Exchanging Ideas with the UOU

On January 26, 2011, delegates from the University of Ulsan (UOU) in the Republic of Korea visited my university. As members of its Office of International Affairs and Education, they visited Niigata University of Management to meet the president of NUM, the chairperson and vice chairperson of our International Exchange Committee. (I’m the vice chair.) They have been visiting several other sister universities in Japan and our university has hosted their exchange students for many years.

According to its website: http://www.ulsan.ac.kr/eng/index.aspx
Since its establishment, the UOU has contributed to the development of Korea by producing a competitive work force. Now with the support of Hyundai Heavy Industries, the UOU is ready to become a global institution.

The UOU’s accomplishments are well recognized nationally and internationally. (It) was ranked 8th nationally and 272nd worldwide in terms of SCI publications (2007).

Their website also states:
The UOU is currently conducting ‘World-Class Programs’ in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Medicine, (as well as) carrying out various projects which every UOU student benefits from.

During our meeting, we discussed strengthening our relationships and expanding our exchange programs. As recent news articles have noted, many of today’s Japanese students are too inward-oriented and have little desire to study abroad. In order to help reverse this trend, UOU suggested that their established language and culture study courses would be of great benefit to Japanese students looking for an advantage in today’s stagnant economy.