Introduction

For decades to come, we firmly believe that global student mobility will be one of the most critical pillars of international higher education. The fundamental concept of global mobility rests upon enabling students to acquire internationally competitive knowledge, skills, and experiences by freely moving around the world and seizing the opportunities for their individual career needs.

KDU Global Academic Collaboration Center (GACC) strives to network the higher educational institutions worldwide based on a common academic platform, under a shared vision to accomplish this very mission for international students. So far, GACC network is joined by over 20 prominent partner universities from different countries utilizing a pool of educational and research resources that are constantly revised and upgraded through collaborative efforts. KDU and all partner universities are, hence, able to maximize the quality of education for their students using extensive international experience and exposure.

Conceptual Advantages

Our concept of global student mobility is superior to traditional ones in several distinct ways. A traditional understanding of student mobility is often about students transferring to other universities within typical ‘credit transfer’ schemes or ‘study abroad’ programs, in most cases, entailing disturbances in the quality and timing of their education due to differences in curriculums as well as academic systems between the home and the host institutions. Whereas, within GACC network, our students are exposed to the same programs of study and teaching and learning principles at all member institutions. Therefore, a student’s transfer from one member university to another avoids all sorts of technical intricacies as well as tedious and lengthy administrative processes. Moreover, while universities practicing ‘common credit transfer’ agreements or ‘study abroad’ programs often experience dis-balances in the numbers of inbound and outbound students, GACC network ensures equity to all partners so that our partnerships are mutually beneficial and sustainable in the long run!

Another version of traditional student mobility concept is when universities operate offshore campuses or programs and allow students to relocate to other campuses over their later courses of study. However, the number of students who can be subjected to this form of mobility is naturally limited to the capacity of one – the same university. Within our GACC network, on the other hand, there is any limit to neither the number of students nor the range of opportunities for an individual student – we take a significant step further than traditional practices!

More importantly, GACC network members practice common curriculums and academic mechanisms that are constantly enhanced and updated through collaborative efforts and a united expertise. By pooling their best practices, academic and non-academic resources, our partners can easily compete with any single top-ranking higher educational institution in the world!

Curriculum Design

In all undergraduate degree programs at KDU Global Campus, we have developed competencies-oriented, specializations-based curriculums. Each program integrates five specializations that enrolled students are expected to acquire the mastery of by the time they graduate and enter global job markets or advance to their further studies. All subjects in our curriculums are thoroughly designed to gradually build up specific competencies that industries of the 21^st century seek after.

Students who complete undergraduate programs that do not deliver concrete competencies and specializations often end up incompetent to perform the basic job duties in their fields even though they spend three to four years of their lives at a university. A typical path followed by those students to overcome the challenge is then to join a graduate program with a narrow, possibly well-organized, specialization track. We have successfully addressed this challenge in designing our undergraduate curriculums to equip the students with knowledge, skills, and competencies in five major specializations simultaneously. Our experience accumulated over the last 30 years has proven it feasible!

GACC network exercises a common academic platform including the same curriculums and resources available for all partners. While maintaining the core program objectives and intended outcomes, partner universities are provided a complete freedom to customize the curriculum contents to incorporate any local governmental and institutional mandates. With equal rights and privileges, all members, including KDU, contribute to consistent improvement of the shared curriculums and educational practices!

We are confident that our academic practices combined with potentials from the worldwide network of GACCs deliver unparalleled opportunities for our ultimate stakeholders – the students. As our curriculums produce capable professionals, an opportunity for students to freely move around the world can truly make them global citizens!

Operational Arrangements

KDU facilitates effective and efficient establishment of GACCs at all partner universities. The facilitation process includes administrative and operational guidelines as well as technical assistance in the field.

All GACCs are owned and operated by respective partner institutions. Partners appoint the management personnel, including Dean/Director and Heads of Programs, at GACCs in consultation with KDU Global. Deans/Directors maintain close cooperation with other partners in the network to warrant the effectiveness and transparency of all operations.

The network does not impose any limit on either the number of GACCs in one country by multiple partners or the number of GACCs operated by one partner in different countries, if viable. It is indeed unequivocal that the bigger the network, the wider the scope of opportunities for students and the higher the quality of common resources.

Each GACC carries out admission processes for its own students based on an agreed set of selection criteria and timelines. All students are exposed to the same curriculums and educational practices and eligible to continue their studies at any other partner university around the world from specific phases of their studies. Any student can obtain two or more degrees upon successfully completing an undergraduate program and meeting the graduation requirements set by individual partners.

GACC network operates based on a ‘balancing principle,’ whereby all partners provide extensive financial and non-financial support to students. Specifically, when transferring from one university to another, students are granted proportional levels of scholarships by all partners. By maintaining an independent and transparent financial account, all GACCs provide additional forms of financial aids to both inbound and outbound students using accumulated dividends.

As the initiator of the Global Student Mobility Project, in addition to providing extensive scholarships, KDU offers a part-time job assistance to all inbound students to help them better plan their life and studies in Korea. The same or equivalent form of assistance is made available by partner institutions for all students throughout their global mobility!

“When it comes to higher education, we do not want to limit the opportunities for students geographically. It is becoming increasingly critical to let the students move around the world freely to get educated and trained in a well-coordinated academic environment and expose them to the international community and industry. Globally mobile students can learn better and more about different cultures, languages, and industry practices to be better prepared for their future. Despite many legal and administrative barriers hindering this idea in different countries, we endeavor to eliminate them by expanding our educational network worldwide for the best interest of students and for the sake of better education.”

Prof. Dr. John K. Lee
President of KDU Global