Sookmyung Women's University Champions K-Culture and Diversity for Global Reach

• Sookmyung Women's University is positioning itself as a global Hallyu education hub, offering specialized K-culture programs like "Drama Backstage" and "Hallyu and Media" to train future K-culture professionals.
• University President Moon Si-yeun emphasizes the role of women in Korea's cultural boom, highlighting alumni success in K-drama, film, and entertainment, and promoting practical, industry-led curricula.
• With 849 international students from 71 countries and a strong global network, Sookmyung is expanding its reach, targeting regions like the Middle East and Africa, and advancing women's education rooted in its royal heritage.

Sookmyung Women's University, the country's first private women's university founded with royal support, is accelerating its drive to become a global hub for education that focuses on Hallyu and is committed to developing future-generation K-culture specialists.

We are attempting to stand out as a Hallyu-specialized university", Sookmyung Women's University President Moon Si-yeun explained in an interview. Hallyu, or the Korean wave, is the name given to the international popularity of South Korean culture that has sharply increased since the 1990s.

We must consider why increasing numbers of foreign students are visiting Korea to study. There are more than 200,000 overseas exchange students in the nation and the majority mention that they love Korean culture", Moon said.

The nation, though, does not have infrastructure and scholarly background that is focused on Korea's developing K-culture boom, she added. "Korea must adequately introduce Hallyu content to students who visited here due to their interests in the Korean culture, and that should be why (international students) are visiting Sookmyung", she added.

Moon, who graduated from Sookmyung's Department of French Language and Culture and has been a professor at the university since 1997, became its 21st president in September. She also serves as president of World Association for Hallyu Studies.

She explained that Hallyu is an industrial product of the humanities discipline in which women have taken center stage. The majority of major producers in K-pop, K-drama and other Korean productions are women who possess exceptional skills to write content and narrate stories, which made the country a global cultural powerhouse.

Numerous of our graduates are already on the leading edge of the K-culture industry and working actively in Korean drama, film and entertainment", she stated, noting that Lee Woo-jung, the creator of the blockbuster 'Reply' drama series and Seo Yi-re, who penned 'Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born' are just some of the numerous alumni now employed in the industry.

This is because Sookmyung excels in Korean arts and popular culture education among humanities. Depending on such competitiveness, the school will further develop in Hallyu-related research and cultural activities", she explained. Against this background, the university has already started to provide a distinctive Hallyu-related curriculum to cultivate future Hallyu professionals.

"Most universities here have experience programs on Korean culture (for foreign students), but none of them provide actual studies of Hallyu. In our university, individuals who are engaged in the business of K-drama, entertainment and media provide real-time, ground-level information on K-culture", she added.

The school introduced a content convergence major in its micro-degree program, which this year offers courses like 'Drama Backstage' and 'Hallyu and Media', The courses feature special lectures from K-culture industry professionals and experts.

These are highly practical curricula. Experience-based professionals who lead the K-culture business visit our campus and give lectures on recently emerging segments of the Korean wave, including webtoons and films. It's very trendy among our students", she said.

In particular, Sookmyung has promoted Hallyu studies' globalization as a member of the e-school program of the Korea Foundation organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2011, Moon said.

Thanks to such academic exchange over the years, the school established a global network of 407 universities in 61 countries and has 849 international students from 71 countries on campus currently.

Although the majority of foreign students in Korean universities come from neighboring China and Japan, the school pushes further to promote diversity and pursue international students from other areas, including the Middle East and French-speaking African nations, where popularity for the culture of Korea is high but direct links with Korea are less.

For instance, Saudi Arabia, which is one of the school's primary targets, is a nation having numerous cultural affinities with Korea, she stated.

"Saudi Arabia is a nation where women's education is segregated and has a royal family origin", she explained, pointing to Sookmyung's history of founding by a royal family during the Joseon Dynasty". And Hallyu also has a strong influence in Saudi Arabia, especially among the youth in most aspects of their lives", she added.

Since our establishment in 1906, the school has been committed to the social development of this nation, and that can only be achieved through the education of women", she said.

Founded by Empress Sunheon, who was Emperor Gojong's concubine in the last years of the Korean Empire, the school was created to educate women to ensure the future of the country.

The school has pioneered various programs throughout its 119-year history to address the nation's changing needs, according to Moon. Sookmyung, for example, was the first women's university in Korea to establish a Reserve Officer Training Corp. (ROTC) in 2011. The school recently began enrolling freshmen who are 50 and older.

The school has nurtured female talent and leaders across various fields, such as former CEO of Naver Han Seong-sook, who shattered the glass ceiling as the internet giant's first female CEO in a nation where only 2.6 percent of CEOs are female. "We will keep the path of challenge and innovation that our society requires", she said.