Soonchunhyang University (SCH) is a private university in Asan, South Korea. SCH was founded by Dr. Succ-Jo Suh in 1978 as a medical college with 80 students. It expanded to a comprehensive university in 1980, offering both undergraduate and graduate programs. SCH was ranked 151st among Asia-Pacific universities by Chosun-QS Asia in 2010.

History and description

SCH has six undergraduate colleges: Humanities,

Social Sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

Natural Sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

, Engineering,

Medical Science Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practice ...

and Medicine. There are six graduate schools: the Graduate School, Graduate School of Industrial Information, Graduate School of Education, Graduate of Health Science, Graduate School of Public Administration, and Graduate School of Global Management. The name ‘Soonchunhyang’ (순천향) means ‘the peaceful hometown complying with the will of heaven’. The university's founder, Dr. Succ-Jo Suh named the school to reflect his philosophy in medical practices that "heaven will cure diseases; doctors only help the curing process." SCH received the 'National Award for Educational Reform Excellence' from the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology in 2008, 2009, and 2010. In 2017, the University was under scrutiny for their ties to ex-president

Park Geun-hye Park Geun-hye (; ; often in English ; born 2 February 1952) is a South Korean politician who served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 to 2017, until she was impeached and convicted on related corruption charges. Park was the fi ...

during the court proceedings during the

Impeachment of Park Geun-hye The impeachment of Park Geun-hye, President of South Korea, was the culmination of a political scandal involving interventions to the presidency from her aide, Choi Soon-sil. The impeachment vote took place on 9 December 2016, with 234 ...

. The University President, Gyo-il Seo, allegedly received bribes for development from the President's office and Department of Education while university doctors prescribed President Park with illegal sleep medicines. Soonchunhyang University’s support from the Ministry of Education increased from 7 billion won in 2012 and 4.5 billion won in 2013 to 8.1 billion won in 2014, 9.2 billion won in 2015, and 23.5 billion won in 2016 when the Park Geun-hye administration took office. This caused the University to lose public funding when

Moon Jae-in Moon Jae-in (; ; born 24 January 1953) is a South Korean former politician, civil servant and lawyer who served as the 12th president of South Korea between 2017 and 2022. Prior to his presidency, he served as Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs an ...

was inaugurated, in turn causing the University to downscale and close its Department of Education.

Academics

Undergraduate colleges

*College of Humanities *College of Social Sciences *College of Natural Sciences *College of Engineering *College of Medical Science *College of Medicine' *Global Business School

Graduate school

* Graduate School of Industrial Information * Graduate School of Education * Graduate of Healthcare Science * Graduate School of Public Administration * Graduate School of Global Management

Graduate School of Forensic Science

The School was established to educate students theoretical and application methods of scientific

crime investigation Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...

. The graduate program focuses on the application of the physical, bio-medical, and social sciences to the analysis and evaluation of

physical evidence In evidence law, physical evidence (also called real evidence or material evidence) is any material object that plays some role in the matter that gave rise to the litigation, introduced as evidence in a judicial proceeding (such as a trial) to ...

, human testimony and criminal suspects. As of 2014 the Graduate School of Forensic Science established a Master's program in Digital Forensic Science.

Recent developments

In June 2009, SCH was awarded a grant of US$25 million over a five-year period by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to establish the SCH Biopharmaceutical Human Resources Development Center. This new center supports several of SCH's major areas of study, including:

College of medical Sciences

* Department of Medical IT Engineering * Department of Medical

Biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

* Department of Biomedical Laboratory Science * Department of U-

Healthcare Management Health administration, healthcare administration, healthcare management or hospital management is the field relating to leadership, management, and administration of public health systems, health care systems, hospitals, and hospital network ...

* Department of Premedical Studies * Department of

Occupational Therapy Occupational therapy (OT) is a global healthcare profession. It involves the use of assessment and intervention to develop, recover, or maintain the meaningful activities, or ''occupations'', of individuals, groups, or communities. The field of ...

* Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering

College of medicine

* Department of Nursing * Department of Medicine

College of natural sciences

* Department of Life Sciences * Department of

* Department of Ocean Life Science * Department of

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

* Department of

Food Science Food science is the basic science and applied science of food; its scope starts at overlap with agricultural science and nutritional science and leads through the scientific aspects of food safety and food processing, informing the developm ...

& Nutrition * Department of Environmental Health Science

Ranking

*SCH ranked 151st for general education among Asia-Pacific universities by Chosun-QS Asia in 2010 *SCH ranked 8th for general education environment and for communication with students by Kyunhyang ERISS in 2010 *SCH ranked 135th for general education among Asia-Pacific universities by Chosun-QS Asia in 2009

Transportation

SCH offered shuttle bus service from

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

and various cities in

Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...

and

Incheon Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시, 仁川廣域市), is a city located in northwestern South Kore ...

. This was shut down after campus renovations and remodeling removed the campus bus station in early 2021. SCH maintains a lending library for the local public within Sinchang-Soonchunhyang University Station. Books and periodicals range from academic texts to novels to general interest periodicals. SCH undertook an educational initiative for its students commuting to campus by subway in Fall 2010, offering lectures in three university courses by SCH professors. The car of the train where the lectures are held is equipped with four LCD monitors, a beam projector, speakers, and a

wireless microphone A wireless microphone, or cordless microphone, is a microphone without a physical cable connecting it directly to the sound recording or amplifying equipment with which it is associated. Also known as a radio microphone, it has a small, battery- ...

for the professors.

University hospitals

SCU owns and operates four teaching hospitals in South Korea. These are general hospitals offering services in several departments such as Pediatric Neurology, Psychology, and Cardiovascular Surgery

Global network

Soonchunhyang University maintains formal educational partnerships with 88 post-secondary institutions worldwide. These partner institutions are found in the US, China,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Japan, Mexico,

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

, Thailand and several other countries.

Global village

The SCH Global Village on Soonchunhyang's is a living facility for Korean and international students . As a concept, the Global Village is intended to bridge the formal educational and social needs of students participating in the Asian Studies, English Village, Chinese Village, and Japanese Village programs. The School for Global Education and Exchange also maintains a separate student lounge where students may keep up on global events through Korean and English cable television, English- and Korean-language print news media, and PC terminals equipped with high-speed internet access.

Confucius Institute

The

Confucius Institute Confucius Institutes (CI; ) are public educational and cultural promotion programs funded and arranged currently by the , a government-organized non-governmental organization (GONGO) under the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic o ...

at SCU was established on September 28, 2007 in affiliation with the

Tianjin Foreign Studies University Tianjin Foreign Studies University (TFSU; ), nickname as "天外", is one of the top eight foreign studies universities in China. As a renowned teaching and research institution, Tianjin Foreign Studies University specializes in foreign languag ...

in China, with a mandate to promote

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

education and cultural learning . Programs include Chinese language education classes, Chinese youth camp, and cultural field trips to China. As of June 15, 2010, the Confucius Institute at SCH and the local government of Asan City began to offer programs for Asan's youth through the Asan City Youth Education and Culture Center (link to reference). In 2008 and 2009, The Confucius Institute was rated first in Korea and third in the world for overall achievement by Confucius Institute headquarters.

Asian Studies

The Asian Studies Program is a special university program that brings students from several countries to SCH for one-three semesters. The program includes approximately 50 courses conducted in English, such as Korean Studies, Asian culture classes, history, politics, economics, and Korean Language..

English, Chinese, and Japanese Village Programs

The English Village, Chinese Village, and Japanese Village programs complement the Asian Studies Program by aiming to focus on the global-oriented educational needs of SCH's local Korean students. Students wishing to practice English, Chinese, or Japanese with native speakers live together with international students participating in the Asian Studies program and cooperate in language exchanges, group meetings, field trips, and other various events.

University clubs

* Hansori performs ‘

samulnori Samul nori (사물놀이) is a genre of percussion music that originated in Korea. The word ''samul'' means "four objects", while ''nori'' means "play". Samul nori is performed with four traditional Korean musical instruments. They are ''Kkwaenggw ...

’, About 50 members practice every week for playing regular and temporary performance. * Since 1981, the Byuk theater group performs two regular plays a year, and casual play sometimes. * Since 1985, the Korean Traditional Percussion Group has explored Korean musical traditions. Currently, there are 50 members to this club, including 34 undergraduate students. * The Thu.G club meets regularly to practice

rapping Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

and

beat box Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

skills. The club holds four main performances throughout the school year. * The Sun C.A Cheerleading Squad meets weekly to practice dances and movement for cheerleading. With 38 members (30 of whom are undergraduates * DENIS (Dance Energy Nation In Soonchunhyang) practices

street dance Street dance is an umbrella term for a large number of social dance styles such as: breakdancing, popping, locking, house dance, waacking etc. Social dance styles have many accompanying steps and foundations, created organically from a culture, ...

* CHORD is one of Soonchunhyang's longest-standing clubs. Established in 1986, this club currently maintains 200 members (including 50 undergraduate students), who regularly perform at events such as the annual regular and open concerts, mini concerts for new students, SCH Music Festival, and periodic field trips. This club won first place in the KBS TV Academic Music Festival in 1988, and took second place in the same festival in 1991. In 2006, CHORD won first place in the Korean Amateur Music Festival. * M. Giuliani, or

Classical Guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

Circle, currently has 99 members, 40 of whom are undergraduate students. This club offers guitar lessons to its members and participates in mini concerts and regular concerts annually. * Soongumhoi is the campus

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

club, with 150 members (30 of whom are undergraduate students). T * The

Tae Kwon Do ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean martial arts, Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast k ...

club was established in 1992 with 20 members, and has expanded to 60 members (including 37 undergraduate students). * The Calligraphy Group was founded in 1978. Currently, 38 members (30 of whom are undergraduate students). During regular meetings, members practice Korean-style

calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

(called soye) .

Notable alumni

Jeon No-min Jun No-min (born Jun Jae Yong on August 28, 1966) is a South Korean actor. Among his recent roles were the villainous Hwarang warrior Seolwon in ''Queen Seondeok'', and the fictional independence fighter Damsari in '' Bridal Mask''. Filmograp ...

, actor

References

External links

Soonchunhyang University
{{Authority control Universities and colleges in South Chungcheong Province Educational institutions established in 1978 Asan Private universities and colleges in South Korea