SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY (SKKU), SEOUL, KOREA

"Sungkyunkwan University has seen a huge rise in its worldwide ranking and in parallel to it, a rise in the number of international students," said Professor Navrati Saxena (SKKU Associate Professor & International Graduate Student Advisor at the College of Information and Communication Engineering). Prof. Saxena who also successfully helped organize the 'Diwali Event' in SKKU also pointed out that, "Efforts towards international students should be made in a comprehensive way and not just in their studies."

With around 3,000 degree-seeking international students from 65 countries studying at SKKU and around 600 exchange students coming and going each semester, meeting an international student in SKKU's two campuses is commonplace. An international campus atmosphere is beneficial to Korean students because it gives them an experience that, in normal cases, they would only have when they are studying abroad. For SKKU the influx of international students has been warmly welcomed. However, meeting the needs of various students from many different nations is a challenge for the university, especially for the Office of International Affairs (OIA), whose primary objective is to facilitate their lives and experiences both in SKKU and in Korea.

"We try to meet the needs of our international students, with most or all predicaments they encounter, such as helping with academic problems in their courses, visa problems, and also the occasional call to a student's landlord to negotiate the rent", says the OIA officers in the Natural Science Campus, "Providing more for our international students is obvious and necessary because of their basic status as foreigners studying in Korea." Over the past few years, policies have evolved to systematically meet those needs. While there is still more to go, it has come to a point where complaints from students are heard less and less with every passing year.

For the last few years, and especially this year, the OIA has been very supportive of international student-driven activities with a particular emphasis on extracurricular activities. This year, events for international students have been more frequent and more visible than before. The goal, the OIA asserts, is to make the students more comfortable living in Korea and studying at SKKU. The efforts made by the OIA have been quite apparent this year as people were able to see Indian students having a cricket tournament, Vietnamese students having soccer matches, Pakistani students listening to a lecture from the first Pakistani women alpinist, and Indian students celebrating the 'Diwali Festival', to name a few. International Students at SKKU have also had the opportunity to experience Korean traditions including making Songpyeon rice cakes for Chuseok, watching the Seokjeon Daeje (National Rite to Confucius) at Sungkyunkwan's old campus, going to student festivals, and visiting cultural sites and events in and out of the campus.

On top of the cultural events provided by the OIA, activities led and run by student bodies of various different nationalities in SKKU were also more prevalent throughout 2015. One new addition is the "Meet the Seniors" event that enables freshmen to get the chance to meet the senior students from their home country. This was the first year that this event has taken place. There were four major nationalities (Chinese, Pakistani, Vietnamese, and Indian) represented which were able to gather around two-hundred freshmen and seniors for events held separately for students of each country. Next year, more nationalities are expected to participate.

The "International Food Stall" is another student body-organized event involving collaboration between the international students of SKKU in an effort to present a little bit of their own cultures for the Korean students. Many of the international students at the University prepared food for attendees of the Autumn Student Festival and SKKU President Chung Kyu Sang even visited the stall during the event.

"Creating an international environment is not just about having the students learn and study in a foreign language, but having them feel at home; that is, to create an inductive environment for them to perform their best," said the OIA, "If we are successful in creating such an environment, this in turn will ensure international students continue to flock to SKKU." These new activities for international students in SKKU are a culmination of years of experience and effort which will hopefully create an atmosphere that is not only beneficial for the students but also for the entire university as well.