Underwood International College

History

Underwood International College, Yonsei University accepted its inaugural class in March 2006. Its first dean was Professor Jongryn Mo. Earlier, in October 2004, the President of Yonsei University had appointed Mo as Chairman of the "University Committee for New International College", and Mo contributed significantly to the early development of the institution.

In 2012, Underwood International College, Yonsei University housed the new Asian Studies and Techno-Art programmes. It has since expanded to include the Integrated Social Sciences Division, to make up the comprehensive interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Sciences Field.

Overview

Underwood International College, Yonsei University is the first and only liberal arts college in the Republic of Korea, and the only college at Yonsei University to conduct all classes in English. It has small classes taught by over 100 Korean and international faculty, many who hold an undergraduate and/or graduate degree from an Ivy League and/or Oxbridge university. For the class of 2013, Underwood International College, Yonsei University received 1,713 applications for 225 student places across three academic divisions — an acceptance rate of 13.13%. The program currently offers over 500 courses, enrolls over 2000 undergraduate students from 58 countries. The majority are Korean students who graduated from Korean high schools, but an increasing number of international students enroll every year.

Majors

Minors

Bilateral Exchange Programmes

UIC maintains collegial ties with Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. As of 2013, it has signed exchange partnerships with institutions such as Barnard College (Columbia University), Waseda University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Geneva and University College Utrecht.

Trilateral Exchange Programmes

Along with University of Hong Kong and Keio University in Japan, Underwood International College, Yonsei University was a co-founder of the Three-Campus Comparative East Asian Programme. The programme, which commenced in 2008, allows undergraduate students to take a year of study across the three campuses.

Career Development Center

Underwood International College, Yonsei University's Career Development Center provides students with services and resources to guide and prepare themselves for successful careers. It regularly posts a list of job and internship opportunities, and sponsors regular workshops for students in every academic semester.

Global Career Tours

Since 2008, Underwood International College, Yonsei University has organised subsidised overseas trips to provide students with opportunities to visit international organisations, companies, and institutions to gain exposure to the working environment. Past trips have involved travel to major financial centers such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, New York, and Singapore.

Controversy

Stephanie Kim's article "Western faculty ‘flight risk’ at a Korean university and the complexities of internationalisation in Asian higher education" argues that Western faculty members face challenges.

The article claims, without citing concrete attrition figures, that many UIC faculty members leave within few years. John Frank refuted Kim's arguments with relevant statistics that show UIC has similar faculty retention figures as other peer institutions. Stephanie Kim followed up with a comment.

Previous research observed that diversity and innovation continue to remain as challenges for Korean universities.