An era of internationalization has come. As cultural exchanges among nations have increased, it is no longer unfamiliar to find many foreign students who cross the boundaries of nations for studying. That is why MEST uses an internationalization index, which represents the percentages of foreign students, the variety of the students’ nations and other factors, to evaluate universities across the nation. Therefore, each university is making an effort to improve its internationalization index.
  What about the present state of internationalization in CBNU? According to CBNU foreign student statistics conducted at the beginning of October last year, 163 students are in language training courses, 305 students are in undergraduate courses, 232 students are in master´s courses and doctorate courses and the other 16 foreign students are exchange students. Among them, Chinese account for 64%, which is the highest, Mongolians account for 3.5%, Taiwanese, Uzbeks and Indonesians account for 1% each, and Indians and Vietnamese account for 0.8% each. When it comes to each college, among students who are in regular courses, 24% of the students are in the College of Business, which is the highest, followed by the College of Social Sciences with 11.5%, the College of Humanities with 10% and the College of Natural Sciences with 7.6%.
  Kim Ji-ha(Dept. of International Business, 08‘) said, “Many teams are made during the classes in the College of Business for group assignments and activities. In my college, there are lots of foreign students, so most groups have foreign team members. I have been in many groups with many Chinese students, but never with other countries’ students. I understand that the rate of Chinese students is high because China is large, but I hope foreign students’ nationalities become more diverse because we are living in the era of globalization. I hope I can interact with students from other countries as well.”
  CBNU is making an effort to promote the internationalization of the school by attracting foreign students. Jeong Jin-hyeok, the team leader of CBNU Center for International Affairs said, “Other various countries’ students, especially Western countries’ students, are not likely to come to CBNU because of the difference of cultures, the difference of economies and the political situation that South Korea is facing with North Korea. Therefore, there is a problem to attract Western countries’ students, but we keep trying hard to sign MOUs(Memorandum of Understanding) with schools from various countries for the internationalization of CBNU. Recently, CBNU additionally signed MOUs with universities in Russia, Japan, Germany and France, and we are scheduled to meet an Ethiopian ambassador to discuss pursuing an MOU. In addition, for the coming summer vacation, we are planning to institute a program called ‘Go Korea’, which will help students around the world to become more interested in Korea and to study in Korea.”
  ‘Go Korea’ will allow foreign students who apply for the program, among those whose schools signed MOUs with CBNU, to learn the Korean language and culture in Korea for a month. It’s going to progress during the coming summer vacation.

By Seo Hwan-hui
hh32@cbnu.ac.kr