Yonsei University
134 Shinchon-dong, Sudaemoon-gu
Seoul 120-749
SOUTH KOREA
PHONE: 82-2-392-0131 / 2-313-1388
FAX: 82-2-392-0168
www.yonsei.ac.kr

THE BOTTOM LINE

On a spring afternoon, a group of freshmen are gathered to discuss broad reforms likely to be introduced at Yonsei next year. "The university is right. We have to change to be globally competitive," says one. His is a rare voice. The campus is lined with banners - all opposing the plans. Says Park Joon Surh, the dean for academic affairs: "We're expecting demonstrations soon."

Among others, the proposals call for changes in entry procedures. Departments will admit students as majors only after two years' general education. Current selections based on SAT scores do not adequately rate abilities in a discipline, explains Park. The move is a step in their grand plan to turn Yonsei into one of the world's top 100 institutions by 2010.

The oldest university in South Korea, Yonsei can trace its origins to 1885 when a teaching hospital was set up by royal decree. The university was born when Severance Medical College merged with an adjoining missionary school in 1957. Now enrollment stands at more than 32,000 students. Its campus has long been a center of major protests - the first on March 1, 1919 against Japanese colonizers. Innumerable others followed. But a particularly violent one in 1987 turned the tide on three decades of dictatorial rule: The death of a student brought ordinary Koreans into streets and forced then president Chun Doo Hwan to bow to demands for democracy.

A private university, Yonsei charges slightly higher fees than state-run schools. Student profiles reflect this. Most come from urban middle-class families. Graduates tend to join chaebol and banks. Among its prominent alumni: Daewoo founder Kim Woo Choong. There are few legislators. Park jokes: "We are not so good in politics." But that, too, can change.

- By Laxmi Nakarmi