UAB opens new office in Seoul

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona opened a new office on Monday in the city of Seoul with the aim of strengthening its relationship with universities, research centres and other institutions located in South Korea. It is the first university in Spain to open an office in South Korea. The office will open the way for more exchanges between students and research and teaching staff from UAB and Korean universities, as well as promote more research collaborations and technology transfer with centres in South Korea, especially those dedicated to the fields of health and the environment, as well as the “bio” sector".

16/11/2009

Thus, UAB strengthens its academic and research support in East Asia one year after having opened an office in the Chinese city of Shanghai. Through this initiative, UAB establishes a collaboration point with a country leader in higher education scientific programmes which has not yet developed any close ties with Spain.

UAB has already signed a variety of collaboration agreements with academic and research institutes in South Korea. The UAB office in Seoul will be managing these bilateral relations which go from student and staff exchanges to joint research collaboration projects. Until now, a total of thirteen Korean universities have signed collaboration agreements with UAB.

During UAB's institutional visit to South Korea, two new important agreements in medical research will be signed with Korean institutes. One of them will give way to the creation of a new network of research centres which will work jointly in the fields of neurology, biology and regenerative medicine. The other will allow UAB and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies to collaborate in pharmaceutical research and teaching.

In addition, UAB Rector Ana Ripoll will be participating in the 2009 International University Presidents’ Forum, where she will offer a conference on the success of the Erasmus programme at UAB as an example of integrated academic cooperation: Ripoll will speak on the University's experience and how the Erasmus programme has reached its initial objectives and contributed to modernise and internationalise European universities, as well as playing a key role in the consolidation of the European Higher Education Area.

A university pioneer in East Asian studies

UAB was one of the first universities to offer courses in East Asian studies. In the 1988/89 academic year the course in Translation and Interpreting incorporated Chinese and Japanese into its syllabus. That was the first time official university studies in Spain included subject matter related to East Asian studies.

Later on, the East Asian itinerary was added to the UAB-specific diploma in International and Intercultural Studies. Years later, together with UPF, the University began to offer an official undergraduate course leading to a degree in East Asian Studies. In the 2009/10 academic year, UAB began to offer a new degree, the EHEA degree in East Asian Studies. UAB is the only university in the state to offer these studies.

The University also included East Asian studies to its master's degree offers and has begun to offer them as part of doctoral programmes. Thus, UAB is prepared to consolidate its leadership in these studies at all levels of university: undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral.