Korea's First University-City Co-Growth Innovation Model Proposed
Comprehensive Alliance University Blueprint Based on Digitech Innovation Town
The Dongmyung University (President Ho Hwan Jeon) and Silla University (President Nam Sik Heo) consortium, currently promoting the Ministry of Education’s ‘Glocal University 30’ project, attended the Glocal University Vision and Innovation Strategy Briefing hosted by Busan Metropolitan City on the 22nd. There, they shared the project direction with key stakeholders from academia, industry, and local government.
On this day, Dongmyung University President Ho Hwan Jeon presented the vision for the “Comprehensive Consortium University Based on the Digitech Innovation Town for Leading Busan’s Future Strategic Industries” project. He engaged in in-depth discussions on development strategies with Busan Mayor Park Hyung Jun, city officials, university executives, student council presidents, and industry representatives, who presided over the briefing.
Dongmyung University and Silla University have been leading educational innovation, ranking first and second among private universities in Busan in the Ministry of Education’s 2023 innovation evaluation.
In particular, Dongmyung University demonstrated its strength by ranking 34th worldwide in the leadership category of the 2024 WURI (World University Rankings for Innovation) announced at the 4th WURI Conference held in Switzerland on June 7. This achievement highlights the university’s significant efforts toward innovation to overcome the limitations of local private universities.
The core direction of the Digitech Innovation Town-based comprehensive consortium university between Dongmyung and Silla is the “3 BIG Deal Alliance,” aiming to serve as a trigger for establishing a Busan-style Silicon Valley.
As the first step, the “Brand New Deal” proposes the nation’s first university-local government big deal alliance model, opening a new path for higher education in Korea.
By investing 400 billion KRW of Busan City’s funds into a 40,000-pyeong site used by Dongmyung and Silla University campuses, the plan is to create a campus Digitech Innovation Town by concentrating facilities related to academia, industry, and research for the promotion of Busan’s strategic and new industries. This aims to lead the region’s industries and trigger the establishment of a Busan-style Silicon Valley by connecting universities, companies, research institutes, and innovation agencies in the Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam area.
The second is the “Innovative Education Deal,” which involves bold restructuring such as absorbing and integrating departments and gradually reducing the total number of admissions to establish specialized school campuses based on each university’s competitive advantages.
To this end, Dongmyung University will establish the Future Mobility School, while Silla University will establish the Future Well-Life School. Each school will have an enrollment quota of 200 students, and related graduate programs will also be intensively fostered. This is also Korea’s first university specialization model through a big deal between private universities.
The third is the “Global Challenge Deal,” where both Dongmyung and Silla Universities will each attract 4,000 international students, aiming to become the top domestic universities in terms of the proportion of foreign students on campus.
The fourth is to achieve financial independence through various revenue-generating projects. By creating a minimum annual profit of 30 billion KRW through UBRC (University Based Retirement Community), startups, pet parks, and more, the goal is to build a sustainable university even after the end of Glocal University project funding.
UBRC is a concept similar to the SRC (Senior Residential College) model, which has been successfully operated by over 100 universities in the United States, such as Arizona State University. Financially stable active retirees have the desire and energy to learn new academic skills as well as participate in liberal arts lectures and interact with younger generations. UBRC aims to create a new university-based residential senior learning community that meets the needs of Korea’s 15 million retirees.
The goal of the Dongmyung-Silla consortium in the Glocal University project is to become the strongest university for local talent development and employment/entrepreneurship, as well as a sustainable glocal university. Their targets include achieving a 75% employment rate to rank in the national top 3, creating 200 startups, retaining 1,600 local talents annually, attracting 8,000 international students, and generating sustainable annual revenue of over 30 billion KRW after the project ends. Based on these results, they also aim to enter the WURI Top 10 and improve their standing in global university rankings.
Dongmyung University and Silla University are having a vision and innovation strategy briefing session for Glocal University and taking a commemorative photo.
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