In the era of the 4th industrial revolution, Konkuk University (KU) has emerged as a hub of educational innovation.
Last year, KU was selected for the PRIME (Program for Industrial Needs-Matched Education) Project by the Government.
In order to foster talent possessing skills meeting industry and students’ demands, KU has accelerated innovation of training programs developing comprehensive thinking skills and creativity of students by establishing eight PRIME-centered departments and expanding debate classes, “Flipped Learning Program” and “7+1 Self-Designed Dream Semester System”.
KU completed setting up state-of-the-art education hardware designed to nurture talent who can interact and harmonize with others and become global leaders.
By opening the cutting-edge “KU Smart Factory” in the Spring semester, KU created educational conditions where students from any departments can brainstorm and share ideas and make goods by themselves. KU also laid the foundation for interdisciplinary education by implementing college restructuring.
Through these efforts, KU ranked far higher than last year in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for 2017-2018. In line with its educational philosophy, KU declared its vision “PRIME KONKUK 2020” .
In addition, KU announced that it would realize a student-oriented learning environment transmitting practical knowledge and satisfying demands of the era and society.
According to its plan, under the slogan “Make Korea Better and Embrace the World”, KU has driven major innovations to take a leap forward to become “One of the Top 5 Private Universities in Korea and One of the Top 100 Universities in Asia” by 2020 by cultivating “Crossover talent” that future society wants.
Through the PRIME Project, KU founded the “KU Center for Convergent Science and Technology” specializing in Bio-science and ICT. Furthermore, KU has been working on interdisciplinary education in bioscience with the aim of fostering specialists in healing bioscience who will play leading roles in the 4th industrial revolution. Recently, KU was selected for the Leaders in Industry-university Cooperation (LINC+) Project by the by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea.
Moreover, KU has substantially upgraded its educational infrastructure and conditions by opening the “KU Smart Factory” and high-tech lecture halls equipped with LED screens by receiving funds through the PRIME Project. The “KU Smart Factory” where 3D printers, electrical and electronic equipment, and various machine tools are installed was modeled on Fabrication Laboratory (Fab Lab) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, and MakerSpace of the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Students can fly drones and experience virtual reality (VR) in the “KU Smart Factory”.