The increase in the foreign student body also serves as a sign of the accelerated global presence of the school. There are now more than 2,700 international students enrolled at Sungkyunkwan University and each year more than 2,000 students go abroad to study at partner universities, according to Kim.

“Globalisation has been our main priority over the past years,” the president told The Korea Herald.

Since he took the helm of the school, Kim has been working hard to extend networks with foreign universities around the world.

SKKU is currently in partnerships with over 770 universities in more than 84 countries across the globe. The university has also signed with a total of 21 overseas institutions, such as Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and the University of Birmingham in the U.K., to provide “dual-degree” programs.

Kim also launched a special student exchange program called Supreme Studies, which provide selected students with 10 million won ($9,330) each in scholarship grants to study for a semester in 14 prestigious universities in the U.S. and Europe.

“We require students to go abroad and study at least one semester with our partner universities during their degree. We believe the experience is vital to enhancing our students’ understanding of global society,” Kim said.

Global partnership is a part of his long-term plan to make SKKU a global leading university by 2020, which aims to make SKKU one of the top 50 institutions in the world with its academic programs in at least 10 fields, such as global business administration and semiconductor system engineering, ranking within the top 10 by that year.

The president has already seen rapid progress toward that goal. This year, in particular, the Sungkyunkwan Graduate School of Business was ranked in 51st place, up 15 places from a year ago, in the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking, the highest mark a Korean school has ever registered since full-time MBA programs were launched in the country.

This year, Sungkyunkwan University entered the world top 100 in 16 academic fields out of 20 by the QS World University Ranking by Subject. In particular, chemical engineering ranked 41st and many other subjects entered the top 100 on the list, including mechanical engineering, pharmacy, advanced materials sciences and engineering, and journalism and mass communication. Reports the Korean Herald