▲ The view of Gongneung-dong campus in 1980s

 

112-Year Journey of SeoulTech

SeoulTech was established on April 15, 1910, in the late years of the Korean Empire. This was also the year that Japan colonized Korea and built the Japanese Government-General of Korea to rule the people in Korea, and modernize the country by force.

The origin of SeoulTech was the Public Eouidong Vocational School, which was built on the site of Eoui Palace, where King Injo and King Hyojong, the 16th and 17th Kings of the Joseon Dynasty, lived. Eoui-dong was in Jongno 5-ga, and the school moved to the current campus of SeoulTech after thousands of changes. King Gojong, the 26th King of the Joseon Dynasty and the first emperor of the Korean Empire, believed that the only way to save a country in decline is through modern technical education, so he established the vocational school to teach students science and technology.

After Japan colonized the Korean Empire, higher education was not implemented, and vocational education was to remain at only a practical level. However, even with this situation, Eoui-dong Vocational School somehow aimed at technical education and was the only one of its kind in Gyeongseong (ancient Seoul). In 1931, the school was renamed Gyeonggi Public Vocational School and relocated to the Ahyeon-dong campus in Mapo-gu.

In 1940, Gyeongseong Imperial University (now Seoul National University) established the Department of Science and Engineering in Gongneung-dong, the current campus of SeoulTech. Gyeongseong Imperial University is the university that the Japanese Colonial Government founded in 1930 in Ahyeon-dong. The reason why the Science and Engineering Department was established later in 1938 in Gongneung-dong is that the imperial government had intended not to provide theoretical education in science to Koreans because it could raise the spirit of independence. However later, the Japanese felt the need to prepare for World War II, and therefore set up the Science and Engineering department. Dasan Hall, Changhak Hall, and Daeryuk Hall were built at that time.

In 1946, after liberation, the university was reorganized into Seoul National University. In the early 1980s, SNU moved to Gwanak Mountain and the Gyeonggi Public Vocational School relocated to Gongneung-dong and was renamed Gyeonggi Open Technical University. The school changed its name to Seoul National University of Industry in 1988, and to Seoul National University of Technology in 1993. Finally, in 2010, our 100th anniversary, the school was renamed Seoul National University of Science and Technology.

SeoulTech has experienced remarkable growth for the past decades. As one of the two national universities in Seoul, SeoulTech has improved with the increase in the number of professors, government subsidies, and administrative services.

SeoulTech: Our Dream Your Future

With its long history and reputation as an educational institution of technology and science, SeoulTech pursues practical, creative, and humanistic education. SeoulTech is a structurally sound academic environment that promotes fusion and convergence education and supports the entrepreneurial efforts of students and faculty. For example, the College of Humanities and Social Science focuses on academics and practical applications and the College of Business and Technology combines high-tech engineering with management.

Furthermore, SeoulTech leads global education with various programs. SeoulTech has established an academic exchange network with 310 foreign universities and institutions across 61 countries. In A The view of Gongneung-dong campus in 1980s particular, the university has many international scholarship programs so that the students do not have economic pressure. In addition, the university offers international dual-degree programs in certain departments. The students of Manufacturing System and Design Engineering (MSDE) and the Information Technology Management (ITM) can pursue degrees from the Northumbria University in the United Kingdom, and the Global Technology Management (GTM) can earn degrees from Montclair University in the United States.

SeoulTech is the 13th oldest university in Korea, and has 112 years of history with so many transformations from its vocational school roots to its current university status.

We wish that this short article will be an opportunity for the students to appreciate this long journey of the university and understand it more deeply. For those who are interested in the past and present of SeoulTech, we recommend visiting the SeoulTech History Repository, which is the new website that has all the documents of SeoulTech's history.

Reporter,

Suyoung Kong ksy6648@seoultech.ac.kr

Reporter 공수영

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• e-mail : ksy6648@seoultech.ac.kr