East Asian schools to launch joint degree program

Leading universities in Korea, China and Japan will launch a joint degree program next year as part of efforts to boost exchanges, Korean education authorities said yesterday.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the Korea Council for University Education, in conjunction with the Chinese and Japanese education ministries, announced the names of the schools from the three countries that were chosen to participate in the Campus Asia program.

The 10 domestic universities include Seoul National University, Korea University, Sungkyunkwan University, Postech, Kaist, Dongseo University and Pusan National University.

Among the seven Chinese universities participating in the program are Peking University, Fudan University, Jilin University and Renmin University. The University of Tokyo, Kyushu University, Tohoku University and Nagoya University are among the 10 Japanese institutions taking part.

Under the program, some 300 students, around 100 from each country, will be able to earn credits and degrees from the participating schools.

The program is a follow-up to an agreement made at the end of a summit between Korea, China and Japan in May of last year to increase exchanges among universities. It is the East Asian version of the Erasmus Project, a European Union exchange program.

Under the Campus Asia project, local universities can form a consortium with Chinese and Japanese universities to give students who complete all requirements for partner programs a dual degree signed by the presidents of the universities where they studied, officials said. Students who join the program can also do an internship for three months to one academic year in another country, they said.

Under a program for graduate students administered by Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies, Peking University’s School of International Studies and the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy, students will spend one year at each university and will receive up to three master’s degrees upon graduation.

The Korean education ministry and the Council for University Education will provide 1 billion won ($907,000) for the development of the program and 124 billion won to subsidize tuition for students participating in the program from next year until 2015.

By Sarah Kim, Yonhap [sarahkim@joongang.co.kr]