ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. It was founded by Dr. Sook-Chong Lee in 1936. The university comprises ten colleges and five graduate schools, with total enrollment of about 12,000 students.

History

* 1936.04.28 Sungshin Girls' School is established by Dr. Lee Sook Chong * 1965.01.13 Sungshin Women's Teachers College is established * 1972.01.28 The Graduate School is established * 1979.10.18 The name is changed to Sungshin Women's College. * 1979.12.05 The Graduate School of Information and Industries is established. * 1981.07.31 The college is promoted to the status of university. * 1981.10.20 New establishment and reorganization of courses, new establishment of the colleges of Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Education, and Arts. * 1982.10.05 The College of Natural Sciences is divided and reorganized into the College of Family Sciences (College of Human Ecology) * 1983.10.29 The Graduate School of Education is established * 1988.08.30 Dedication of the Woonjung Building. * 1988.10.29 The College of Arts was divided into the College of Music and College of Fine Arts * 1994.10.21 The Graduate School of Industry was divided into the Graduate School of Plastic Industry (Graduate School of Arts and Design) and the Graduate School of Information Industry (Graduate School of Cultural Industry) * 1995.01.10 Dedication of the Soo-Jung Building * 1995.03.01 The Continuing Education Center is established. * 1997.10.25 The Graduate School of Human Resource Management is established. * 1999.02.12 The Ministry of Education's Overall University Evaluation ranked Sungshin's undergraduate program as "excellent" and its graduate program as "most excellent" * 1995.01.10 Dedication of the Nan-Hyang Building * 2003.09.21 Dedication of the Media Information Center * 2003.12.24 Awarded "The ISO 9001:2000 Certification for Academic and Business Administration System" * 2004.09.18 Selected by the Ministry of Human Resources and Education in 2004 as a "University of Excellence with a Distinctive Project." * 2005.01.20 The opening of the Family Health & Welfare Center * 2005.06.30 Selected by the Ministry of Human Resources and Education for two consecutive years as a "University of Excellence with a Distinctive Project." * 2006.02.20 The Ministry of Education's Overall University Evaluation ranked Sungshin's undergraduate program as "excellent" and its graduate program as "excellent." * 2006.07.25 Selected by the Ministry of Human Resources and Education for three consecutive years as a "University of Excellence with a Distinctive Project." * 2006.11.30 Dedication of the Sungshin Building * 2007.03.01 Establishment of the College of Nursing * 2007.08.11 Inauguration of the eighth university president, Dr. Shim Hwa-jin * 2008.04.15 Proclamation of a Vision — Construction of Sungshin Woonjung Campus (SSWU Second Campus) * 2017.02.07 President Shim Hwa-jin is convicted by a Seoul court of embezzling school funds and is subsequently imprisoned. * 2018.01.23 President Kim Ho-syung announces plans to discuss making the university

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

and using trading name Sungshin University without women's in their English name for preparing co-educational system.

Academics

Sungshin Women's University comprises 45 departments in ten colleges, and five graduate schools. The university also offers 5-year combined Bachelors-Masters program.

Undergraduate colleges

* College of Humanities * College of Social Sciences * College of Law * College of Natural Sciences * College of Human Ecology * College of Nursing * College of Education * College of Arts * College of Music * College of Convergence Culture and Arts

Second campus (Woonjung Green Campus)

Sungshin has established a second campus in Seoul. The 54,200 m² Woonjung Green Campus is within 5 kilometers of the Soojung Campus and makes Sungshin the only university with two campuses in Seoul. The Woonjung Green Campus, with three college buildings and one shared facilities building opened in March 2010 and houses four colleges: College of Natural Sciences, College of Human Ecology, College of Nursing, and College of Convergence Culture and Arts. Woonjung Green Campus.

Public transit access

Sungshin Women's University is located at a transportation hub, with both campuses near major subway stations. The north-running Ui-Sinseol Rapid Transit Light metro line opened in 2017 and connected to Sungshin Women's University Station. Sungshin Women's University Station (Soojung Campus); Mia Station (Woonjung Green Campus)

Special Programs

ROTC

Sungshin Women's University has run a

Reserve Officers' Training Corps The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC; or ) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. While ROTC graduate officers serve in all branches o ...

programme for women who want to be recruited as service members by the

Ministry of National Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divide ...

since 2011. Similar programmes are run by

Sookmyung Women's University Sookmyung Women's University () is a private women's research university in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1906, Sookmyung is Korea’s first royal private educational institution for women. Sookmyung is one of the world's largest ...

and

Ewha Womans University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's research university in Seoul, South Korea. It was originally founded as Ewha Haktang on May 31, 1886, by missionary Mary F. Scranton. Currently, Ewha Womans University is one of the world's largest f ...

; these three women's universities saw a total of 90 students join the programme in 2016.

Controversy

Shim Hwa-jin, the granddaughter of founder Li Suk-jong, served as the university's president from 2007 for two terms. When she was once more elected as president for a third term, which would extend her incumbency to 2019, four members of the university's student association raised concerns that Shim had embezzled funds from the school, which led to their suspension in January 2016. The students successfully pursued a court case to have the suspension overturned, and it was struck down in October. Meanwhile, investigative journalists found that a prominent individual's daughter had been admitted to Sungshin after cheating in the assessment, while one of Shim's relatives had also been appointed as a tenure-track lecturer using a plagiarised dissertation. Charges of embezzlement were brought against Shim and, on 7 February 2017, the Seoul Northern District Court returned a guilty verdict, concluding that Shim had embezzled 378 million won from school funds. She was demoted from her position as president and served nine days in prison before posting bail of 50 million won on 20 February. She was succeeded as president of Sungshin Women's University by Kim Ho-sung.

Notable alumni

* Shim Hwa-jin, president of the university 2007–2017

Entertainers

Gong Seung-yeon Yoo Seung-yeon (; born February 27, 1993), better known by the stage name Gong Seung-yeon (), is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her roles in the film '' Aloners'' (2021) and television series such as ''Six Flying Dragons'' (2015� ...

, actress *

Goo Hara Goo Hara (; ; January 3, 1991 – November 24, 2019), also known mononymously as Hara, was a South Korean singer and actress. She was a member of the K-pop girl group Kara, and had also appeared in television dramas including '' City Hunter'' ...

, actress and singer (

KARA Kara or KARA may refer to: Geography Localities * Kara, Chad, a sub-prefecture * Kára, Hungary, a village * Kara, Uttar Pradesh, India, a township * Kara, Iran, a village in Lorestan Province * Kara, Republic of Dagestan, a rural locality in ...

) * Kimera, singer *

Lee Se-young Lee Se-young (; born December 20, 1992) is a South Korean actress. She debuted as a child actress in 1997 and was best known for her roles in '' Dae Jang Geum'' (2003), '' When I Turned Nine'' (2004), ''Lovely Rivals'' (2004), and ''The Wonder ...

, actress *

Yoon Chae-kyung Yoon Chae-kyung (; born July 7, 1996), is a South Korean actress and singer. Yoon began her career with debuted as a member of Puretty under DSP in Japan during 2012 and the group later disbanded in January 2014. Following the disbandment, Yoo ...

, singer (

Puretty Puretty () was a South Korean girl group formed by DSP Media. The group debuted in Japan in 2012 through the anime series '' Pretty Rhythm: Dear My Future'', where fictionalized versions of the members appeared as the secondary cast, and their s ...

April April is the fourth month of the year in the Gregorian and Julian calendars. Its length is 30 days. April is commonly associated with the season of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the ...

, I.B.I and C.I.V.A) * Kim Chaewon, singer (

) *

Kim So-won Kim So-jeong (; born December 7, 1995), known professionally as Kim So-won (), is a South Korean actress and singer. She is best known as the leader of South Korean girl group GFriend. Early life and education Kim was born on December 7, 1995, ...

, actress and singer (

GFriend GFriend (stylized in all caps; ) is a South Korean girl group formed by Source Music in 2015. The group consists of six members: Kim So-won, Sowon, Yerin (entertainer), Yerin, Eunha (singer), Eunha, Yuju (singer), Yuju, SinB, and Umji. They deb ...

) * Yuju, singer (

) *

Kim Yoon-ah Kim Yuna (; born March 11, 1974), also known as Kim Yoon-ah, is a South Korean singer and songwriter. She is known as the lead singer in the modern rock group Jaurim. She also released several solo albums. She also made her musical theatre debu ...

, singer (

Jaurim Jaurim ( meaning "Purple Rainforest") is a rock music, rock band from Seoul, South Korea. They had performed in the indie scene in 1993. The band's initial name was Full Count. They changed the band's name to Jaurim in 1997 and became major with ...

) *

Hyolyn Kim Hyo-jung (; born December 11, 1990), better known by her stage name Hyolyn (), is a South Korean singer and songwriter. Currently, she is under the management of Bridʒ, a production company she founded herself. She is a former member of the ...

, singer (

Sistar Sistar (; stylized in all caps) was a South Korean girl group formed in 2010 by Starship Entertainment. The group consisted of Hyolyn, Yoon Bo-ra, Bora, Soyou and Kim Da-som, Dasom. They made their official debut with the song "Push Push (Sistar ...

) *

Soyou Kang Ji-hyun (born February 12, 1992), known professionally as Soyou, is a South Korean singer. She is best known as a former member of the South Korean girl group Sistar. Early life and education Soyou was born on February 12, 1992, in Jeju ...

, singer (Sistar) *

Shin Do-hyun Shin Do-hyun (; born November 5, 1995) is a South Korean actress. She is best known for her roles in television series such as ''First Kiss'' (2018), '' Just Dance'' (2018), ''The Banker'' (2019), '' Love with Flaws'' (2019–2020), ''Hospital ...

, actress *

Park Se-hyun Park Se-hyun (; born September 7, 1998) is a South Korean actress. She was most notable for her portrayal of Kim Eun in 2024 legal drama '' Your Honor''. Career Prior to her acting debut in 2018, Park Se-hyun graduated from the Department of The ...

, actress

Athletes

Jang Mi-ran Jang Mi-ran (; born October 9, 1983) is a South Korean Olympic weightlifter. She is currently based in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, competing for the Goyang City Government Sports Club. At the 2004 Summer Olympics, she won the silver medal in t ...

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

gold medalist (

weightlifting Weightlifting or weight lifting generally refers to physical exercises and sports in which people lift weights, often in the form of dumbbells, barbells or machines. People engage in weightlifting for a variety of different reasons. These can ...

women's category (75 kg. and up)) *

Nam Hyun-hee Nam Hyun-Hee (; or ; born 29 September 1981) is a South Korean foil fencer. She is left-handed. She won the silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics after losing 6-5 to Valentina Vezzali in the final. She was also a team bronze medalist at ...

silver medalist (

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

women's foil)

Ranking

*QS World University Rankings 2023: 591-600 *QS Asia University Rankings 2025: 294

References

External links

Official website, in Korean and English
{{authority control Universities and colleges established in 1936 Sungshin Women's University Women's universities and colleges in South Korea 1936 establishments in Korea Seongbuk District Schools in Korea under Japanese rule Women in Korea under Japanese rule