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Seoul catches up on universities' progress with facilities for students, communities

Published: 18 Jun. 2025, 18:23

Seoul City Hall in Jung District, central Seoul [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]

As the Seoul Metropolitan Government works with universities to ease construction regulations to help them build more facilities for their students and the local community, city officials met with school representatives to check the progress and ask for further cooperation.

The city government said that it hosted a discussion conference on Tuesday with more than 50 officials from 10 participating universities, including Yonsei University, Korea University and Sogang University, to discuss their cooperative urban planning goals and related projects.

The conference follows the city's initial announcement in 2022 that it would encourage Seoul-based universities to build more facilities for their students as well as residents, on the condition of eased construction regulations.

In line with this project, Korea University has already finished the construction of new research centers and lecture halls in collaboration with chipmaker SK hynix.

Seoul further suggested that the participating universities open on-campus facilities and establish infrastructure for the local community to help the city government realize its so-called open campus project.

The city government officials encouraged universities to allow residents to use dormant facilities as kids' cafes or public wedding halls to foster a sustainable, family-friendly environment.

Apart from developing such infrastructure for residents, universities will continue to add more facilities for their students as well.

Chung-Ang University, Sejong University and Sungkyunkwan University are set to begin construction of lecture and research centers for various AI or semiconductor programs. Universities such as Hongik University, Ewha Womans University and the University of Seoul plan to get their construction plans approved by the end of this year.

“We will actively cooperate with universities through future-oriented, sustainable support and discussions so that the academic institutions can serve as the center forces of our city planning initiatives,” said Cho Nam-joon, head of the city planning division under the city government's planning and administration office.

BY YOON SEUNG-JIN [[email protected]]