As the Best Global Education Hub in Northeast Asia, IGC is newly benchmarked & illuminated!

2018 Diplomatic Corps‘ trip to Incheon Global Campus, Asia‘s new education hub, allowed to convince visiting Diplomatic Corps. once again that Korea, in particular Incheon, will be able to serve as a new education hub for university education globally.

Over 40 senior diplomats including many top envoys accredited to the Republic of Korea visited Incheon Global Campus again following their successful tour in 2016 and 2017 by the invitation of IGC Foundation CEO Kim Ki-hyung on May 14 last Monday.

 

Visiting diplomatic corps. were consisted of Iran Amb. Hassan Taherian & his spouse, Vietnam Amb. Nguyen Vu Tu, Nepal Amb. Arjun Jung Bahadur Singh, Mexico Amb. Bruno Figueroa including Mexico Embassy diplomats, Honduras Amb. Virgilio Paredes Trapero, Senegal Amb. Mamadou Gueye Faye and last but not least Peru Amb. Daul Jusus Enrique Matute-Mejia to benchmark Incheon Global Campus in addition to many senior diplomats in charge of education field in their Embassies on behalf of Ambassadors in each Embassies.

What was most striking compared with the two previous years, was that 3 honorable Ambassadors gave their lectures for about 200 students at GMU hall regarding bilateral relations & its prospect for the future in the years to come.

 

First of all, Vietnam Amb. Nguyen Vu Tu lectured with impeccable English regarding Korea-Vietnam relations, emphasizing that Korea is the 2nd largest ODA(official development assistance) provider for Vietnam, more than 150 thousand Vietnam & Korean overseas communities are living in each other countries to increase people-to-people exchanges, Korea is the 2nd largest trade partner for Vietnam, and last but not least Korea is the second largest tourists country for Vietnam which has sent 2.4 million peoples last year.

Amb. Nguyen Vu Tu garnered special interest from the diplomatic community & students by stressing the root of Vietnam dynasty which can be traced in Bongwha County, North Kyungsang Province. Such long historical exchanges between the two countries allow to bring the two nations even more closer than ever, he concluded.

 

Secondly, Mexico Amb. Bruno Figueroa gave a lecture regarding Mexico and Korea: Strategic Partners in a New International Economic Environment while its deputy head mission Mr. Vladimir Vazquez Hernandez, Economic Head Mr. Carlos Vladimir Rubio and Cultural Head Mr. Raul Mendoza Gallo from the Embassy of Mexico were on hand.

 

Underlining that Mexico today is the 15th largest world economy(IMF, 2017), it has diversified network of 13 FTAs with 50 countries, and are 12th trading nation worldwide as well as 18th largest recipient of FDI(UNCTAD, 2016) respectively, Figueroa said that Mexico is an open economy as well as diversified economy.

 

He didn‘t forget that Mexico is the 6th world tourism destination with 39 million visitors annually (SECTUR, 2017), adding over 100,000 Koreans visit Mexico annually and some 15,000 Mexicans visit Korea each year.

Last but not least, Senegal envoy Mamadou Gueye Faye rose on the podium thirdly to speak with a theme, dubbed „Korea-Senegal Economic Cooperation relation overview“.

Gateway to the West Africa, Senegal aims at becoming a sub-regional hub of knowledge economy and services, Faye said, adding in this context, Korean businessmen have very interesting cards to play, in the sector of agriculture, tourism, road construction, housing and energy infrastructure. In addition, recent important discoveries of oil and gas, which are expected to be exploited from 2022, are a major asset for Senegal, he said.

Touching upon the Inter-Korean dialogue which is taking place on the peninsula, Faye conveyed that Senegal welcomes the spirit of brotherhood and solidarity that has prevailed between the highest level of the South Korea and the North Korea on the occasion of the Pyeongchang Olympic Winter Game and which led to the forthcoming 3rd South-North summit which was held at late April, 2018.

 

Faithful to its tradition of peace, Senegal has been always fighting for a nuclear weapon free world and as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for 2016-2017 period, has greatly contributed to the recommendation of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Faye spoke.

In the welcome ceremony held in the morning, CEO Kim Ki-hyung from IGC Foundation welcomed the Seoul Diplomatic Corps. saying he sincerely hopes that with the visit of the Seoul Diplomatic Corps., more diverse students around the world will be able to enroll IGC campuses from Europe, South America, Africa and Asian countries among others.

As the capacity of the Dean of visiting diplomatic community, Iran Amb. Hassan Taherian expressed his big expectations, touching upon that Incheon Global Campus is a shared campus of the world’s prestigious universities as well as IGC is a new education model that enables students to acquire degrees from renowned world universities in Korea by his return remarks.

By followed briefings from 4 university representatives, vice president James Larson from the State University of New York, Korea (SUNY Korea) said he is proud of the fact that its US University belongs to top ranking 1% of universities worldwide as well as top 35 best value public colleges.

Following Stony Brook University, which opened in 2012, SUNY Korea opened Fashion Institute of Technology(FIT) last year and SUNY Korea, as the first global university opened as part of IGC, will strive to put forth its best efforts while being sure to focus on the small details, according to President Dr. Choonho Kim, the State University of New York, Korea.

 

As regarding what makes George Mason University Korea differently?, Chief of Staff Mr. Dan Walsch introduced that George Mason University Korea was ranked 47th in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) for Business and Economics and 50th in Global Affairs (part of Social Science).

As a top research activity university, the university was classified as a Highest Research Activity Tier University in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education in 2016 and world-renowned professors, including Nobel Economics Prize winners, provide quality lectures, according to Dan Walsch.

Vice president Tae-jun Han who rose on the podium to brief Ghent University Global Campus Songdo, introduced that Ghent University Global Campus Songdo is the only European University in IGC and offers the same curriculum as its European affiliate.

The core classes of the university’s 3 departments are conducted as common classes and in particular the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics are presented in depth so that students can gain the competitiveness necessary for continuing their studies or becoming researchers, according to Ghent University Global Campus.

Last but not least, Mr. Todd Kent as Dean of Faculty at the University of Utah Asia Campus Songdo boasted the fact that for 10 years in a row, the University of Utah has ranked among the world’s top 100 universities, owing to its high-quality education. As the representative state university in Utah, the University of Utah carries on a long history full of traditions, actually. In the U.S, it is one of the universities known to have produced many successful enterpreneurs among its alumni, according to Todd Kent.

 

For the first time as an international university, the University of Utah Asia Campus has opened Humanities and Social Science Programs, such as Communications, Psychology, Film and Media Arts, Public Health, Urban Ecology, Biomedical Informatics, and the Graduate School of Public Health, briefed Mr. Todd Kent.

Incheon Free Economic Zone visit as well as IFEZ investment companies visit in the afternoon provided visiting diplomatic community with a glimpse to understand global business frontier and Korea’s semiconductor industry as well as robotics industry by the visits of Genesem & Yujin Robot Co., Ltd. respectively.

The following are return remarks by H.E. Hassan Taherian, Iran Amb. as the Dean capacity of visiting Diplomatic Corps. at Incheon Global Campus (10 am., May 14, Monday)

First of all, I as Dean of the visiting Diplomatic Corps. to the Incheon Global Campus trip, would like to express our sincere appreciation to President Kim Ki-hyung of Incheon Global Campus Foundation as well as its dedicated staffs for inviting us this morning.

We ambassadors & senior diplomats understand that Incheon Global Campus is a shared campus of the world’s prestigious universities as well as IGC is a new education model that enables students to acquire degrees from renowned world universities in Korea.

Furthermore, we heard that Incheon Global Campus is a national project established by the Korean government and Incheon Metropolitan City, to innovate the education system of Korea and to nurture next generation of global leaders in the fields of education, economics, industry, culture and arts, to name just a few. So we ambassadors & senior diplomats would like to send our heartfelt encouragements for the efforts of Incheon Global Campus to host 10 of the world's prestigious universities with an investment of USD 1 billion.

Today, we ambassadors & senior diplomats are looking forward to meeting Universities at IGC which are “extended campuses” of which graduation assessment and educational management are run by their home campuses. In terms of the fact that one of the best parts of studying on IGC is the opportunity to learn in a dynamic atmosphere with a culturally diverse student body, we ambassadors and senior diplomats believe that such friendships made on IGC will last a lifetime.

Once again thank you for inviting us!

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