Ministry of Education's 'Regional Leading University Fostering Project' funds 10 billion won to 10 regional consortiums
Regional leading universities such as YU to lead regional specialized industries
Department of Samaeul Studies and International Development and School of Mechanical Engineering selected as 'excellent departments'
[October 28, 2014]

YU (President Noh Seok-kyun) became the only private university to be selected as a regional consortium leading university for the 'regional leading university fostering project' being pursued by the Ministry of Education.

On the 28th, the Ministry of Education announced that they selected 10 regional leading university consortiums for the 'regional leading university fostering project' that supports joint growth with provincial universities, and that they will fund a total of 10 billion won.

Leading universities of the consortiums selected were Kangwon National University (Gangwon region), YU and Kyungpook National University (Daegu-Gyeongbuk region), Gyeongsang National University, Pusan National University (Busan-Ulsan region), Jeju National University (Jeju region), Chungnam National University and Chungbuk National University (Chungcheong region), and Chonnam National University and Chonbuk National University (Honam region). YU is the only private university among them.

The ten schools selected as regional leading universities will organize consortiums with nearby universities for five years until 2018 and act as a center that brings together regional universities through cooperation such as school credit exchange programs. This year's total budget is 10 billion won and approximately 1 billion won will be funded for each consortium. 15 billion won has been appropriated for next year's budget so the funding is expected to increase.

As the Daegu-Gyeongbuk consortium leading university joined by Kyungil University, Daegu Haany University and Andong National University, YU is planning to strengthen its global competitiveness of its higher education by attracting more international students and enhancing its capacities based on its college cluster.

Meanwhile, YU had two departments selected as 'excellent regional specialization departments' also called 'master departments'. In the internationalization sector of national support project types, the Regional and Welfare Administration Department (Changed name in 2015 to 'International Development Cooperation Department') and in the engineering sector of the regional strategy project types, the School of Mechanical Engineering were selected as 'master departments'.

In order to foster regional college departments with high competitiveness equal to colleges in the Seoul area, the Ministry of Education began pursuing the 'excellent regional specialization departments' and selected a total of 60 departments, 15 each from four regions, such as the Daegu-Gyeongbuk-Gangwon areas, Southeast area, Chungcheon area, and the Honam-Jeju area. Master departments are selected from departments participating in the top 30% specialization project team selected in the regional university specialization project (CK-I), and they will receive an additional 100-200 million won in national funding. The budget for the entire project is 10 billion won.