Sungshin Women's University


Sungshin Women's University is a private women's university located in Seoul, South Korea. It was founded in 1936 by Dr. Sook-Chong Lee. During the 1960s and 70s, Sungshin was a Teachers College in South Korea. Then, in the 1980s, the college was promoted to the status of a comprehensive university. Today, the university comprises ten colleges and five graduate schools with total enrollment of about 12,000 students. In 2006, the university rebuilt the Sungshin Hall to mark the university's 70th anniversary. Also, Sungshin Women's University has succeeded to annex the nursing college of a national hospital, the first event of its kind to happen in South Korea.

History

Sungshin Women's University comprises ten colleges and five graduate schools.

Undergraduate Colleges

Sungshin has established a second campus in Seoul. The 54,200㎡ Woonjung Green Campus is within 5 kilometers of the Soojung Campus and makes Sungshin the only university with two campuses in Seoul.
The Woonjung Green Campus, with three college buildings and one shared facilities building opened in March 2010 and houses four colleges: College of Natural Sciences, College of Human Ecology, College of Nursing, and College of Convergence Culture and Arts. Woonjung Green Campus.

Public Transit Access

Sungshin Women's University is located at a transportation hub, with both campuses near major subway stations. The north-running Ui-Sinseol Rapid Transit Light metro line opened in 2017 and connected to Sungshin Women's University Station.
Sungshin Women's University Station ; Mia Station

Special Programs

ROTC

Sungshin Women's University has run a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programme for women who want to be recruited as soldiers by the Ministry of National Defense since 2011. Similar programmes are run by Sookmyung Women's University and Ewha Womans University; these three women's universities saw a total of 90 students join the programme in 2016.

Improvement in Academic Affairs

English Competency and Graduation Requirements

Each department or major program will establish its own mandatory list of major courses to improve the competency level of its graduates. The number of major courses required for graduation will be increased and the same standard will be applied for the double major program. In addition, certification programs will be introduced for graduation and for English competency.

Comprehensive Academic Advisory System

The university has employed a new, comprehensive academic advisory system to help in academic and career advising. One faculty advisor will be assigned to about 15 first-year students. Also, 15 best faculty advisors will be assigned to 10 Open Major Division students each.

Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree Program

The university established a combined bachelor's/master's degree program so that students can receive both the bachelor's and the master's degree in just five years: seven semesters for Bachelor's and three for Master's.

Controversy

, the granddaughter of founder Li Suk-jong, served as the university's president from 2007 for two terms. When she was once more elected as president for a third term, which would extend her incumbency to 2019, four members of the university's student association raised concerns that Shim had embezzled funds from the school, which led to their suspension in January 2016. The students successfully pursued a court case to have the suspension overturned, and it was struck down in October. Meanwhile, investigative journalists found that a prominent individual's daughter had been admitted to Sungshin after cheating in the assessment, while one of Shim's relatives had also been appointed as a tenure-track lecturer using a plagiarised dissertation.
Charges of embezzlement were brought against Shim and, on 7 February 2017, the Seoul Northern District Court returned a guilty verdict, concluding that Shim had embezzled 378 million won from school funds. She was demoted from her position as president and served nine days in prison before posting bail of 50 million won on 20 February. She was succeeded as president of Sungshin Women's University by Kim Ho-sung.

Notable alumni