SKKU opens the K-Academic Expansion Center

• - Establishing a foothold for the globalization of Korean philosophy

[Image] Opening ceremony of the K-Academic Expansion Center

Sungkyunkwan University announces that the College of Confucian Studies & Eastern Philosophy’s Institute of Korean Philosophy and Culture (IKPC, Director: So-Jeong Park) opened the ‘K-Academic Expansion Center’ on September 7 (Tue). Starting with the opening of the center, it is expected to spread Korean philosophy overseas through the development and distribution of online educational content.

The Institute of Korean Philosophy and Culture held an opening ceremony of the ‘K-Academic Expansion Center’ at Sungkyunkwan University’s Humanities and Social Sciences campus on September 7 (Tue), introducing the center’s vision and future plans, and hanging a signboard. Due to COVID-19, only minimum personnel, including President Dong-Ryeol Shin, Vice President of Planning and Coordination Jun Young Lee, Vice President of International Affairs Hyun Soon Park, and Dean of College of Confucian Studies & Eastern Philosophy Jeong Geun Shin attended. The event was held the event in compliance with quarantine standards.

The K-Academic Expansion Center was opened as the Institute of Korean Philosophy and Culture was selected for ‘K-Academic Expansion Project’ organized by the Ministry of Education and the Academy of Korean Studies in July.

Under the theme of “Build Bridge: Communication and Spread of Korean Philosophy”, the center will play a role in building a foundation of Korean philosophy, sending domestic researchers, interacting with international researchers and expanding Korean philosophy to the world.

For smooth operation, it plans to develop 10 courses every year, a total of 50 high-quality MOOC courses, along with 150 domestic and foreign scholars, and external experts, and make them available on global online content platforms such as Coursera as well as other Korean platforms.

President Shin said, “Thank you for the innovative efforts of the College of Confucian Studies & Eastern Philosophy to inherit the spirit of tradition and to be renewed according to the reality of today. I hope that the K-Academic Expansion Center will become a bridge connecting Korean philosophy and the world, and lead the future value as well as the current discourse of Korean philosophy through creative convergence researches.”

Dean Jeong Geun Shin said, “As a senior university that shared the beginning of Sungkyunkwan University, it will complete the tasks given and lead to remarkable development. In the future, we will gather the capabilities of individual research institutes and centers of the university to share the results as a team.”

Director So-Jeong Park said, “I am happy to achieve our dream, globalization of Korean philosophy, together. We will enhance the status of Korean philosophy in the world by taking advantage of the strengths of our university.”