Heralding arrival of 40 students in 2012, Fredonia partners with South Korean university
 President Dennis Hefner poses with Dr. Park Chul, President of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, at a Sept. 6 ceremony on the Seoul, Korea, campus. As a result, 120 to 160 new Korean students will study and live on the Fredonia campus within the next four years. |
SUNY Fredonia has signed an agreement with the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) in South Korea that will ultimately bring 120 to 160 Korean students to the SUNY Fredonia campus each year to study for three of their traditional four years of college-level instruction.
Beginning in the Spring 2012 semester, HUFS will send 40 students per year to the Fredonia campus to study as full-time students. The students will be free to study any majors of their choosing, and will be supported by the International Education Center in their transition to the Fredonia community. This agreement with HUFS is the first of its kind in New York State, although the institution has similar programs in place with 19 other universities in the U.S., and counts more than 340 partner universities in 74 nations worldwide.
The agreement became official on Sept. 6 as SUNY Fredonia President Dennis Hefner led a group of campus representatives on a trip to its primary campus in Seoul, South Korea. The group included his wife, Jan Hefner, Vice President of Academic Affairs Virginia Horvath, College of Arts and Sciences Dean John Kijinski, and International Education Center Director Mary Sasso. In addition, Fredonia’s delegation included current Fredonia piano student Mi Kyung Kim, a Keeper of the Dream Scholar who lived in Korea until age 10 before moving to New York City.
“We are delighted to be able to partner with such an impressive institution as Hankuk, and are very excited to be able to give so many valuable and unique opportunities to its students,” said President Hefner. “We are honored to be the first institution of higher education in New York to have entered into such an agreement with HUFS, and have thoroughly enjoyed working with our Korean counterparts in creating and finalizing this arrangement.”
The agreement was developed in part by KORUS Education, an institute that matches Korean universities with U.S. partners and oversees the first year of the “1+3 programs” (i.e., one year in Korea, three at Fredonia). Officials from KORUS and HUFS will recruit the first class of Fredonia students beginning this November, after students have taken the national examinations for college entrance. They will begin their studies at HUFS in February, focusing on general education courses and intensive English reading, speaking, listening, and writing. After a full summer session and fall term, they will then come to Fredonia.
It is estimated that these students will raise Fredonia’s total minority enrollment by more than 2 percent, which President Hefner sees as an added benefit of the arrangement.
“We’ve steadily seen our minority enrollment climb in recent years, having just welcomed our largest numbers of both freshmen and transfer minority students this semester,” explained President Hefner. More than 200 new minority students are on campus this fall as a result of the record number of minority freshmen and transfer applicants SUNY Fredonia received.
“It’s very important that our students understand just how diverse our nation has become, and how global the working world has become in virtually all industries,” Dr. Hefner added. “This agreement will bring new cultures and perspectives to our campus, and I suspect these students will teach us every bit as much as we’ll teach them.”
