YU President Noh Seok-kyun signs exchange agreement with the number 1 and 2 ranked universities of Mexico
Global partnership expanding from Europe in February now to Central and South America
[2015-5-7]
YU (President Noh Seok-kyun) visited the top national and private universities of Mexico and agreed to expand their global partnership by exchanging students and professors.
<Mr. Noh’s group visited the National Autonomous University of Mexico and agreed to begin full-fledged exchanges>
YU President Noh Seok-kyun and his envoy visited the National Autonomous University of Mexico (hereinafter ‘UNAM’) and the Tecnologico de Monterrey Campus Queretaro (hereinafter ‘ITESM’) on the 4th and 5th and agreed on not only academic exchange such as professor and student exchange programs, but also for the operation of cultural exchange programs between the two nations.
UNAM is Mexico’s number 1 university located in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. It is Latin America’s top research-oriented university that graduated three Nobel Prize winners and students in the top 10% tier of Mexico study here. It signed an MOU for student and academic exchange in August 2013 and with this visit by Mr. Noh, actual exchange is expected to take place.
UNAM International Affairs Director Armando Lodigiani Rodriguez and Academic Cooperation Office Director Angelica Castillo Salazar proposed to Mr. Noh during his visit on the 4th to begin exchange professor programs exchange three students in the social science sector.
Accordingly, YU will begin offering Spanish classes from 2016 for YU students going to UNAM, while UNAM will provide 4,000 pesos (approximately 280,000 won) to YU students studying at their school. This is expected to promote the personnel exchange between the two universities.
<Mobile classroom of ITESM>
On the day after visiting UNAM, Mr. Noh visited ITESM on the 5th and promised to look into student and professor exchange programs, summer school, and internship programs.
ITESM, which is located in Querataro, Mexico, is Mexico’s number 2 university and is a massive private university with 31 campuses and over 60,000 students. It signed an academic exchange agreement with YU in 2012 and five YU students come here as exchange students every year.
With this agreement, ITESM will send students to the YU Summer School from 2016 and offer opportunities to experience Korean language and culture. It is expected that through this, YU will act as a forward base for spreading the Korean cultural wave in Central and South America. ITESM International Affairs Director Carla Diez said, “30% of all classes at ITESM are in English and most classes are composed of the latest practical teaching methods,” while adding, “I hope that many students from YU will acquire academic knowledge and become global human resources by learning the culture of Mexico.”
In response, YU President Noh Seok-kyun said, “Spanish is the second most spoken foreign language in the world and so I hope that YU students will take this opportunity to step foot in the Central and South American market, which is a new emerging market, through the exchange student program.”
Meanwhile, YU President visited prestigious universities and major research institutes of Europe such as Oxford in England, Strasbourg University in France, and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in Germany in February and signed agreements for student exchange and joint research. It is continuously expanding its global partnership to Europe and Central and South America instead of focusing solely on the United States.
<ITESM President (left) and YU President Noh Seok-kyun exchange souvenirs>
