Yuhan College fosters practical education

Yuhan College, one of South Korea's premiere educational institutions, is to open an innovative campus in Seoul's industrial park next March. The campus will focus on practical education to bridge the gap between what students learn in school and relevant skills required by companies.

Headed by Lee Kwon-hyun, president of Yuhan College, this initiative will provide students with practical knowledge. Instead of the traditional classroom setting, the campus will feature classrooms onsite at companies from various industries. Faculty members will possess both academic and industry experience and guest lecturers will come from prestigious companies such as Google, South Korean search engine Naver and electronics giant Samsung.

The campus will benefit companies looking to hire skilled employees. "If you want to reduce the gap between industries and the required human resources, you have to understand the demands of industries," Lee says.

Yuhan College believes that collaboration between industries and universities will produce a skilled workforce. The campus will customise its three-semester curriculum according to the specific skills requested by companies, which in turn, practically guarantees its students employment after graduation. "It is a field-based education where students can use what they learned in school," Lee says.

This initiative has sparked interest from major corporations including Hyundai Construction, Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and General Motors. Yuhan College is open to collaboration with other companies and hopes to have more partnerships in the future.

The college also hopes to bring in more international students. Once the Seoul campus opens, it will start recruiting students from Southeast Asia. "We want to be the university with the highest employment rate after graduation," Lee says. "We want to be student-oriented and future-oriented."