Entrepreneurship

President Jung Seung-ryul's Grand Vision for the 'Entrepreneurship University'

 

 

Entrepreneurship is defined as striving to solve social problems with creative ideas, perseverance, and a spirit of challenge that is not afraid of failure, and striving to make the community a better place. Kookmin University aims to nurture talents who will create a future of innovation by pioneering new paths and taking on challenges without being confined to existing frameworks. This is the entrepreneurial spirit that Kookmin University emphasizes. To this end, we are focusing on cultivating students' practical skills through field-oriented experiential education rather than traditional lecture-based education. As a result of our efforts, Kookmin University is already recognized as one of the top universities in Korea in the fields of design, automotive, information security, and bio.

 

 

 

 

Keyword 14

President Jung Seung-ryul's Keywords for Kookmin University's Sustainable Development

 

①Entrepreneurship ②Sustainability ③Pragmatism ④Building a Borderless Educational Ecosystem ⑤Teaching and Research ⑥Enhancing Brand Image ⑦Omegascool ⑧Community Spirit ⑨Major Elective ⑩Quantum Leap 11. Global (promotion of international exchange) 12. Industry-academia cooperation 13. Employment rate 14. Reputation

 

Key Terms: ①②③④ are the four keywords that President Jung Seung-ryul values most. I ⑤∼⑭: No order.

 

 

 

 

Kookmin University's Grand Vision-Entrepreneurship University

“Entrepreneurship means striving to make a better community with creative ideas, persistent efforts, and a spirit of challenge that is not afraid of failure.” - President Jung Seung-ryul

 

 

It was a happy interview. On Friday, January 24, 2025, just before the Lunar New Year holiday, I took a deep breath when I visited the office of Chung Seung-ryul, president of Kookmin University, located at the foot of Bukhansan Mountain in Seoul. The clear air seemed to stimulate the lungs of the Hyundai Management reporters. A 15-minute ride on public transportation from Gwanghwamun in Seoul brought me to Jeongneung, a place that was like a paradise in a fairy tale. When I first entered the small space of just a few square meters in the president's office, I had a feeling that I was about to get a scoop. The president had decorated his office like a CEO's office. When we were shown to the clean and simple president's office following the annex, President Jung Seung-ryul welcomed the press with a bright smile and friendliness. In the interview, the president emphasized that Kookmin University will develop into an entrepreneurship university that cultivates talents with creative ideas, persistent efforts, and a challenging spirit that is not afraid of failure, in line with the entrepreneurship that Kookmin University pursues. If it were Harvard University in the United States, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, or Paris IV Sorbonne University in France, I would understand, but who among the university presidents of South Korea would say, “Take on challenges without fear of failure”? Perhaps President Chung Seung-ryul is the only president. When he graduated from Sogang University's Department of Economics in 1985, a friend advised him to study “MIS (Management Information System)” because “the world is changing,” and he set off to study abroad to learn about AI (artificial intelligence), which is what we would call AI today. He received a master's degree in management information systems from the University of Wisconsin (1989). He is a business-friendly president who earned a PhD in Management Information Systems from the University of South Carolina in 1995 and returned to Korea, where he worked as a senior at the Samsung SDS Consulting Division from 1995 to 1997. Finally, although many people have different definitions of entrepreneurship, the president of the university has introduced the basic concept of entrepreneurship, which he has refined and established academically over many years, in today's interview. I hope that it will be widely used as a textbook on entrepreneurship not only in academia but also in industry.

 

 

 

 

Have a spirit of challenge that is not afraid of failure!

Q Park Dong-soon, Editor-in-Chief of Hyundai Management Hello. When you took office in September 2023, you declared that you would become a university that fosters talent with an entrepreneurial spirit.

What does the “entrepreneurial spirit” that you advocate imply?

 

A Jung Seung-ryul President of Kookmin University The entrepreneurial spirit that Kookmin University pursues has historical roots. Kookmin University was founded based on the founding philosophy of patriot Shin Ik-hee and the educational philosophy of Sung-gok Kim Seong-gon, and has developed into a university with deep roots to this day. In 1946, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, including the late Hae-gong Shin Ik-hee, established the “National University” and “University of the Nation” to foster the talent needed to build an independent nation. In his inaugural speech, the late Hae-gong Shin Ik-hee said, “I hope that the university will contribute to nation-building through academic research and the pursuit of truth, which are the university's true missions.” Afterwards, in 1959, the founder of Ssangyong Group, Mr. Sung-Gon Kim, who believed that fostering talent was important for the development of the nation and the people, acquired the Kookmin Academy, which continues to this day.

Seonggok believed that talented people should have both intelligence and practical knowledge, and that they should love their nation and work for it. Based on these founding and educational philosophies, Kookmin University emphasizes the educational philosophies of “community spirit” and “pragmatism,” and has been fostering “talented people who contribute to national development through entrepreneurship.”

 

Q How would you define the entrepreneurial spirit that the president emphasizes in a nutshell?

 

A It means creative ideas, persistent efforts, and a spirit of challenge that is not afraid of failure in order to solve social problems. Kookmin University aims to nurture talents who will create a future of innovation by pioneering new paths and taking on challenges without being confined to existing frameworks. That is the entrepreneurial spirit that Kookmin University emphasizes. To this end, we are focusing on cultivating students' practical skills through field-oriented experiential education rather than traditional lecture-based education. As a result of these efforts, we are already recognized as the top university in Korea in the fields of design (fine arts and physical education), automobiles, information security (natural sciences), and, more recently, bio.

 

 

Design, automobiles, information security, and bio World-class

Q Dr. Peter Drucker, who was known as the “Guru of Management,” praised Korea as the “ancestral home of the entrepreneurial spirit.” I hope that the “University of Entrepreneurship” that you envision will also develop into an ancestral home for Korea. Please also suggest ways to nurture talented people with an entrepreneurial spirit.

 

A Kookmin University is striving to achieve its goal of “nurturing talent with the entrepreneurial spirit DNA that society needs” in all majors. As a result, Kookmin University has established itself as a university with solid majors in each field, with the three pillars of humanities and social sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and arts and sports distributed appropriately in a 4:4:2 ratio, which is leading to high employment rates. Kookmin University has seen a consistent increase in employment rates over the past six years (excluding 2020, which was affected by COVID-19), and in 2023, it is expected to achieve a public employment rate of 70.5%, ranking 9th among major universities in Seoul. This increase in employment rate was largely due to the University Job Center Project (small) of the Ministry of Employment and Labor, which began in March 2018, and the University Job Plus Center Project, which was converted into a large-scale project in 2019 and a hub-type project in 2022. Through this project, the National University's “Job and Startup One-Stop Service Zone” was established around the University Job Plus Center. We provide customized services by grade, major, and career readiness for early career setting and employment support, and operate various career and employment counseling programs for graduates and local youth. Kookmin University's flagship employment support program, the 'Practical Core Job Expert Training Program (CoREP)', is also well received by the industry. Students preparing for employment are first given training in the basic skills required for office workers, such as character and business mindset, and then go through a stage of participating in competitions related to the desired job (HR, marketing, purchasing, distribution, sales, production quality, etc.) after receiving training in common job skills such as marketing, proposal writing, and basic accounting. This program is unique in that the entire process, from selecting a business topic to analyzing the company and market environment, business planning, report writing, and presentation, is planned and operated 100% by students. This program, which has received high satisfaction ratings from companies, received the Minister of Employment and Labor Award in the field of employment support in 2017 and the Minister of Education Award in the field of employment education in 2019.

 

 

Maximizing student satisfaction by expanding the major elective system

Q Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the stagnation of Korean universities. It is said that we are at a point where a paradigm shift is needed. What kind of attempts are you making as the president?

 

A That's a good question. The biggest change is that we have set the establishment of a borderless educational ecosystem as our top strategic goal with the aim of overcoming the boundaries and partitions between different areas, such as between academic areas, curricula, subjects and co-curricular activities, grades, and educational entities, which have been raised as issues in the existing education system, and as part of this, we have introduced the major self-selection system.

Kookmin University has established the College of Future Convergence (Free Major/Future Convergence Major) to guarantee students the right to choose their major starting with the freshmen of the 2025 academic year. It selects the largest number of students among major universities in the Seoul metropolitan area, which is in line with Kookmin University's vision of establishing an educational ecosystem without academic and physical boundaries based on a community spirit and a pragmatic educational philosophy. The major elective system operated by Kookmin University allows students to freely choose most majors, including humanities, natural sciences, and arts and physical education, which is the biggest difference compared to other universities. Kookmin University also has three colleges specializing in the arts and physical education, namely the College of Art and Design, the College of Physical Education, and the College of Arts, so it has expanded the choice of majors to include the arts and physical education to give students more choices.

 

 

2025 is a turning point for Kookmin University's 'Quantum Jump'

Students entering the College of Convergence can follow the same academic schedule as students in their existing majors from the first semester of their first year, and grow into convergent and creative talents through various major exploration courses. We are introducing new teaching methods such as advanced hybrid and blended classes to solve the problem of lecture space, and introducing equipment and software using advanced technologies such as AR and VR to supplement the lack of practice space and equipment. In addition, we are conducting data analysis by accepting the major of the applicant at the time of application, and based on this, we are predicting and responding to teachers and instructors, equipment, and space. We are also operating a new system called “Omegaschool,” which allows students to change their major to maximize their choice of major, not only at the time of admission but also for current students who are about to graduate.

 

Q Could you also explain the main business domains that you will focus on this year?

 

A: I believe that 2025 should be a turning point for us to make a 'quantum jump' based on the achievements we made last year. In the future, the higher education environment will undergo many changes regardless of whether it is in Korea or abroad, so it is very important for us to develop a competitive edge that is recognized not only in Korea but also on the global stage. Kookmin University is already actively operating a global campus with a practical curriculum that can be immediately deployed in overseas sites. The 'SEA:ME Program' in Germany, which is run in collaboration with Volkswagen Group Korea, and the 'KMU G-PBL Program' in the United States are also programs that we can be proud of.

 

Q Finally, Kookmin University was ranked 13th overall in the JoongAng Ilbo University Evaluation. It jumped three places from 16th in 2023 to 2024. Why don't you use your “entrepreneurial spirit” to challenge for first place overall?

 

A Thank you. Kookmin University was highly rated in three of the four categories: faculty research, educational conditions, student education and performance, and reputation, jumping three spots in the overall rankings (16th to 13th) for faculty research (16th to 12th), educational conditions (37th to 15th), and reputation (18th to 13th). In the field of industry-academic cooperation, we ranked second after Seoul National University, and this achievement was made possible by our excellence in various areas, including education conditions, employment, and reputation, in addition to other areas where we traditionally excel, such as international students and entrepreneurship.

 

 

We want to be among the top universities in Korea!

Q I would like to add one last question to wrap up the interview. What is the goal that you would like to achieve during your tenure as president?

 

A: I want to make Kookmin University one of the leading universities in Korea during my four-year term. My goal is to make Kookmin University one of the leading universities that lead Korea. While the achievements during my term are important, it is also important to lay the foundation for the next 10, 20, or 50 years. I will do my best, considering the remaining two and a half years as the golden time.

 

 

 

This content is translated from Korean to English using the AI translation service DeepL and may contain translation errors such as jargon/pronouns. If you find any, please send your feedback to kookminpr@kookmin.ac.kr so we can correct them.   View original article [click]